UV Candy gets some pub

For a while now Greg Senyo has been a contributor to the website Fish Hound through his column Senyo Scene.  He uses it to cover a variety of subjects in the fly fishing world, and the most recent subject is a variation of the Double Deciever that I keep in my box...the UV Candy.  The UV utilizes base layer of UV Polar Chenille underneath the bucktail to give the fly just a little extra shimmer without altering the movement off the fly in the water.  Check out the column, and accomanying step by step, through this link to Mike Schmidt's UV Candy: Exploit The Sweet Tooth on Senyo Scene and let me know what you think!

-mike schmidt

http://www.anglerschoiceflies.com/

Meal Ticket Guest Video step by step

So a few weeks ago I saw a link to a video step by step of the Double Deciever done by Brian Wise, of Fly Fishing the Ozarks, and was pretty impressed with what he had put together.  I have seen other stuff he has done before, but that was the first of mine that he had put together 'on film'.  He does not tie it exactly as I do but is pretty close and the end result looks great.  While I was in Florida I heard from him that the Meal Ticket was next up....and here it is!  Rather than the original Gama SP11-3L3H (or Mustad 34007) he utilizes the Gama B10s, but other than that in the video he is right on recipe and does a great job of it.



For those that wonder what it looks underwater here is some video of it I shot a while back.



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

Lazy manatee day

Yesterday was awfully nice getting out to catch the sunrise over the Intercoastal.  It started off as a little cloudy but was very calm so it was really easy to get around.  As the day progressed the cloud cover burned off a bit and the sun warmed things up quite a bit.  That extra heat made the evening storms rather severe, but it was gorgeous during the day.

All rigged up and paddling around.  The only thing I am missing is a small Yeti to keep my lunch and beverages cold!

Today the weather is unfortunately kind of crappy...with clouds and storms around.  I made the call when I woke up in the middle of the night to not head out to chase fish since the weather is not exactly predictable today.  Since I was home and the pool seemed pointless with no sun Liz made the suggestion to go visit the mantees.  Sounded like a great idea so we headed down to JBs Fish Camp to rent her a kayak and headed out to see what we could find.

It did not take us long to fins some manatees, and they were extremely playful.  Here you can see Liz is initially a little taken aback at the massive manatee that came over to check her out.

She did start to warm up as they tooled around us like little puppies, using our kayaks to scratch their backs.

It really was pretty cool to have htem that close and for the wholetime that we were there.

They use their big tails to move them along with ease.

The manatees seemed especially interested in the Freedom Hawk.  I think that each one we came across decided to come over and check me out.

This guy was particularly found of a good paddle scratching of the back.  He would just sit there as I scratched and slowly roll over for a belly shot.

It was a little unnerving to have them pushing the kayaks around with their girthyness, but really cool to see them up that close.  We will definitely head back atleast another time next week for a visit.

We got the two nostril salute as we paddled away and back to the camp.  Until next time...

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

New Smyrna Beach, Day One

The ACF two week hiatus is officially underway with day one in the rearview mirror.  My fantastic wifey and I hit the road from Columbus Ohio at 4:20p yesterday and drove through the night, arriving at the Beacon here in New Smyrna Beach Florida for a beachside breakfast just before 8:00a this morning.  Though it was not a walk in the park, somehow the drive did not seem as grueling this year. 

After a great breakfast we got unloaded at the condo and hit the beach for a little sun since it seemed that we were in for a cloudy day later.  As the front rolled in we decided to hit the store for provisions, you know...Russian Standard, Malibu, limes, Yueng...just the essentials.  To our delight the clouds pretty much blew through so we had a gorgeous walk up to our favorite little restaurant, That's Amore, for some dinner.  The food there is top notch and the wine pours generous to put it lightly, but it is the amazing staff that keeps us coming back, nearly every night we are down here, just to have a laugh.  We are there at best every six months but again tonight the two owners that were there, Vincenzo and Chad, as well as a server, Justin, all greeted us with high fives and hugs, asking how we have been and hung out with us at our table to fill us in on the recent goings on.  It was as if we had never left...simply awesome.

Following dinner Mrs ACF was spent so she hit the sack early, leaving me to make the easy decision to hit  the surf as tide approached low.  The last two years have been very tough as the bait fish never really came in close so nothing else did either, but tonight I was in to a very respectable Whiting on about my fifth cast.  In about an hour of casting 300gr SA Full Sink on the TFO MiniMag 6/8 canon I got in to half a dozen of these feisty little guys and saw a few larger fish surfing the waves...I have high hopes for tomorrow morning!  With the forecast to be cloudy I have made the call that the beach is where I will be the next two days, then the weather should break and the kayak will get it's fill of the Intercoastal to chase redfish and specks.

Hope to have more fish pictures next time I boot up the box.  Until then...

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

IL largie and ACF hitting the road

Got a great email from great friend and ACF customer Brian early on this week.  He had a big batch of flies show up a week ago and over the weekend got the opportunity to get out and give them a swim.  As he made his way around this central Illinois lake he got this largemouth to play along.  Great job Brian!

It has been a bit quiet around here lately as I have been tying as fast as I could to knock out orders before this weekend.  Here are a few of the last flies that got knocked out and are headed to northern Michigan and out to Alaska.  Hope to see some shots hanging out of the mouths of some massive kings!

The reason I have been hitting the vise so hard was to knock out every order on the books since this Friday the wife and I are headed to Florida for our annual trip.  It is a fantastic time down in New Smyrna each year as we are right on the beach, but only minutes from Canaveral Seashore and Mosquito Lagoon.  The kayak is coming along for the trip, so I hope to get it out quite a few times and chase around the trout and redfish. 

I will get a few shots up while I am down there and hope to have a bunch to share by the time I get back.  The shot above was one of my favorites from out on the lagoon last year.  Catch you soon!

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