Not So Crappy Crappie

    Well, it's fall again, my favorite time of year. I get to dress up crazy for Halloween, gorge myself on Thanksgiving dinner, and most importantly.... Fly Fish in  Dixie amidst the beautiful changing leaves and cooling Autumn air. Smallmouth bass, largemouth bass, and bream of all kinds are very catchable this time of year but my favorite Fall fish is Crappie! They are one of the best tasting freshwater fish anywhere and they don't fight very hard so you can use really light tackle to bring them in. 3 and 4 weight fly rods are my favorite but even a 2 weight will work, if you're a good caster and you want a better fight. I say you should be a good caster because chucking clousers and other streamers that crappie like are not terribly fun to throw on a two weight.

    Fall offers some unique opportunities to catch these fish in shallow waters. The water has cooled and it's that perfect temperature where crappie are more comfortable hanging out near the surface than they were in the hot summer months. In the summer, the best shallow opportunities for catching crappie on the fly are in the early morning and in the evening just before dusk whereas in the fall you can catch them ALL DAY LONG!!!

    Find shady lake coves with submerged cover close to the shoreline, river forks where a slow current meets a faster current, overhangs, driftwood piles that extend from the bank into the water, and deep pools underneath the shade of tree limbs. Chuck a Clouser minnow into any of these areas and you'll have more fun than you did on your honeymoon! I've even been catching Crappie on top water poppers and cricket imitators in the evenings, lately, fishing in the Kentucky Lake and it's surrounding creeks. 

    You might also try a yellow or purple wooly bugger. For me, the secret has been size 6 buggers and size 6 Clousers tied with bead chain eyes so that they sink slowly enough for me to strip them with 1-2 second pauses and keep them within two feet of the surface. During the middle of the day, they don't want to hit top water but they do want flies that are just 6-18 inches beneath the surface. That's the magic zone! Crappie almost always look up and right now, they're higher in the water table than they are in the summer. If you fish near the bottom they won't even notice your fly, let alone strike it. So, fish shallow even in those deep pockets and you'll see what I'm talking about! 

   Pay close attention to feel and use somewhat gentle hook sets. Crappie have fragile mouths compared to bass and they don't hit like bass, either. They have a very subtle, gentle take. Strip your flies at a slow-medium pace with finesse so that you can feel the strikes and set the hook quickly before they spit it out. 

    Another reason you don't want to strip it in too quickly is because those big crappie don't want to over exert themselves to get that little fly. I've noticed that I almost always catch smaller crappie on fast retrieves and I catch the biggest ones when I work it as slow as I can while still managing to keep the fly at their level in the water. A couple days ago I caught a handful in a cove only two feet deep at the deepest point, casting straight out and stripping line in with long, slow strips and 1 second pauses in between. 

    Don't hesitate to get out your boat, canoe, kayak, or walking shoes this fall if you're a crappie fanatic like me. Don your vest, put on your creel, pull out your favorite 3 or 4 weight and head to the water. Fish on!

Taylor Nauta

The Southern Fly Guy

Carp Casting!

    Believe it or not, I caught this Common Carp on a two weight Redington Classic Trout/Orvis Battenkill outfit while fishing for bream in a local pond. To be honest, I had my doubts about landing it but in the end, persistence paid off. The fly of choice was an olive wooly bugger.

    I was was stripping size 8 Clouser minnows parallel to the bank in a large pond in Gonzales, Louisiana, hoping that I would entice a bass or a big bluegill. A couple hardy bluegills and a small bass later, something caught my eye out of my peripheral vision.... Off to my right, about 40 feet away, in water only about six inches deep, was a large buffalo swimming around in the man-made canal feeding into the pond. 

    I removed the Clouser and tied on an olive wooly bugger as quick as I could. Then, I casted my fly past it by about two feet. Stripping it back slowly, I brought the bugger right past its nose and sure enough, it opened it's sucker-like mouth and vaccumed that wooly bugger right up! And so, the fight was on! It was very much like fighting a redfish with a zebco 33 combo... I thought I'd never get it in! For a minute there, I was worried my rod was going to break and I even started to cuss myself out for being so foolish as to attempt hooking a fish that big on such light fly tackle. But then, just as soon as I was about to turn my rod tip down and let it break my tippet, the fish tired and I was able to get it ashore. After admiring it for a moment and taking a couple pictures, I returned the exhausted Buffalo back into the water and watched it swim away into the murk. I think I was nearly as exhausted as it was, looking back.

