Streamer pile

I have not had much time to post here lately because I have been so busy at the vise knocking out streamers in advance of the coming season. Here is a big order headed north in the morning; a bunch of Double Deceivers, Red Rockets, Stinky Mayos, Voodoo Squatch, and Meal Tickets. More to come in the nex few days...


-mike schmidt
www.anglerschoiceflies.com

Flies for The Fiberglass Manifesto winners

Finished up the flies tonight for the two lucky winners in The Fiberglass Manifesto 2000 fan contest. Nikki Targowski and Christian Fitchel will each recieve one of the new Umpqua Streamer Boxes, supplied by Blue River Fly Company, loaded up with a dozen streamers from Anglers Choice Flies. Included are Red Rockets, Voodoo Squatch, Meal Tickets, and muddlers. They will be in the mail in the morning and hopefully in the water catching fish next week. Congratulations you two!

-mike schmidt
www.anglerschoiceflies.com

Buncha streamers...06.20

It's been a busy couple evenings, but I am headed to bed 'early' tonight. Double Deceivers headed one way and the other flies headed the other way. Wish they were all headed to my boxes!

-mike schmidt
www.anglerschoiceflies.com

A few flies from the last few days...big and small

It has been awhile since I have tied trout flies, but got back in the swing and knocked out some size 16 and 18 loopwing emergers this morning. Also a couple of snowshoe hare emergers in the mix...going to have to tie some more of those for my pathetically stocked boxes.

Here are a few more shots of flies ready for the water.

The last shot is Deceivers and Andino Deceivers headed to Bolivia in pursuit of Golden Dorado, wish I could go with them!

-mike schmidt
www.anglerschoiceflies.com

Some days you just got it

Back up at 4:30a this morning and back to the river. On the way to the river I was thinking about the previous morning when Mariano had told me that despite completing his graduate studies in a month he was not leaving until he landed a 20" brown. Upon arrival riverside we were again greeted with high and light cloud cover to start off the morning with temperature and water color that was absolutely perfect....it was on!

As we worked our way through the stretch we had chosen we got into a few year old fish and were having pretty regular action from fish turning on the flies and chasing. About an hour in he informed me that the tree about 250 yards downtream that was sticking out over the water was where he was going to get his fish...to which I responded "sweet!". We continued to work our way from undercut tree to undercut tree and pretty soon were down to the spot Mariano had called. As he carefully positioned himself to get a proper cast all the way up and under the overhang, right to the base of the rooball, I moved a bit downstream to get out of the way and to have a better view through the surface glare. The very first cast I watched in amazement as a big shadow followed his fly for 20 feet before retreating back from site. After a few laughs and big smiles he sent in cast number two, and the fish came out again and followed a good 30 feet...close enough to me when it turned that I could easily tell it was a big male. Dumbfounded he fired in another cast and watched the fish chase again...this was getting ridiculous. I looked at him and he wanted to let it rest for a minute so we carefully retreated to the far bank. I told him that I thought the fly was to light and the fish was turning away as it rose in the water column, to which he agreed and tied on an olive Meal Ticket. The fourth cast seemed to fly in around one branch and under another in slow motion, and as soon as it landed the water opened around it and Mariano was attached to a whole lot of pissed off fish. After a nail biting fight I slipped the net under the fish and we both let out a Jersey Shore style "WOOOO!!!" along with some high fives.

Once the fish calmed down a bit we slid in the tape under him and confirmed that Mariano had indeed called the spot from 250 yards upstream and backed it up by landing his largest brown to date; a solid 21" fish in the books.

We were both so excited about the fish that it took a few attempts to get a halfway decent shot, but I think the smile says it all.

After releasing the fish safely back to the river it was time to sit down, calm the nerves, retie and of course light up a celebratory cigar.

After a quick but intense rain shower we continued to work our way downstream towards some promising water. As we waded down through a relatively shallow stretch I spotted a good looking cut along a log and fired in a cast. As my fly slid in to the head of the cut the bottom of the log moved and my fly disappeared in an explosion of water, it was the most vicious hit I have had on the river. As I let out a yell the fish was furiously trying to dislodge the fly and get back under cover. Mariano was able to get over to me for the net and after a few minutes cram the massive brown securely in to the ghost netting. We both were making such a fool of ourselves laughing and high fiving that the landowner downstream came out to see what all the fuss was and then went back in to get his own camera...it was awesome!

25 inches of Voodoo Squatch decimating brown trout. The tail on this fish was absolutely huge and she had spots I would consider regal looking. She was a gorgeous fish.

Nothing better than a day on the water, except maybe a day on the water with a few big fish thrown in. What an awesome day!

-mike schmidt
http://www.anglerschoiceflies.com/

Seven inches of Shut Yo' Mouth!

Last few flies to be tied and shipped north before I head south to Florida for a few days are a set of custom seven inch Voodoo Squatch. This is the Cotton Candy color that has proven itself to be very effective tied in the Voodoo pattern with 3/4" eyes. This is a man fly to be sure! Can't wait to see what these monsters coax out of the deep; perhaps a 30" brown.... We shall see.

