Weekend is upon us!

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.

-mike schmidt
http://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/

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

ACF customer Brock Dixon takes February SOTM!

Congratulations are due to ACF customer Brock Dixon for taking the Moldy Chum Slab of the Month title for February. With a total voting percentage of 37.5% it is obvious that there were plenty of others as impressed with this hog brown as I was...and the shot is totally worth posting again. Good luck on the Slab of the Year voting Brock!

The pattern that this hog took was an ACF tied Senyo Shaggy Minnow tied up in white with blue/pearl flash and blue eyes. Greg Senyo came up with pattern to chase steelhead, but it has been proving itself plenty deadly on a number of other fish species.

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

BIG ASS Ohio brown and the MRO tying class

6:07pm ring ring ring

Mike: Hello?
Ron: Hey Mike, it's Ron Lewis. You'll have to talk loud since my phone is in a vacuum bag.
Mike: Oh...OK. Sounds like you are on the river ehh...how's it going?
Ron: Thought you should be the first to know...I just caught my personal best!

Mike: (internally remembering the last best at 27.5") Dude, that is sweet!

Ron: Yeah, and I caught it on that Red Rocket I got from you.

Mike: HELL YEAH, DUDE THAT IS SICK!!!! Tell me you got pictures?

Ron: Sure did, set the tripod up on the bank and got shots. I will send them when I get home.

Mike: Awesome, can't wait to see it!

Well...here it is! 28 inches of baddest fish in the river; a resident brown, not a lake run. I am confident we have them bigger, but not much and definitely not many of them. This is one hell of a nice fish for anywhere let alone central Ohio. Well done Ron!

28" Mad River brown with a Red Rocket hanging from it's maw...a thing of beauty!

Took me a bit to settle down after hearing about that massive fish and get to business, but it was time to get the Mad River Outfitters Advanced tying class underway. Six guys are signed up this session so it is a very comfortably sized class. We had a great time tonight tying a few streamers and getting the feeling of what the guys want to tie in the coming weeks. Looks like a few articulated streamers, some deerhair work, parachute dries, musky fly, and maybe a tarpon fly are on the docket!

The next few days will be tying a lot of flies as usual, but after seeing Ron and having rising water coming I may have to figure out a way to sneak out for a few hours on the water...

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