May 15, 2024
Here is my initial foray into the field of fish dermatology. Here is the before picture. Before you accuse me of going over to the dark side and using lures, this is how I found this unfortunate 28 inch striper last night. (S)He took my black articulated beastmaster (the second to do so) and when I landed it, there was a nice lure in the mouth with all kinds of nasty treble hooks waiting to bite me. After extensive unsedated surgery, I was able to remove the lure. If it's your lure, let me know and I will be glad to return it for a small fee. The fly was removed, the patient revived, and successfully returned to loved ones. For the before and after pictures, go to my facebook page
May 11, 2024 or as my wife calls it- Mother’s Day Eve.
It’s trout season and striper season, and the Saluda is at 10,700 CFS. What's a man supposed to do? If you can't fish, there are several things you should be doing right now. For example, the last time you were using your floating fly line, was it sinking? If so, you may need to check it to see if there are cracks in it. If there are cracks in your floating fly line, then it will sink, and it will be harder to handle and cast. If there are no cracks in it, then it may just need to be cleaned. One easy way to clean it is to strip off 30 or 40 feet of line and put some mild dish soap into a sink with the stopper in it, add water to make bubbles, move your line around in the water, pull the soapy line through a soft cloth, put the line back in the sink, and rinse it with clean water; pull the clean line through the soft cloth. If you have something like Rio agent x line cleaner or Loon line cleaner, treat your line with that and then dry it off with a soft cloth. A clean fly line cast farther, floats higher, and lasts longer. With as much as new fly lines cost now, it is worth a little maintenance to keep it working and lasting longer. We have lots of new fly lines in stock from Rio Including specialty lines. This would also be a good time to check your leader. If you are still using last year's leader, you probably want to replace it. Who wants to lose a great fish, because you're using last year's leader. The same thing goes with tippet material, who wants to lose a great fish, because you're using last year's tippet material. We have fluorocarbon and monofilament Rio leaders and tippet material in stock. While you're at it, check and make sure that you have not left the drag set on your reel. If you store your reel for a long period of time with the drag partially set, then you reduce the amount of the range of the drag. You should always store your reel with the drag all the way off. Another thing you can do is check your flies. You may want to look in your boxes and make sure that some of the flies are not rusted. Once the hook on a fly is rusted, it is pretty much worthless. It is almost impossible to restore the integrity of the hook and who wants to lose a great fish to a rusted hook. You also can check your waders. A quick way to do that is to turn your waders inside out, hang them up so the foot of the wader barely sits on the ground when it is filled with water, and fill one leg with water and look for any leaks. The leaks in the lower part of the leg will be easy to spot by the slow drip of water from the waders. You can mark the slow leak with white correction fluid or as some of you know it, white out. Pour the water from one leg to the other and repeat the process. Once you mark all the leaks, the best thing to use is Aqua seal, just do not get it on your hands, as it is very difficult to get it off. If you fish for stripers at night like you are supposed to do, check your headlamps. You cannot do anything about the river level, but you can be ready when it drops
May 3, 2024
There was a seecada hatch in my shop last night. Before you e mail me or call me or text me that it is cicada, please wait, I call it seecada because this fly is so easy to see with black and orange body, black and orange legs, a long deer hair wing and an orange sighter post, It comes in various sizes from large to huge. Available for sail now (you can contact me about that misspelling if you want,)
May 1, 2024
Stripers are moving up into the Saluda in greater numbers, even though most of the guide boats are not up in the Saluda yet. The best is yet to come. Look to the picture at the left and see what striper "stuff" we have in stock. I think we have the largest selection of 7 and 8 weight rods and reels in the Midlands. We also have flies - big flies and smaller flies you can cast with your 8 weight rod without hurting your shoulder or the back of your head. I always say fishing should be fun, and if you cannot comfortably cast the fly you are using, then it is no fun. We also have 7 and 8 weight fly lines from Rio and heavy duty leaders and tippet. All you need in 1 easy place.
