My great friend John Beth was at it again. While the rest of us ate turkey and stuffing, John was busy stuffing a big streamer down the throat of a 33 x 20 female brown (20 x 20 x 33/750 = 17.5 lbs). That’s quite a collect of big browns for Johnny Boy this fall. […]
The big brown that I took on my last outing to the Sheboygan gobbled a Purple Hot Head Leech. This has been a great fly for me for kings, cohos, browns, and steelhead. It’s a Collared Leech (see 10/28/09 post on tying the Collared Leech) tied with dark purple FoxxFurr and a fiery, 505 Orange […]
I got up at 4 am and made a run at the Shegboygan. About a dozen casts after I got on the water, I hooked a nice steelhead that was on long enough to make me think I was going to land it. Then off. It looked in the upper 20’s in length and in […]
Dan Knox wrote to ask about the measurements of the browns that I posted. Sorry I didn’t make that clear Dan. The first measurement is the length in inches, the second is the girth in inches measured just in front of the dorsal fin. Rather than suspend these big fish by their jaws and chance […]
My long time friend, John Beth, managed to get back to the Sheboygan for another shot at the big browns that are rolling in. He did exceptionally well, taking another brute that was 36 x 21 plus 2 others and a nice female coho (looking very steelheadish). When landing the big guy, the line got […]
What I didn’t mention earlier is that the monster brown John Beth caught was taken on a cane rod and silk line. This has become a tradition for John during the fall salmon and trout runs. I didn’t mention it because I wanted to give everyone a source for silk lines–just in case, you know. […]
Yesterday the flies were a black collared leech with green flash in the collar and a big black stonefly nymph. I had one of each left so last night I tied four more of each, using the dome light and a flashlight jammed up under the sun-screen for my light sources. A bit dull, but […]
On the water at 6:20 am to light rain. Mmmmm, I love this overcast, light rainy weather for big browns. I wasn’t even in place when I saw a fish flash deep on the far side. About a dozen cast later and the first fish was on. It was the violin player. A nice, lightly […]
I arrived at the Sheboygan yesterday afternoon to find the water a bit more cloudy than anticipated. I spent the afternoon looking for browns and bows, but found none. Mid way through the afternoon, I ran into my friend, Lou Jirikowic. He told me of a couple of nice browns that he had spotted in […]
I know there are those that want to see the collared leech, so here are the tying instructions. One thing that I love about this fly is that it has nearly endless variations. One can vary the material–fur, hair, marabou, synthetics like FoxxFurr, and on and on–mix and match if you want. Make ’em big, […]