webb

Stu's Fly shop   &  Stu's Superior Flies                                                                         

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carp kiss
These Lips were made for Kissing- Said the Carp!

 My Athol security  have reported that its freezing still back home and my wee shop looks so cute covered in snow- sounds all lovely but i,m not one for the cold!!( i would rather be eaten by mosquitos)

 

 But it will not be long to i return ,hopefully in early Sept the snow will have melted.

 

 There has been good reports of plenty of trout in all the Mataura tributaries busy spawning, lets hope when the snow melts the river flows are not too harsh and wash away the eggs.

 

 

 

I have managed as you will have read and seen the photos on my  weekly blog to catch and kiss a few carp. 

 

THE CARP QUEST!

 

But my big plan and a bit of a dream :), was to head to the Green Bay area where it is well known for the carp in lake Michigan to  come up onto the huge flats in some of the bays. 

Well i have just driven  five hours to get here , and arrived on a Friday night and every camp site etc , was full  even the $35-45us a night tent sites,so another night sleeping was had in the car parked behind  a wall-mart shop, that i could have done without. 

 

Today i  did manage to find a nice  quite campsite and for the past two days, I have walked nearly every bay area in search of Carp ,but nothing!! yes it looks like the water temp is wrong not warm enough or too warm to make them come on the flats, or  for some reason i just cant locate them., maybe i,m just hopeless!  :)

 

 I have been asking locals  and they all give me different answers and cant  help me, as no one seems to chase them here regularly and they look at me a bit strange when i ask!. 

Thats fishing though and  i realize i will never know! ,if i do not try,Its all a good memory and learning curve in a way!, i keep telling myself!

dead fish
A few of the local fish Sun bathing! :(

 

Interesting for me is that along all the shore lines it stinks of dead fish. The shores are covered with small dead herring like fish which apparently the water temp got too warm too quickly in the lake and killed millions of them , which for the salmon fishers here is not good, they are telling me, as thats the main food source of the salmon.

 But you cant control nature and that can only be a good thing!

 

So i left green bay area and door county and headed  three hours south to a spot recommended by some carp bow hunters. 

On my way there i saw a boat launch area, and low and be-hold i spotted a few uncommon carp! the first few fish i cast too knew i was there so it was game over,Then one came out from a bank ,unaware !! . I cast my little black Gimp carp fly just in front of the Lips of Death!  and he /she swam over extended its rubber lips and scoffed down the Gimp! at last i had my fix.

 

 Once i got too the bow hunting spot there water was warm and dirty like all the rivers in that area with or without carp, ,there were a few small fish, but they were very spooky! and  that so made me smile(thats why i like this game!)so after 10mins ,after days of carp hunting,lots of fuel and one bit of a fluke,i decided to start heading west- with another got to go there fishy feeling. :)

carp & t-shirt
Very Uncommon Carp! when  your looking for them!

 

Looks like i may head to Colorado way from here and fish some rivers ,many of my clients have told me about in the past years. Hopefully after that i will go onto the  big fly fishing retailer show ,which is on for 3 days in New Orleans.

 Which many people come too every year that are involved in the industry to net work and see the latest greatest new rods and gear showcased by all the big names.. But its me and who really know,s  where my wheels will take me, before i leave!

 

 

 LAST WEEK-I just could not resist having another go at the elusive Muskie fish!! Its not as aggressive as say a pike, although from the same family, a cunning bugger thats hard to catch on a fly- my type of fish!

 

So after going round in circles and catching up on some new fly designs , i made it back up to northern Wisconsin and the guys at Musky outfitters.

 

The guys had a quite patch for the week from guiding and following there muskie passion were out every day searching new water to guide there clients on. Brian and Chris were leaving early in the morning to check out two new hard to access small lakes,connected by some channels to one of the major muskie rivers. 

 

Sworn to secrecy and never to tell, they told me to get my backside into gear, as they had a spare place for me, and and get up to their cabin head quarters that night to leave in the morning. They kindly let me have the couch to sleep on , and its just an amazing little cabin full of guides and gear, the walls are adorned with huge flies and muskie memorabilia.

 I nearly got a sore neck from checking it all out, they have more rods all set up to go than any other guide operation i have ever seen.

 

We set off in Brian's old trusty 80,s Lancrusier with drift boat towed behind after a rather rough bit of 4x4 track we arrived and everything was still and calm and looked just out of a picture book.

 

Now i have got to tell you that, for the past few weeks i have been trying on my own and with every day casting well over 500 casts per day, i had some serious pains in my right arm- RSI, so i had no choice but to cast with my left and it was going to be fun as this is not any little trout out fit- its big stuff a 10 wgt rod, 450 g sinking lines,40lb fluro-bite tippet and huge double barbless 6/0 beautiful muskie flies, today was going to be a test alright!

 

MUSKIES

 

Chris after an hour got hooked up and i got to see the pros landing and fighting a nice muskie. Please note -any muskie no matter what size is a good muskie on the fly- a bit like permit.. A while later i got a follow and that was exciting the water was a tannin stain and only close to the boat you could see any follows. 

 

I was stripping and pausing one of Chris's creations and just on the pause,i felt that gentle tug, the boys were screaming at me instructions as any guide does to a newbie , with their great coaching,the hook was set.(Strip Stu- Strip Stu!- keep stripping).

 

 I soon had my first lake muskie in my hands and just had to give it a wee bit of passion!! Yes a wee Kiss! before i quickly returned it.

stu and Musky
Some Fish, do have very sharp Teeth!

After half a day  on that lake we headed through another channel and into a gin clear lake, It was next to amazing just being there and although we never landed another we had a few follows and just watching how these gentle giants behave was awesome. They would appear from nowhere and follow the flies to the boat , I had one big fellow follow me and nip at  the tail of my fly and you cold feel the excitement in the boat as all our eyes focussed on her , boy! was that a knee trembler!

 

In total me landed 2 muskies and had 13 follows , which in muskie fishing was a gold medal day- especially when i know many have tried with flies for years and never even seen one, i,m a very lucky man to have been given the opportunity to experience that day on the water on a day when it all came together! I cant thank the guides enough.

 

Please, keep the feed back coming in, by the way of emails and photos ,of your success using my Superior flies guys as i wish to use it all for some promotion in the future, so far its been coming in from Aus, Iceland, Uk , France mainly.

 

Thank you all for your AWESOME Support! the wee shop will be re-open in early Sept..

Cheers

Stu  "driven by sheer passion and living the dream"

 

 

 

 

 

Cheers

 

Stu  - "Driven by sheer Passion and living the dream"