April 27, 2024
Trout action is heating up with some holdovers being caught. I decided to try some trout action this afternoon. Caught a few small stockers which were colored up, so I am guessing some of the Tasmanian trout which were stocked. I tried nymphing but no luck. Switched to streamers and had better success using a olive articulated slumpbuster and a purple mini me dropper. I tried the normal casting across or up and across or down and across but nothing happened. I then decided I would use the Saluda Swing, which has worked many times before. Cast it however you want but when it straightens out downstream hold it in the current, and I mean hold it, hold it for 30-40 seconds. Sometimes when you do this you will feel the fish hit the fly and you may miss it, but often if you go right back they will hit it again. I told a young med student who came to buy some flies from me, and he caught a nice fish using the Saluda Swing with a Pat's Rubberlegs. Other flies which are working are Prince nymphs and Higa's SOS
April 19, 2024
Well first striper in the Saluda (no not the one like last year), but still very nice 32 inch striper below the Zoo with my 13'0" 7 weight TFO spey rod. Based on the striper age/weight chart https://www.captainfish.com/biting.html
it was between 12-14 pounds Tried a shad fly, an articulated slumpbuster, a Galloup's --- dungeon fly, all to no avail. As I tell you fish with what ever you want, but when there is time to tie on one last fly, put on something black, so I put on a black articulated beastmaster, and at 8:00 the fight began. In the swift current where I was, the beast had out 40 feet of skagit head, mow tip, and leader, 110 feet of running line and about 90 yards of 30lb dacron backing, and no signs of stopping, so I had to start palming the reel to slow it down. As my backing was getting close to being done, the beast finally stopped. Then I had to begin lifting the rod and reeling down to gain back line. I kept switching the rod angle. Finally after about 15 minutes, I was able to back up and beach the beast, take a quick picture and revive it. A nearby paddler asked it I was going to keep it, and "I said no, I want to give someone else the chance to catch it." No other hits or fish. I still think most of the striper action is in the Congaree, but the striper action in the Saluda will pick up. As to trout in the Saluda, articulated slumpbusters and size 16-18 gray caddis are working.
April 12, 2024
Saluda river levels have dropped and are remaining at good levels for wading. Striper action is slow in the Saluda and is still centered mostly in the Congaree. Trout action in the Saluda is picking up nicely. Most of the fish caught are stockers, but a few very nice holdover rainbows are being caught. The best flies are articulated streamers, small madame x dries, higa’s sos, and pat’s rubberlegs nymph
Feb. 16, 2024
Despite some stocking of trout, the fishing is still not great, so what do you do? Tie flies of course. Winter is for fly tying. In that vein, I am holding a free fly tying session at my home on Wednesday Feb. 21 at 6:00 p.m. Some expert tiers have signed up and some not so expert ones too. I am saving 2 spots for beginners who I will be helping. The 2 beginners will not have to bring anything but a desire to learn, I will provide all the rest. Space is very limited, so contact me via phone, e mail, facebook, carrier pigeon, etc. to sign up. Different people will be tying various flies so you can watch or tie as you wish. Other than beginners, It is byobvm (bring your own beverage and vise and materials). Here is a chance to learn something about fly tying from other people or just come and tie what you want around other tiers.
December 29, 2023
Fish were stocked on the Lower Saluda on December 8 and are being picked up by anglers in the 8-10 inch range using perdigon nymphs and streamers. So far by all accounts, the fish are skinny but better than nothing. Hopefully they will continue the past growth rate of an inch per month.
November 8, 2023
Many people ask me, “where are the trout?“ The answer is death and dissolved oxygen. Death sounds macabre right? What does it mean. The Saluda is not the best trout habitat. It is an artificial habitat for trout created by the outflow from the Lake Murray dam. Without the dam and its tail waters, there would be no trout fishing in the Saluda. The life of a trout in the Saluda is perilous. So perilous that the mortality rate is 98%, you read that correctly 98%. For example, if DNR stocks 50,000 trout in a year, only 1,000 would survive to the next year. What causes such a high mortality rate? There are several reasons, none of which I am going to discuss here. Suffice it to say that very few trout survive from year to year. Enough about death, now what about dissolved oxygen. Trout need colder water and higher levels of dissolved oxygen than warm water species such as bass, sunfish, etc. The primary factor in dissolved oxygen in the Saluda is the water drawn from the lake. Most of the water drawn by the turbines is from the bottom of the lake, so the amount of oxygen in the water at the bottom of the lake where the turbines draw from, will for all intents and purposes, determine the dissolved oxygen levels in the Saluda. During summer and fall, the water at the top of the lake is higher in dissolved oxygen than the water at the bottom of the lake. During the winter, usually sometime in December, the lake “turns over,” and the more oxygenated water works its way to the bottom of the lake. The layering process is called thermocline. DNR does not want to stock trout just to have them die immediately, so DNR waits until the lake turns over and the more oxygenated water is at the bottom where the turbines draw the water to pump into the Saluda. A low survival rate and dissolved oxygen deficits mean that from summer to December are the slow times.
