This morning I spent some time on a local lake fly fishing from my kayak. Pitching a popper close to the bank yielded these trophies. Enjoy!
bluegill
Small Places
Recently I fished a 200-acre lake in Connecticut. While paddling along the bank I found a small opening, barely wide enough for a kayak to pass through. On the other side was a small cove, maybe 15′ by 15′ at best.
I stopped at the opening and cast into the middle of it. Here’s what I caught. By far it was the largest panfish for the day.
Coffee Bean Beetle at Work
Today I had a chance to put a few of the CBBs to work. They did quite well. Here’s some video.
If you want to see how I make them, click here.
Coffee Bean Beetle
A few weeks ago I came across an article on coffee bean beetles. I am not a fly tyer by any stretch of the imagination but this intrigued me, primarily because it didn’t really involve tying at all. Instead it relies on the ability to use a magic marker and some glue – skills that are regularly employed by 5-year olds across the country without incident.
Most of the raw materials you probably already have at home. In fact, here’s the list of ingredients:
- Coffee beans
- Black magic marker
- Epoxy or super glue
- Small hooks (I used size 10)
- Clear nail polish (Make sure to ask your wife. I forgot . . . )
- Orange or red magic marker OR nail polish (Optional)
- Monofilament or other material to imitate legs (Optional)
I wandered over to the kitchen cabinet and found a bag of coffee beans. Poured some into a bowl and picked out the largest round beans that I could find. Took them down to my basement workbench and, using a small file, created a small straight recess on the bottom of the bean for the hook to rest.
Next I used the black magic marker and colored the bottom of the bean. Set the hook in the recess and epoxied it to the bottom of the bean. On a couple of the beetles I cut up monofilament (old leader) to make legs.
Once the epoxy dried I turned the beetle over and, using an orange magic marker, colored the back of the bean. I also left some in the natural bean color as well.
Finally I covered most of the beetle in clear nail polish. Not only does it add a certain shine, it will help protect the beetle from cracking and water damage.
Done! Now let’s see how they do. Check this out
‘Bows and Bluegills
Had a chance to spend some time pond and river fishing this weekend. First stop was the local pond, where I tried out some new poppers, successfully netting two bluegills in about one hour.
Later in the afternoon, I went with a friend down to the Naugatuck. The first hour of nymphing was uneventful, but as evening approached, I switched to streamers with positive results.
My first catch was this rainbow, which fought for at least 15 minutes, peeling off line at least 3 times.
Twenty minutes later I landed this ‘bow, right as dusk was approaching. Slightly larger than the first, but only fought about half as much.