Another week of working and tying in the books...welcome to the weekend (at least in a few hours)!! This week has been fun for me as I took a short break on a few nights from tying to hit a local series of ponds for some 'urban fishing' with a few buddies. It kind of feels like cheating when I go to this spot until I make that first cast and watch the fish spook...not the bluegill of course, but the largemouth. These fish require a pretty accurate cast and presentation both due to the already mentioned skittishness in addition to the fact that there is so much food even when they are interested they are not going to move far to eat. That abundance of food is allowing these bass to grow faster than most in Ohio, and frankly the fishing here is really solid for something that is only a few years old.
Fished a few different patterns and styles but the fly that has been best for me this week has been a Schmidt's Rattlesnake. It is a great little pattern that sinks slowly and then can be retrieved slowly while maintaining it's depth in the water column.
Here is another fish that fell prey to the Rattlesnake. Again it was sight fished, with the fly cast ten feet or so out in front of it as it lazily made it's way across a point. Fly landed and sunk a few feet before being twitched, and then on the second twitch...YAHTZEE! Where as the first fish was a bulldog down deep this fish fought more like a smallmouth and actually jumped clear of the water three different times. It was awesome, and a great fight on a 4WT.
The first night over there Mariano got in on the action and hooked up to this fish while I had the first fish on. He was slow moving a pencil popper and the bass was not about to let it get away. Crappy picture, but cellphone shots from 100 feet away do not blow up well.
Also got a few shots from ACF friend and customer Mike Paulus. He was up in northern Michigan fishing the Au Sable River...and putting some Meal Tickets to good use. Here are a shot of a 20+ brown and a pig of a river smallie that he had to hand. Congratulations and thanks for the pictures Mike!
On a final note, I received my copy of Soulfish2 yesterday and promptly threw it on while I tied...big mistake as I was not exactly as productive as I should have been. Soulfish2 is the new Mikey Weir/Burl Productions video that follows Mikey and a cast of friends through some amazing fishing locations such as Mongolia, Egypt, Louisiana, Belize, BC, Hawaii, Mexico, and Northern Cali. The word 'epic' is thrown about a lot these days but in this case I can think of no better word for this hour and a half video excursion. It is not as fast paced and frenetic as other videos from the last few years, rather it incorporates smooth post production work and rock solid videography to make you feel like you are there in the room or on the stream with them. The cast of friends included in the video are extremely knowledgeable, well spoken, and skilled anglers. While this video has a underlying story narrate through each section, it is chocked full of fish coming to hand. This is not a video that makes you wait for a payoff, and despite the 'professional angler' status of most of them these anglers are genuinely happy and infectious with their enthusiasm. I own most of the fly fishing DVDs out there and, in my opinion, this one is way up towards the top of the stack...I thouroughly enjoyed it all four times I have watched it since six last night.
It took a little while to pattern the fish and where they were hanging out but black Red Rocket was what it took for me to be in to the fish.
The fish were wicked strong and not happy about being hooked. A few jumped like maniacs and some others did their best freight train impression...none came to hand easily.
This fattie was my most solid slab of the day. 