    This was my first attempt at catching a carp on my fly rod and it won't be my last. Next time, however, I think I'll bring my six weight!

Taylor Nauta

The Southern Fly Guy

The All-Catching Clouser Minnow

    Today, I decided to write about my favorite sub-surface fly, the Clouser Minnow. Developed by Bob Clouser and Lefty Kreh, it was originally intended for catching smallmouth bass but it has since been adapted to almost every fly fishing environment. In fact, I've  heard that Lefty Kreh caught 58 species of fish on a Clouser and I don't doubt this for a second because I've successfully used and tied several variations of it myself.... and I'm no Lefty Kreh.

    So why a Clouser Minnow instead of a Wooly Bugger? Make no mistake, the famous Wooly Bugger is a "catch-all" fly, too, but it has limitations due to the fact that it moves through the water with its hook facing down and, thereby, being prone to snag. The Clouser, on the other hand, moves with its hook facing up due to the fact that the weighted eyes are fastened on the side opposite from the hook gap.This opens up a new realm of possibilities, allowing you to work it across the bottom or even over sticks and other various cover without snagging. That's the main reason why the Clouser is my favorite sinking fly. I also like how many eye material options are available, everything from fast sinking lead eyes to slow sinking dog tag chain eyes.

    For this article, I decided to tie one red & white Clouser Minnow, go to one pond, and see how many fish I could catch in one hour. It was the middle of day at a friend's pond in Tennessee towards the end of June. Needless to say, it was hot. The fish were hanging out in deeper water rather than feeding on top like in the early morning and late evening, so it was a perfect time to tie on a Clouser. In June, crawfish are an active food source for bass and bigger bream so I chose red. What was the result? See for yourself.

    I caught at least a dozen fish on that one red & white Clouser Minnow in under an hour. Not bad, considering it was during the mid-day time block when fish are more lethargic. Among my catch were a few bass, bluegills, chinquapins, pumpkinseeds, and other sunfish. Since I knew I was going to be targeting bream and smaller bass, I was using a 4wt Redington Classic Trout and an inexpensive Cabelas Wind River 3/4 wt reel. It handled the job just fine. Actually, I really like the Redington CT for its lazy, medium action and light weight. It's a perfect bream rod, especially at its low price point. The Wind River reel is a bit of a lunker(about 5oz!) but I got it on sale for $19.99, so I'm not going to complain about it. It features a large arbor, a fairly smooth drag, all-metal construction, and it doesn't look bad, either. All in all, I doubt that there are any better ones for under $30.

    Well, that's it for this piece. Long story short, the Clouser Minnow(a.k.a.Deep Minnow) is one badass fly that can be used to catch almost anything with fins. 

Taylor Nauta

The Southern Fly Guy

Balsa Poppers

    Another way to save serious money while tying your own bass & bream poppers is to whittle them out of balsa wood. You can buy a bag of it for cheap at any arts & crafts store and it's light as a feather, making it perfect for bream/bass poppers. 

     Take into consideration that this wood is VERY soft and, thus, it breaks and dents easily. I like to coat my finished poppers with epoxy to give them strength and water resistance. 

    Now, you try it! Show me what you come up with.

Taylor Nauta

The Southern Fly Guy

    

Wine Cork Bass Poppers

    Ok, so I've never been much of a DIY guy...... until I realized how much I was spending on flies. There's not much that'll annoy you like losing a five dollar popper to a high tree limb in your back cast or hearing that "snap" and retrieving a fly-less leader because you executed your forward cast too soon and thereby broke your tippet. If you're somebody who fishes a lot, it can add up fast. So, when I finally had enough of giving hard earned my money to fly shops for overpriced, Vietnamese-made flies, I decided to start tying my own.

