Meal Ticket Guest Video step by step

So a few weeks ago I saw a link to a video step by step of the Double Deciever done by Brian Wise, of Fly Fishing the Ozarks, and was pretty impressed with what he had put together.  I have seen other stuff he has done before, but that was the first of mine that he had put together 'on film'.  He does not tie it exactly as I do but is pretty close and the end result looks great.  While I was in Florida I heard from him that the Meal Ticket was next up....and here it is!  Rather than the original Gama SP11-3L3H (or Mustad 34007) he utilizes the Gama B10s, but other than that in the video he is right on recipe and does a great job of it.



For those that wonder what it looks underwater here is some video of it I shot a while back.



-mike schmidt
http://www.anglerschoiceflies.com/

Lazy manatee day

Yesterday was awfully nice getting out to catch the sunrise over the Intercoastal.  It started off as a little cloudy but was very calm so it was really easy to get around.  As the day progressed the cloud cover burned off a bit and the sun warmed things up quite a bit.  That extra heat made the evening storms rather severe, but it was gorgeous during the day.

All rigged up and paddling around.  The only thing I am missing is a small Yeti to keep my lunch and beverages cold!

Today the weather is unfortunately kind of crappy...with clouds and storms around.  I made the call when I woke up in the middle of the night to not head out to chase fish since the weather is not exactly predictable today.  Since I was home and the pool seemed pointless with no sun Liz made the suggestion to go visit the mantees.  Sounded like a great idea so we headed down to JBs Fish Camp to rent her a kayak and headed out to see what we could find.

It did not take us long to fins some manatees, and they were extremely playful.  Here you can see Liz is initially a little taken aback at the massive manatee that came over to check her out.

She did start to warm up as they tooled around us like little puppies, using our kayaks to scratch their backs.

It really was pretty cool to have htem that close and for the wholetime that we were there.

They use their big tails to move them along with ease.

The manatees seemed especially interested in the Freedom Hawk.  I think that each one we came across decided to come over and check me out.

This guy was particularly found of a good paddle scratching of the back.  He would just sit there as I scratched and slowly roll over for a belly shot.

It was a little unnerving to have them pushing the kayaks around with their girthyness, but really cool to see them up that close.  We will definitely head back atleast another time next week for a visit.

We got the two nostril salute as we paddled away and back to the camp.  Until next time...

-mike schmidt
http://www.anglerschoiceflies.com/

New Smyrna Beach, Day One

The ACF two week hiatus is officially underway with day one in the rearview mirror.  My fantastic wifey and I hit the road from Columbus Ohio at 4:20p yesterday and drove through the night, arriving at the Beacon here in New Smyrna Beach Florida for a beachside breakfast just before 8:00a this morning.  Though it was not a walk in the park, somehow the drive did not seem as grueling this year. 

After a great breakfast we got unloaded at the condo and hit the beach for a little sun since it seemed that we were in for a cloudy day later.  As the front rolled in we decided to hit the store for provisions, you know...Russian Standard, Malibu, limes, Yueng...just the essentials.  To our delight the clouds pretty much blew through so we had a gorgeous walk up to our favorite little restaurant, That's Amore, for some dinner.  The food there is top notch and the wine pours generous to put it lightly, but it is the amazing staff that keeps us coming back, nearly every night we are down here, just to have a laugh.  We are there at best every six months but again tonight the two owners that were there, Vincenzo and Chad, as well as a server, Justin, all greeted us with high fives and hugs, asking how we have been and hung out with us at our table to fill us in on the recent goings on.  It was as if we had never left...simply awesome.

Following dinner Mrs ACF was spent so she hit the sack early, leaving me to make the easy decision to hit  the surf as tide approached low.  The last two years have been very tough as the bait fish never really came in close so nothing else did either, but tonight I was in to a very respectable Whiting on about my fifth cast.  In about an hour of casting 300gr SA Full Sink on the TFO MiniMag 6/8 canon I got in to half a dozen of these feisty little guys and saw a few larger fish surfing the waves...I have high hopes for tomorrow morning!  With the forecast to be cloudy I have made the call that the beach is where I will be the next two days, then the weather should break and the kayak will get it's fill of the Intercoastal to chase redfish and specks.

Hope to have more fish pictures next time I boot up the box.  Until then...

-mike schmidt
http://www.anglerschoiceflies.com/

IL largie and ACF hitting the road

Got a great email from great friend and ACF customer Brian early on this week.  He had a big batch of flies show up a week ago and over the weekend got the opportunity to get out and give them a swim.  As he made his way around this central Illinois lake he got this largemouth to play along.  Great job Brian!

It has been a bit quiet around here lately as I have been tying as fast as I could to knock out orders before this weekend.  Here are a few of the last flies that got knocked out and are headed to northern Michigan and out to Alaska.  Hope to see some shots hanging out of the mouths of some massive kings!

