Thursday, July 10, 2014

Updates from the Bank!


-I haven’t been fly fishing in a bit. Lately I have been focusing more on striper fishing with ol Pops but I am really jonesing for a fish on the fly. Aside from my trips with ol Pops I haven’t even been fishing much at all. I have been getting off of work, working out, watching a bit of tv before I go to sleep and repeat. I haven’t gotten to try my hand much at some bigger bass on the fly with my 8 Wt. 

"helmet" buggers
regular beaded bugger
-I haven’t even been back to Putah to try for some bass. As you may recall I found success at Putah with my largemouth on a fly goal but couldn’t get into anything too big and ended up losing my beaded black wooley buggers. I ended up buying some new ones and I realized they weren’t the same as the ones I had success with. In fact, these beaded heads were actual beads as opposed to the “helmet”  beads with which I had success.  I don’t know if there is any difference or if those “helmet” buggers have an actual name but I decided to go on a hunt for the helmet buggers and after striking out at a couple of places, finally realized that I must have purchased them at Sportsmans warehouse in Rocklin. I went out there yesterday and I was right so I ended up buying enough to hold me down for a while. I guess I’ll have to field test both the bead and the helmets to see the difference. 

- I have heard elsewhere that a lot of people use circle hooks for catfishing so I bought some. So I took them on a river fishing trip and found success with circle hooks while striper fishing. These hooks are smaller but I decided to look for larger circle hooks. While at Sportsmans warehouse I also found some size 5 circle hooks so I’m excited to try them out on the stripers.

-As for 2047, I have heard legend of some big bass in there and I plan on going out there with pops and probably Rigo to give it a try. Like I said before we have been fishing there for at least 20 years and never even seen a bass or caught one by accident so if I happen to catch one it will definitely be a milestone. 

-I also have yet to visit the bee hive and butte pond lately which means my Largemouth bass and crappie count hasn’t even begun yet. I purchased some honey bee and yellow jacket looking flies specifically to see if the largemouths will grub them down. I also really want to see if the Sarges crappie fly will slay the crappie at this hole. 


-If I don’t completely break down and head out to putah tonight, my next fishing adventures will be this weekend and then next Wednesday I will be heading out to fish with “Magic Mark” from Northern California Trout (haha you like the new nickname, buddy?).


12 comments:

  1. The helmet ones you are referring to are called cone head, not sure if they make any difference, you will have to let us know what you find out.

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    1. Awesome, thanks Bryan. I'm wondering if they serve a specific function or are just for aesthetic purposes? I will let you know.

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  2. "Magic Mark"? I've been called a lot of things, but not that.

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    1. haha okay I'll just call you Mark then.

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  3. Juan, my experience is that both styles are designed to get your fly down to where the fish are. The Coneheads sink more rapidly and give more of a swimming minnow, or leech, type impression. The Beadhead style are also very effective. They are easier in my opinion if you are wanting a jigging type retrieve with your fly. Irregardless, doesn't hurt to have both styles in your fly box. Happy hook ups!

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    1. Ok so it sounds like the cones are a little heavier which might add a little something to the motion when retrieving and to the sinking speed. I guess I’ll have to use both and see what happens.

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  4. I'm a fan of the cone heads (Style fly and SNL Cone Heads). Probably, because, I like the looks of it, opposed to the bead. I believe both will give you the same action. I'm also a huge fan of unweighted woolly buggers.

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    1. Haha the coneheads from SNL always annoyed me! andtheir heads were just creepy! Lol I agree, I like how to cone looks versus the basic bead head. Another thing though, at this specific hole, is that the bass were striking the conehead black WB but not touching the unweighted WB. I still love the unweighted WB for trout but for whatever reason they were unwanted at putah creek.

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    2. Just goes to show you that fish think differently in other waters. Some of my biggest bass on the fly have come on a unweighted black woolly bugger in a size 6.

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    3. They sure do bro. I was testing all kinds of flies on them but that was the only one that produced in this specific creek. thanks for the comments, brotha!

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  5. Juan
    I have used both patterns and really prefer the beadhead mainly because I like the action I get with this type pattern much better. The conehead seems to drop a little too fast for me. Hope you have success on both --thanks for sharing

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    1. I just thought all beadheads were coneheads because I bought all of my beadheads at Sportsmans, lol thanks for reading!

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