big fish dreams

I'm getting excited for our upcoming trip to Florida and the Caribbean. Plans are being made and it looks like I'm going to get some good fishing time in.
We have two days in Miami before our cruise leaves and I've made plans to go with Cordell Baum, a local bonefish guide. I've been fishing with Cordell before but the weather was uncooperative and we couldn't chase bonefish. Here's hoping for better luck this time!Our cruise stops in Grand Cayman, The Bahamas, Mexico and a small island off the coast of Honduras. I don't know if there will be any opportunities for me to fish or not but I'll have my gear just in case.
After the cruise we are flying directly to Pensacola so Tara can attend a math conference. I have checked out the area with my favorite fishing tool, GMaps and
it looks like there is a lot of accessible shoreline within walking distance of our hotel. There is some great variation in the bottom and probably some substantial seagrass beds which means it is great habitat for all sorts of gulf coast species like the redfish below which was caught last spring in late march by a client of one of the local charter guides.

The Truth about Crayfish

My carp fishing lecture at Cumberland Transit last night was a success - meaning I actually had an audience! Apparently someone poached the announcement from the Cumberland Transit Website and put it in the Tennessean Newspaper's outdoor events calendar. So, thanks to whoever did that, thanks to CT for hosting me, and thanks to everyone who showed up. Also, congratulations to Miles, who won a free guided fishing trip.

For those of you who couldn't make it to the talk, I thought I'd share a little bit of the information that I covered:
When it comes to fly fishing for carp there is a lot of talk about crayfish patterns, but as they say, talk is cheap and the proof is in the pudding. Take a look at the chart I've included:

I made this chart from information on the Canadian Carp Registry. The first thing to notice is that nymphs win. They beat out both crayfish and baitfish patterns by quite a bit. Now take a look at the second column labeled "buggers." This column includes woolly buggers, crud flies and puke flies. These flies don't have special names because they are not imitations of specific food items. However, all of these flies are essentially generic nymph imitations. Therefore I argue that the buggers column should be lifted out and placed on top of the nymphs column, in which case nymphs out-fish crayfish about 4 to 1! So next time you find yourself wondering what fly to throw at a hungry carp, reach for a nymph.

Ice Fishing

My high hopes for an early spring have been dashed by an unusually cold and snowy February so far. But if the cold persists, I have a backup plan. We're taking a trip to Florida and the Caribbean in mid-March and I'm lobbying for some quality fishing time then.
Last year the weather started to get better around the end of March, so I guess the worst case scenario is that I'll have to wait until then...

Getting it Started

I can feel Spring right around the corner and I'm so excited that my dreams are filled with fish. I figure that other people are feeling the same way and so I've decided to give a little pre-season warm-up talk at Cumberland Transit next month:

Carp on the Fly: a Formula for Success

Thursday - February 18, 2010 (6:00 PM)

A short presentation for anyone interested in fly fishing for carp - by Adam Dailey-McIlrath. Audience members can enter to win a selection of carp flies and a free guided fishing trip.

I'll be discussing some simple strategies that a trout bum or a salt water angler could use as guiding principles if they wanted to try chasing carp. If you're in or around Nashville, I hope to see you there!

Mele Kalikimaka!

It's been a happy holiday. I fit in one day of fishing during our stay on Oahu, but what a good day it was. My friend Kirk picked me up in the morning and we headed to the south shore in search of o'io (bonefish.) The sun was shining and the trade winds were unusually quiet, good conditions for fishing.
I have fished for o'io perhaps half a dozen times in Hawaii, with very little luck. Even when the fish are all around, and the conditions are good, I can't get them to eat. I've tried fly fishing and bait fishing and I've fished all around the island. I have hooked plenty of fish, wrasses, hawkfish, cornetfish, but never a bonefish.
Most people associate bone-fishing with sight-fishing, where the angler actually sees the fish first and then casts to it. Kirk said that the sight-fishing had been spotty and suggested that we instead spend our time blind casting. Blind-casting is not really blind. Instead of looking for the fish themselves, the idea is to look for structure that might attract fish and cast near that.
Since blind-casting is more of a probability game I decided right away that my strategy would be to cast as often as possible and to fish every cast, even the bad ones. I simply figured that my chances of catching a bonefish were directly proportional to the amount of time I had my fly in the water.
We saw a few tails, but the fish stayed mostly out of sight. Nevertheless, Kirk started catching fish right away. He lost the first one but soon landed another. Confident that the fish were around, and feeding, I stuck to my plan and kept casting.
Kirk was on a streak. He kept landing o'io. Determined, I made a cast into a small sandy depression and finally got a good strike! I was so excited at the prospect of catching my first bonefish that I set the hook too vigorously and pulled the poor fish clear out of the water. It was a small barracuda, fun, but not an o'io.
Barracuda tend to chase fast moving flies through the water, not on the bottom, so after catching this fish I switched to a bigger, heavier fly which would stay down where the bonefish feed.
The new fly worked well on a little wrasse, but it was even smaller than the barracuda! The tide was rising so Kirk and I made our way closer to shore, fishing as we waded. I made a cast between two small depressions and began stripping the fly back along the bottom. I felt several sharp tugs and suddenly line was flying off the reel - hana pa'a! Fish on!
I have caught fish this size before and I wouldn't say that it took much longer to land this bonefish than it would a comparable sized carp, but after landing my first o'io I would say that, in my experience, the speed and explosive power of these fish is without peer. What a day!
Check out the rest of the pictures here!

Do You Uhu?

We are off to Hawaii for Christmas! Boarding passes have already been printed, and still I haven't packed. Mostly my tardiness is due to the fact that I can't decide what fishing gear to bring. Spinning, or fly? Salt, or maybe a little fresh?
While I can peruse weather and tide information online, it's really difficult to get a good enough sense of the conditions to know what to bring.
Regardless of what finally goes into my bags I'm excited to get into some salt water and hopefully find a few fish.

Jack Gartside

The December 6 post from Jack Gartside's blog, Roccus Writing:

So Long, and Thanks for all the Fish

Sad news. Last evening, after a hospitalization of several weeks, Jack finally lost his protracted battle with lung cancer. He was in bed resting comfortably, attended by friends, with the first snow of the season falling silently outside.

Jack Gartside was my fishing hero. He was a master fly tier, an artist, and in each of his creations the music of his soul was made visible.
His attitude and fishing philosophy inspired me on many levels, not just in tying, and not even just in fishing, but in life. After all, I think to Jack, fishing and living were the same damn thing.

Thanks Jack.