The reason I have been hitting the vise so hard was to knock out every order on the books since this Friday the wife and I are headed to Florida for our annual trip.  It is a fantastic time down in New Smyrna each year as we are right on the beach, but only minutes from Canaveral Seashore and Mosquito Lagoon.  The kayak is coming along for the trip, so I hope to get it out quite a few times and chase around the trout and redfish. 

I will get a few shots up while I am down there and hope to have a bunch to share by the time I get back.  The shot above was one of my favorites from out on the lagoon last year.  Catch you soon!

-mike schmidt
http://www.anglerschoiceflies.com/

Smallies and a few flies

It is that time of year that the smaillies are on the pre-spawn feed so I made sure to get out last week and take advantage of that! Pretty much anything black or olive that is put in front of a fish will get attacked. The cold front that came through mid-week did make things a little tougher but there were still some players around.

I had recieved a call that a Canadian client, Galina, would be in town for a conference and was looking to get out on the water while she was stateside. Seemed like a great excuse to get away from the vise so we set it up to hit a local watershed for a few hours in the evening towards the end of the week. Galina has only been fly casting for a few weeks so when we hit the river there was a little instruction on how to deal with the current and avoid trees, then she got after it. By the end of the evening she was laying out 40-50 foot casts like she has been doing this for years!

It did not take long and she was in to her first smallmouth bass on a fly. Admittedly it was not a bruiser, but I think the smile says it all. Congratulations Galina!

She did get in to a nicer fish as well. It was a great evening for me to be out and wet a line with a new friend; certainly looking forward to next time.

It has continued to be a busy time at the vise. I am cranking hard to get everything knocked out before I head south. I am struggling to keep my focus as I head to Florida on the 11th for a few weeks tying oceanside and chasing redfish around in my kayak! Here are a few shots of flies that have gone out in the last few days.

I am looking forward to catching up with all my friends and clients that were on the water in Michigan for the opener last weekend. Once I do I will try to get a few shots up of the festivities.

-mike schmidt
http://www.anglerschoiceflies.com/

Castapalooza 2012

Over the weekend I headed north towards Erie to take part in the third annual Castapalooza. The event was held at Hidden Valley Metropark on the Grand River and looks to put rods in the hands of casters to give them a cast. While there were some single handed rods cast the focus seemed to be on spey and switch casting. Between Jerry Darkes and Jeff Liskay there were 3WT rods through 12WT rods, and pretty much every line from Scientific Angler to line them up with.

My small part in the event was to demo tie some swinging flies. I must say that at 38 degrees and raining it was likely among the most harsh conditions under which I have spent time at the vise. Throughout the day I tied up flies and wandered on down to the water to cast a few rods.

Down along the river there was plenty of space to cast despite the extremely low water.



Following the event I headed in to Pennsylvania to relax waterside for an evening before heading home. It was great to be able to recharge a bit and walk around with a 2WT at the ready.

Here are a few flies that went out over the week to chase some fish.



-mike schmidt
www.anglerschoiceflies.com

Striped Shiner, and other junk...

After spending a significant portion of the week at the vise I needed to get out and take a short break on Sunday to see about a fish. I knew there was a local river that was fishing good for smallies, but rather than spend an hour round trip on the road I decided to hit a closer watershed since I only had about two hours to spare. Nate came along with me and we found the smallie fishing awfully tough...likely a few weeks out still. Lucky for us there were caddis and Hennys coming off very regularly....and something was aggressively rising and taking the caddis. Never one to pass up an opportunity we clipped off the streamers, retied the leader, and rigged up a caddis dry with a beadhead dropper. A few casts in we landed to first of a handful of this prehistoric looking fish, the Striped Shiners! (Corrected per the below from JRenner, they were in fact not Hornyhead Chubs.

Until I saw the head I thought they were common creek chubs or maybe baby mirror carp, but the spikes around the top of the head gave them away. Evidently they are native to a few slow moving, small to mid-sized rivers with gravel and sand bottoms. I had seen them before and caught a few by accident, but never by intentionally casting dry flies to them. It was pretty cool!

I did get one little smallie to play nice. I will be back in a few weeks and expect to have a bit more action.

Early on in the week I knocked out eight dozen Shelbyville Specials. It is a neat little streamer that always seems to find fish.

Also knocked out some Red Rockets and Smoke Wagons to send east.

and what week is complete without spending some time tying Double Decievers...


Earlier in the week I got an email from Tyler Brown with a few pictures of a recent brown he brought to hand on a Mufasa. Great fish Tyler!



Also heard from good ACF friend, Mariano, down in Costa Rica. He made it out last week for some time chasing Machaca and connected with a few. The Machaca is reputed as one of the hardest pulling fish pound for pound and has a vicious take. They also feed at or near the surfcae so it is a very visual game...great fish on a fly!

Not one that you want to lip though...

-mike schmidt
http://www.anglerschoiceflies.com/