    Tying your own flies can save you a lot of money, that's a given. But it can save you even more money if you use your resources to obtain potential fly-tying materials from sources that are not necessarily designated as such. One of my favorite materials for tying bass poppers is your regular, age-old, wine-stopping cork.  You can buy an assortment containing twenty, or so, of various sizes for only $5 at a typical arts & crafts store. Get yourself some of these corks along with a handful of number 0, 2, and 6 hooks, some maribou, deer hair, flash, silly legs, thread, permanent markers, and clear-coat nail polish from your local walmart and you'll have your basic popper tying bases covered. Of course you need a vice, bobbin, bodkin, etc, but that goes without saying. The point is, it doesn't take much to start making your own poppers that will catch bass just as effectively as the ones you've been paying $5 a piece for.

    Just cut a little trench in one side of the cork that the hook shank can fit in at full length, glue the hook in place(make sure you wrap the straight portion of the hook shank with thread first so the glue will have more to adhere to), add your tail & legs, color it up with your sharpie markers, apply some clear coat, and voila!... You have yourself a finished bass popper that probably cost sonewhere around $0.25. Not too shabby!

    Remember, the less you spend on flies the more you'll have to spend on that  new rod and reel in a different line weight or tip action you don't have yet. You're welcome, 

Taylor Nauta

The Southern Fly Guy

Cabela's Traditional III & Wind River Reel

So, last night I got the opportunity to try out the Cabela's Traditional III 9' 6wt with the 5/6wt Cabela's wind river reel. The rod retails for $99.99 and the reel retails for $29.99. Very inexpensive combo, to say the least, but I must say that I was very impressed with it!

    It turns out that the Cabela's Traditional III fly rod is made of a blend of 42 million and 45 million modulus graphite, giving it a higher performance than most other rods in its price range. I've tried several rods in the $100 price range, trying to discover rods that would be good for a beginner to learn on but not grow out of too quickly. Many inexpensive rods would be better suited as pool cues due to their unusable stiffness or ,on the flip side, they may better serve as car as antennas because they are just that flimsy. The Cabelas Traditional III has a forgiving moderate-fast action that is easy to load(making it a great beginner option) and it seems to be built very sturdy. It's a little heavier than some 6 weights, but not so heavy that it's a problem. 

    Now let's talk about the looks of this rod... Aesthetically, this thing is beautiful! It boasts a nice cork handle, although not perfect. There are some filler spots, but who's complaining about that on a rod priced at just $99.95? Not I, that's for sure. If you've got the money to spend on a R. L. Winston Boron IIIx or a beautiful Orvis Superfine, those are beautifully appointed rods that fish like magic wands with reels attached. But that's not what this article is about. If you're looking for a good rod for under $100 that will likely last a long time and be fun to learn with, the Traditional III from Cabelas is a choice that's hard to go wrong with. It's got a beautiful green blank with tasteful burgundy wraps,  a wooden reel seat, and a nicer reel lock than what I've seen on some rods at three times the price. This rod is tough to beat in this price range. I can only think of a couple possible contenders, one being the Redington Classic Trout, but I'll save that for a later review. I plan to do an article on the Best Fly Rods for under $100 soon. So, stay tuned!

    Now for the Wind River Reel, also a surprisingly great value. At $30, you'll be hard pressed to find such a feature-rich fly reel. It's fairly lightweight, made of cast aluminum, has a decent disc drag, and it has a large arbor. What more could you want from a a $30 reel? Once again, this reel has few equivalent peers in it's price range. The only ones that come to mind are the White River Intruder and Hobbs Creek reels from Bass Pro Shops. 

    Long story short, for $130, I would recommend this rod for any beginner or anyone on a budget looking for a decent fly rod that's gentle on your wallet and easy on the eyes.

