The latest report from Theo is that the big pike are done spawning and ready to eat, bit time. These fish occupy the canals, and there are plenty of canals in Holland. Pike fishing in Europe is a very refined sport, and the huge flies that they tie for these beasts are very creative indeed.
Theo with a Holland canal leviathan.
Big pike like this one can easily reach 15 to 20 pounds .
The business end of a pike is most impressive, indeed.
My friend, Henry Kanemoto, sent along this URL to a photo of a truly huge lake trout. It’s truly an astounding giant of a laker. Have a look. www.flickr.com/photos/fishasart/6657219345/in/photostream
A nice laker--but wait until you see the monster referenced above.
I realize my posts have been mighty thin these past few weeks due to extensive travels, but I’m back and ready to roll. Watch for posts on the trip and plenty of new stuff on the books and other fishing information.
Nancy and I arrived at the Madison River last week amid a horrific windstorm accompanied by blasting rain. Don’t let anyone tell you that driving a motorhome in 40mph+ side winds is exciting. It’s more like terrifying—especially when the wind blows you into the oncoming lane nearly in front of an 18 wheeler. But arrive we did, and plugged in at Carmen Greenlee’s home on the river. Carmen is a long time friend and widow of Jim Greenlee, past owner of Weinbrenner, the company that built the Ultimate Wading Shoe for nearly two decades. There we met up with other long-time friends from Wausau, Henry Kanemoto and Gene Koshak. They make an annual pilgrimage to the Madison, and we were fortunate that their timing linked up with ours this year.
Henry, Gene, and I headed out at 7am for a mile walk upriver to fish well above the crowd at the 87 Bridge. The hiking was good, but the fishing was slow. Much slower than in days past, I was assured, by both Henry and Gene, who had been fishing the 3 days prior to our arrival (“Should have been here yesterday”). No wonder, with the unsettled weather of the night before. But the day did improve, and we all caught fish, some of them rather nice. One of mine was so big I had to photograph it in three sections. Henry was the alpha dog for the day. His bite was much better than all the barking that either Gene or I did almost incessantly. Then, at about 3 pm the sky got a funny hazy look to it and began darkening significantly in the west. We headed back to Carmen’s, arriving only moments before another roaring windstorm and pelting rain.
The sky suddenly cleared after dinner, and the wind laid down about 8:30 pm. The caddis started dancing in vast hordes along the eaves of the house and over the vegetation along the river. I headed out for the late evening rise at 9pm. Suddenly the temperature dropped, and the evening felt chilly. Most of the caddis went home, leaving only a few hearty souls to dance over the water. I found a few small fish working, and then saw a nice head poke out. It proved to be an 18-inch brown that fought extremely well in the heavy water of the Madison, but finally surrendered to have its flash photo taken. No other fish were located before darkness pushed me back to the comfort of the motorhome.
There’s always tomorrow.
The head of a very nice Madison River rainbow.
The side of a very nice Madison River rainbow.
The aft portion of a very nice Madison River rainbow.
The browns come out at night to play.
In the days of glass rods, one name stood head and shoulder above all the rest-–Russ Peak. Russ was a consummate perfectionist who developed techniques for building and tuning glass rods that no one else mastered. His legendary rods are still a “Covet Special” among those who knew the glory days of glass.
Russ did not take his secrets with him, however. He passed them on the C. F. “Kerry” Burkheimer, who worked with Russ for over a decade and bought Russ’ business. Kerry now builds his own tapers in graphite. Each rod is laboriously and lovingly hand sanded so that they lose nothing in this most critical phase of finishing. Less than the greatest care in sanding can produce rods of varying flex and strength, even though they are all supposed to be to cast identical line weights.
Kerry’s rods are all based on a progressive action—they accept a variety of line weights without feeling over loaded. In the wonderful world of graphite, this is the only action, in my opinion, that truly takes advantage of all that graphite offers. Have a long, careful look at these rods, they do what a rod is supposed to do. Go to cfbflyrods.com
C.F. "Kerry" Burkheimer is a man happy with his work.
Kerry's collection of mandrils allows him to build any rod taper that is needed.
For those who don’t know the Smith, it is central Montana river that has restricted (permit by drawing) floating access. It’s a great stream to fish because of its scenic canyon nature and its good populations of browns, rainbows, and whitefish. They all seem eager to take a dry fly.
Recently, our friends Gary and Rita Wolfe had a chance to float it. They are long term friends from our fly fishing school days at the Vermejo Ranch in New Mexico. Gary was chief wildlife biologist at the ranch for many years. He left to become CEO of the Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation, and from there moved over to operate as CEO of Vital Ground–a grizzly bear foundation that works to establish habitat for the bears. By protecting the bears, the protect the entire ecosystem that supports the bears.
Anyway, they had a great float on the Smith. and caught many good fish. This is a nice brown that Rita took on the trip.
Big browns in the middle the day on dries. Certainly a trip worth the effort.
It’s not easy to do, this trout fishing in Holland. There is only one place in Holland with trout in it–Oost Voorne Lake. As Theo Bakelaar relates in a recent email, it it very hard to catch fish there because the lake is so large and the total number of fish is few. None the less, he was fishing there with a friend and his friend took a very nice rainbow on a scud pattern. It would be a trophy rainbow anywhere.
Rainbows like this one don't come often, no matter where in the world one is fishing.
My blog has been a bit thin for the past few weeks because we are traveling and celebrating some great life milemarkers with Jason and Kelley. Kelley graduated from nursing school and had her official pinning on June 20th. Both Nancy and Kelley’s mom, Mary, were honored by pinning Kelley. Then came the announcement that the baby Jason and Kelley are expecting will be a girl. I’ve already started planning her fly tying kit (Jason is getting the rod and reel ready). Then it was Kelley’s birthday. Next will come the 4th of July. It’s all been great fun.
In the meantime, I have had several emails from friends about various fishing excursions around the world. These will be related in blog posting coming yet today.
Bob Quigley, a highly innovative fly tyer with his focus on west-coast spring creeks, passed away on Tuesday June 12, 2012. Bob had been fighting cancer for some time. His interest in fly fishing and fly tying lead him into uncharted waters any number of times, and he often emerged with unique and deadly patterns. Perhaps his best known imitation is the Quigley Cripple, which is a great imitation of crippled or partially emergent mayfly duns. It has been used the world over with great success. Our sympathies are extended to Bob’s family and his multitude of friends.
Bob Quigley working on a new idea for spring creek fleis.
Bob's most well-konwn imitation, the Quigley's Cripple
They look big in the daytime, and they are, but at night, they look even bigger, and they look ghostly. Here are a couple of shots from Capt’n Jake Jordan. For those that want to experience both the thrill and the terror of fishing for giants at night, this is a particular specialty of Jake’s. Connect with him through his link to the right.
A ghost tarpon that weighs in as the real thing.
A ghost tarpon with devil eyes--true excitement on a fly rod in the dark hours.
I just had a note from my old pal, John Beth. Seems he was fishing a local spring creek and located a huge rainbow. IHe eventually got it to take his fly but missed it on the hook up. Later he spotted it with a smaller fish. Of course the smaller fish took the fly, and John was forced to be satisfied with a mere 23 incher, poor boy! He took it on a 6 foot cane rod, size 18 ant, 5X tippet on a silk line, and 108 year old reel. That’s quite a fish, and quite a story.
Why is it that we always catch the small ones?