-mike schmidt
http://www.anglerschoiceflies.com/

Fishing with Strolis

The second part of the weeklong ACF fishapalooza began last Thursday when I took off at lunch and headed over to the airport to pick up a good buddy Rich Strolis, of Catching Shadows, fresh off his flight out from CT. Rich is a great guy and seemingly guides more than he gets out to fish himself, so I really wanted us to have some success while showing him my central Ohio playground. After a quick stop by the house to drop off some gear and pick up other gear we took off to hit the Mad and chase some browns around. Our target area was a stretch I have not fished in a bit so it was fun to see how it has changed. True to her nickname of 'the Maddening River' she gave up her bites sparingly, but I was able to 'Mufas-ize' an 18" and a 16" fish. We moved a number of other fish with a few that hooked up and then decided they'd had enough and spit the hook. I do believe I will fish her again soon...

After a quick bite and a few Guiness we hit the sack knowing that our wake up call would come early the next day. As the alarm went off I was already eyes open and ready to go. Based on river levels and a few phone calls we decided to head up to the Vermillion to start off the day. We got there to see pretty clear water that was just a bit off color and enough fish around to play with. We walked a long stretch hoping to be able to swing a few flies, though we carried indi rods as well. The highlight of the morning was Rich hooking up on the swing to a big bright fish that took a hard tug and a few rolls before slicing his line for a quick getaway.

The oddity of the morning was a double landed fish. I nymphed through a run and burried my fly deep in the mouth of a drop back male. That guy was having nothing to do with my forceps in his mouth trying to get the fly...a few flops and he popped my line and took off with the fly still in. No big deal I figured as the fish was pretty beat up and not really picture material anyway despite being pretty girthy. About ten minutes later Rich yelled up 'Fish On' so I headed down to help out and found that he had his egg buried right next to my fly! Both flies removed, along with a third, from the mouth of this active dude and away he went.

Lunchtime hit and we took off to head east across the Alley. We stopped at my favorite river and found that it was super low and gin clear, but we decided to take a stroll anyway as it is so scenic. We did see a few fish but there was no getting near them, and the few spots in that stretch with nice dark slots were already manned upon our arrival. Wonder how wet wading in jeans worked out for that one family...brrrr... We finished off the evening with a long walk swinging flies on Conneaut before turning in for the night.

Saturday morning saw us hitting Elk despite the weather...which was ridiculous. We got there to find gin clear water, but the wind was starting to pick up. We kicked up a few fish here and there as we worked our way up river and marvelled and how gorgeous the area was. Long story short the wind was a steady 35mph and gusting to 50mph which meant that any attempt to mend and the wind would blow your whole rig upstream. The trees coming down all around us was a bit unnerving to say the least! At one point we heard a massive crash up around the bend and within minutes the river went to total chocolate for a half hour or so. Twice we had trees come down within about 25 yards of where we had just been so we were both a bit on edge. When the wind calmed down the rain picked up and within a few hours the river was visibly rising and the runs were chocolate milk so we called it a day.

I had a blast hanging out and fishing with Rich for a few days. Preliminary plans are in the works for a trip out east to chase some fish around...

Also had a few good shots emailed over to me from some of my customers that are getting in to solid Michigan browns on ACF flies. Here are a few that took a Cotton Candy Double Deceiver, Red Rocket, and Voodoo Squatch. Thanks for the pictures guys, glad you are hammering on some fish!

-mike schmidt>
www.anglerschoiceflies.com

Mufasa and Oscar's Junk

Lately I seem to have been asked more often "So, what's really in your streamer box?". I generally respond that I do fish the patterns I offer on my website quite a bit, but of course there are a few patterns that are a little less accessible. It is not that I want to hold things back, or keep secrets to have some perceived edge...some patterns are just a pain in the ass to tie! The above picture shows two such patterns; five inches of meat apiece...Mufasa and Oscar's Junk.

The two flies are very similar in construction, having a standard rear hook and an inverted front hook. The back half of the flies consist of a bi-color marabou tail, two colors of schlappen palmered through an Ice Dub underbody, three rubber legs per side, and a topping of barred marabou. The front of each fly appears similar at first glance but are not actually so.

The Mufasa is heavily weighted on the front hook. After the connection is made the fly shank is lined with two strips of .035 lead wire. The fly is then constructed over that base similar to the rear hook but with four rubber legs per side. Once up to the head the Senyo Laser Dub is tied in so that it has the appearance of bleeding gills and a tuft both above and below the hook shank. Finish the fly off by sliding on a Fish Skull which forces the Laser Dub down a bit but it still looks a bit like a mane...thus Mufasa.

Oscar's Junk was actually tied first, have been fished more, and is the precursor to the Voodoo Squatch. The front hook of Oscar's Junk is tied the same to the head as Mufasa, but rather than lead wire there is a set of large lead dumbell eyes tied in. Once the eyes are in you add a small tuft of Rusty Brown Laser Dub as bleeding gills and then clump buils a head around the barbell eyes. The barbell eyes are there only to add weight and width to the head, they will not be seen in the final product.

These flies aren't likely to be offered on my site any time soon as they simply take too long to be able to produce them in quantity, but I may do some by special request if piggybacked on another order. They are a blast to fish. At some point I will get a step by step together on them and get it up here.

These are the rest of the flies I knocked out this evening so far; Mike's Voodoo Squatch, Mike's Meal Ticket, Mike's Lunkergetter, Robinson Muchable Minnow, Mike's Red Rocket, Senyo Sick Puppy, Bellyache, Senyo Sculpin, Galloup's Sex Dungeon, Senyo Shaggy Minnow. A solid batch of flies headed to California in the morning. Now time to hammer out the other Cali order before bed.

***Quick 'Tying in the Pines' update: two spots have been filled, so only four remain. Give me a call to secure your spot if you would like to get in on this weekend of tying!

-mike schmidt
http://www.anglerschoiceflies.com/