Reviewing the Redington Drift Fly Reel

 

    Many fly fisherman in today's high tech world of graphite rods and disc drag reels still harbor an affinity for the more traditional side of things. I'm one of those guys. While I appreciate the ultra-fast, line-shooting, cast canons like the Orvis Helios 2 and sophisticated reels like the Mirage, sometimes it's really nice to go back to the basics and throw a mid-flex rod with an old school click and pawl reel. There's a certain nostalgia that comes with palming that spool to bring in a big fish that takes your line on a run. I love that. What I don't necessarily love about most click & pawl style reels is the tiny little arbor that can lead to massive line memory and an a painfully slow retrieve. Well, now there's a solution that affords the best of both worlds: the Redington Drift.
    The model I'm reviewing today is their 5/6 line weight model, in titanium finish. This thing is a beauty! Weighing in at just 3.9 ounces, it's perfect for balancing an ultra light rod. What sets the Redington Drift apart from other click & pawl reels is it's mid-arbor and adjustable tension, two features that are not commonly found on many traditional clickers. While giving you that vintage-vibe of palming that spool, you still have some great modern performance aspects such as lower line memory and a considerably faster retrieve due to the mid-arbor design. Aside from great performance, it looks great, too. That makes it even sweeter. While it may not be the best choice for chasing 50 pound salmon in the Kenai River, I sure do have had a lot of fun catching bass and trout with it attached to the reel seat of my favorite 5 weight rod.
   One more thing I'd like to point out, not only about this reel but  Redington products in general, is Redington's incredible lifetime warranty and fantastic customer service. For just $100, you get a top notch, fully machined, aluminum reel that will probably last you a lifetime. But, you know what?... If it doesn't(under normal fishing conditions, of course), Redington will replace it. I've dealt with Redington's warranty customer service department in Bain Bridge,Washington on a couple of occasions and I've had nothing but good experiences with them. They won't leave you hanging with a broken rod, especially if it's an understandable case. Redington is a great company that offers great products at a great price point. If you can't already tell, I'm a huge Redington fan and I'll recommend their products to anyone looking to get into the wonderful sport of Fly Fishing without breaking the bank.
    So, in closing, if you want to try a classic-styled reel with some modern adornments, go and check out a Redington Drift reel. You won't regret it! Other click & pawl reels of comparable quality cost considerably more. Of course there are great options like the Orvis Access and the Orvis CFO. Both of those are fantastic reels, certainly, but they can't be had as inexpensively as the Redington Drift.


Taylor Nauta
The Southern Fly Guy

Allow me to introduce myself...

My name is Taylor Nauta, the Southern Fly Guy. I've been fly fishing since I was eight years old and I've thrown feathers and fur into the warm lakes, rivers, and ponds in Tennessee, the smoldering hot bayous of Louisiana, the inshore redfish havens, the Gulf of Mexico, and more. And I've fly fished out West, of course, but that's not what this blog is about. There are enough websites, books, and blogs about chasing rainbows and browns in the legendary Green River. But what about the swamps of South Louisiana? What about the warm rivers and lakes of West Tennessee and Kentucky? What about that forgotten cow pond in Mississippi or that little, urban creek that runs right through your neighborhood. Isn't there any good fly fishing to experience in these waters? Why, yes, there is, and I aim to write about it!
    When people think about fishing in the South, they think about bait casters and bass or trot lines and catfish. Fly fishing doesn't even cross their mind as a viable option. I mean,  "that stuff's for trout country, right?" Wrong. Fly fishing is for FISH COUNTRY, which, the South certainly is! After all, Louisiana is Sportsman's Paradise, and rightfully so. There's more fishable water in this state than anywhere. So why not chase those bass, bream, crappie(we call them sac-a-lait), catfish(yes, even whisker fish can be caught on a fly!), carp, gar, and all the other Southern fish with a fly rod?! I've come to find that bream tear up nymphs and dry flies in the right setting and that bass will whack those salmon streamers! Catfish and carp will munch down on a Wooley Bugger, and almost anything will hit a Clouser minnow! Anyone who has caught any of these fish on a fly rod knows well that it doesn't have to be a trout to be fun. If it has fins and is willing to be seduced by a fly, it's gonna be fun! It's my belief that fly fishing, whether in waters warm, cold, or salty, is the most fun a person can have with their clothes on! So, stay tuned for gear reviews, fishing stories, fly-tying tips, and great Southern fly fishing spots.
    That's all, for now, I'm headed off to the water!

Taylor Nauta
The Southern Fly Guy