September 4, 2023
Recently a man emailed me and said he wanted a "newbie appointment," his words not mine. We found a mutually agreeable time and met and talked for a while and went over some of his questions. Then later that week I had an initial fly tying lesson with another beginner. Some people in the fly fishing business don't like beginners, they ask too may questions and frequently don't buy enough to compensate for the disproportionate time spent, plus often they require more patience. I don't mind beginners and actually help quite a few. I guess after working with semi-interested Boy Scouts on their fly fishing/tying merit badges when my son was a Scout prepares you for beginners. Genuinely interested people who are teachable are fun to work with.
August 24, 2023"Reel with Purpose" - sounds like a fishing charity doesn't it? Actually its is a technique I use just about every time I trout fish or striper fish, especially when using a streamer. So what I do is when I am about to reel in my line to quit fishing or just move to another place and I have too much line out to just let it drag while I move or leave (see the July 8, 2023 post), I intentionally reel the line in moving the fly and stopping the fly while moving my finger back and forth to evenly distribute the line and leader on my reel. In other words I reel with the purpose of catching a fish while I am reeling the line, I don't just reel quickly and mindlessly but with the intention of catching a fish and being ready to do so. Does it work all the time? No, only about 5% of the time, but I did catch a 20 pound striper 2 years ago while doing this. My friend also caught a nice 28 inch striper 2 years ago doing the same thing on his last cast. It also worked tonight. I usually just point the rod tip and line straight down with the rod tip almost touching the water. However, tonight I did that for a while and then held up the rod tip to about a 75 degree angle and kept reeling. Whether it was the reeling action alone or the reeling and changing of depth in the water, I don't know, but it was more than the 22 inch striper could stand, and s/he ate my size 4 Gervais Gray and kept me from getting skunked. So instead of just mindlessly reeling in your fly, reel with purpose.
August 22, 2023
Striper season is over right? Try telling that to my friend Mark. We went fishing, his first time striper fishing and certainly his first time fishing with a spey rod. He used my TFO Deer Creek 13'0 7 wt with a 2.5 foot t10/ 7.5 foot intermediate tip. First we tried the fly he tied (his first fly) but no luck. It was fun, however to watch him casting a size 2 conehead fly about 60 feet on his first outing. About 8:40 we moved then switched to a purple and black rainbow blingmaster. About 10 minutes later he hooked a nice striper in strong current and had a great fight but broke it off when he had about 15 feet of line outside the tip. How do I know it was a striper you ask? Well if you have caught many nice stripers, you know usually there is a hard hit, then strong runs and while the fish is running and you are frantically trying to get the excess running line on the reel, the rod moves up and down noticeably; I like to call it the "whump, whump." No jumping but a lot of strong runs before you even get close to seeing the fish, especially at night. And it takes a big fish to break 15 pound Rio Fluoro 0x tippet. Does he wish he caught it, do I wish he caught it? Yes, but we still had fun, and he had the surreal experience of wet wading and being cold when the air temperature was 90 and doing everything in the dark. Give it a try, there are still a few stripers to caught up and down the Saluda and some big ones
August 10. Stripers, whiskers, and a sale.
Fished below the zoo last night with my TFO 13'0 7 wt spey rod. Started around 7:35. Started with gray and white hairy legged blingmaster and then switched to chartreuse hairy legged blingmaster, no hits. Around 8:05 added lots of 0x Rio fluro tippet and switched to black hairy legged blingmaster. At 8:21 hooked a nice striper in the strong current, fought if for a while and it slipped the hook. At 8:28 hooked and landed 24 inch striper. At about 8:45 I hooked and landed a 20 incher. Both were on a black hairy legged blingmaster. Once again the striper action was hot for about 30 minutes. Unfortunately, I spent too much of that time pulling fish up against the strong current and getting my hooks out of their mouths, since the hook went in one side of the mouth and out the other. Not bending down your barbs means you land more stripers, but it is much harder to get the hook out. Take your choice, but you should always bend the barb down on the hooks for trout.
That's the stripers, now for the whiskers . At about 9:15, I hooked and landed about an 18 inch catfish on the same fly.
So that is the stripers, the whiskers and now for the sale. I decided last night before I went that how many stripers I caught I would reduce my 7and 8 weight rods, 7-9 wt reels, 7-8 wt lines, and striper leaders and tippet. So I am lucky the first one got off, as it saved me 10% and cost you 10%. Just to show you what a nice guy I am, I will let the catfish count as half a striper. What that means is that my 7 and 8 weight rods, reels, lines, and striper leaders and tippet are 25% off. Limited to items in stock.
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