Been tying some of the other usual bass patterns and some of these. A bit rusty with the warm water meaty stuff but this will ought to do for now....

those look good

Thanks cbd10pt.

Diver

those look okay but you really need to work on packing deer hair tighter, they will become waterlogged pretty quick packed loose like that.

Those are some good looking tandem flies for sure. My only point of reference for scale is the hackle pliers, those appear to be #10 or #8 hooks? Even better working with deer hair on hooks that small.

I like the ones with the stingers

Thanks Bass Bug, will work on that packing, input from a warm water fellow is always welcome. The packing can always be improved but also really need a different deer hair(northern variety)IMHO. I have limited deer hair in my box for selection and very old, all since my early years in Texas but they're still workable. It has served me well enough in the past so I'll have to use what I have left. I'd like to spend more time tying bass flies but since 90+% of my fishing is for trout now, I have to admit I'm very rusty, with a few "how to" moments. The only way to get better is to spend more time. Its fun tying the big stuff though, miss it.

rrhyne56, the green tandem fly has a #4 and #8 hooks I believe. Another set of hooks I hardly use now except for hoppers.

Anyway, still working on some unfinished business but hope to give a TR with warm water fish very soon. Can't wait to get back to Texas.

Thanks! School has been a kick in the pants and Ijust finished a good spring break which included fishing. except thta i didnt have a flyrod I just brought along a spin cast and taught my beautiful girlfriend the joys of fishing We caught 24 bluegill in an hour on worms(I chose worms because i new they would work well on the little boogers. The best way too get someone hooked on fishing in my opinion is worms and bluegill because they tear them up anyways she fell in love and want me too buy her a flyrod for her birthday haha. (thats alot better than the last girl who wanted diamonds. hahaha) anyways i just tyed somemore flys so i will add them.

Those big bugs and mice are looking awesome cant wait too see how they do.

Oh! and im sure too be asking! haha

Just another fav bass pattern....

beautiful fly and photography

Thanks Gib. We'll see soon enough if the bass like that latest color scheme, been told that it kinda looks like a rooster. Inside this jig fly....

yup those look like a great fly cant wait too hear a report on them

after seein all these I realized I'm gonna need to do some practicing. Beautiful work!!!

I was finally able to get away from what seems to be a never ending winterland. My trip down south was very brief but with great company, so we made the most of it. One of the first things I noticed was the low water level and the need for rain. I feared the amount of portaging my friends and I would have to endure just to get to some of the best stretches of the river. Despite the low water, we forged ahead with our float. We came here to fish and as long as there's some water, fish will be landed. At least that was the attitude.

The outfit, a canoe(mine), and a couple of SOT yaks.


The drought certainly brought out a lot of the "unwanted" despite their beauty. Here is one chompin on a big sculpin.


Some are harmless.


It was warmer than usual but the scenery is still the same, beautiful. Guiding a good friend.


DSFK chupacabra in the water.


The first fish of trip was small guad that fell for my jig fly. This particular fly shortly became
the main fly for the day as the fish are deep and the water a little stained.




A conehead streamer produced some as well and my friend even caught a feeding cat in a shallow run.


I caught a bunch of guads, nothing really big but their beauty certainly made up for their dimunitive size.

A small pretty guad by my friend.


Here is my first LMB of the year.


Overall, the first day was a success but we needed a break from the heat and the rather grueling first day. The next day, I took the crew down to town, cruised 6th St. went inside the Cap building, cultured ourselves with a vist to the AMOA, shopped Whole Foods, walked around Town Lake, pigged out at a local dim sum restaurant, and then went back to the house where we cooked, grilled, ate, drank and tied more flies. It was a busy but very enjoyable day. The Cap building was magnificent, I haven't been inside for what must've been 20 years. I'm glad I took the crew there. Austin certainly has been very busy as well. Some images....









Grilling chicken, ribs, chops, mollejas, sausages, and some vegetables.


Crawfish Etouffee dish, this is my plate prepared by a good friend. There are a couple of really mean cooks in this crew. Its a win win.



Well rested, hydrated, fattened by all the good food and armed with a new set of flies slightly tweaked in hope to catch more bass, we hit the road early, full of hope and enthusiam. It didn't take long to land the first fish and it was nonstop all day as we switched to different patterns to accomodate the changing conditions(water clarity, depth, cloud covers, time of day). It's really amazing what time in the water the first day out will teach an angler. In short, we more than doubled our catch and even the fish landed got bigger.

Another buddy with a decent LMB


Another gorgeous guad.


We even had a few double hook ups.








Then this guy crashed the party, it fell for the deer hair diver fly. It is now retired.




This LMB took my diver fly slowly as if it's a sipping trout. Once hooked, it tried to take me to the weeds a couple of times, jumped three times before coming to hand.


We ended the night with another grilling and this time with venison steaks and burgers.

We talked and reminisced about the day, the fun we had, things we learned and tentatively planned our next get together adventure. A few more wine bottles were consumed as we tied some more flies before hitting the sack.

The next morning right after finishing my packing, I headed on down the stream one more time to try my new Tenkara rod just to pop its cherry. Trying to match the hatch, it certainly worked...




But glad this was not the main gear for the trip, perhaps for spring creek trout.


Back to winterland.

Great report as usual, Horn!

Thanks jtbcountyboy and HaRyan. Practice certainly can't hurt. It was good short trip.

Thanks for the pics! I'm hungry all of a sudden. Sorry If I missed it, but where were you fishing?

Great trip!

Horn, great report, one thing missing though. . .

derik d, you were missing. PM sent.

Hill country stream yv_fish . Thinking of going back in the fall once the temp cools down, hoping for a longer stay and an even better trip. Perhaps a few Austinites can get together and fish. Praying for rain til then.

Gib, it turned out better than expected. The low water made the trip daunting initially and certainly made it exhausting in the end with more portaging than I can ever remember. All the flies I posted leading to this trip worked well, some caught more than others. Interestingly enough, its the loosely packed deer hair flies/patterns that caught more and bigger fish in the end. Go figure. Better lucky than good I guess.

what fly is that??? and wher can i learn to tie it?