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Federation of Fellow Fly-Fishing Football Fanatics

FlyFishingHusker said:
Hi all- new member and I thought I'd jump in and introduce myself. I joined for the football discussion and was so (pleasantly!) surprised to find there's a whole hunting/fishing forum- full of fly fishers, no less! I haven't had time to browse through this whole thread (on my lunch break), but look forward to doing so.

I got in to fly fishing about 4 years ago when my dad gifted me a starter set that he won in a raffle. Since then I've really fallen in love with the sport. I live in St. Louis, MO so there are tons of great spring-fed rivers within a 1.5-2.5 hr drive to fish for trout and even more spots for smallmouth.

I only do a little bit of tying, but I would like to get into that more as I do enjoy it.

I currently fish a 9 ft 5 wt Orvis Encounter (their basic starter setup) and it has served me well, but I'm looking into a new set up. Trying to decide between an 8 wt for throwing streamers or a 3 wt Euro nymphing rig. Leaning more in the Euro rig direction, but would appreciate gear recommendations for either. Lucky to have 2 great fly shops in St. Louis- Feather Craft and T. Hargroves.

Tight lines to you all! I'll leave you with my favorite recent fly fishing meme:

View attachment 45431
Click to expand...

Welcome!
 

My kids restarted daycare on Monday. I decided to take advantage of that, and a lack of telemeetings Wednesday morning for a quick trip up into the mountains.

IMG_4388_r.jpeg


It was COLD early on!

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IMG_4390_r.jpeg
 
FlyFishingHusker said:
Hi all- new member and I thought I'd jump in and introduce myself. I joined for the football discussion and was so (pleasantly!) surprised to find there's a whole hunting/fishing forum- full of fly fishers, no less! I haven't had time to browse through this whole thread (on my lunch break), but look forward to doing so.

I got in to fly fishing about 4 years ago when my dad gifted me a starter set that he won in a raffle. Since then I've really fallen in love with the sport. I live in St. Louis, MO so there are tons of great spring-fed rivers within a 1.5-2.5 hr drive to fish for trout and even more spots for smallmouth.

I only do a little bit of tying, but I would like to get into that more as I do enjoy it.

I currently fish a 9 ft 5 wt Orvis Encounter (their basic starter setup) and it has served me well, but I'm looking into a new set up. Trying to decide between an 8 wt for throwing streamers or a 3 wt Euro nymphing rig. Leaning more in the Euro rig direction, but would appreciate gear recommendations for either. Lucky to have 2 great fly shops in St. Louis- Feather Craft and T. Hargroves.

Tight lines to you all! I'll leave you with my favorite recent fly fishing meme:

View attachment 45431
Click to expand...
I euro nymph quite a bit and I have the 10foot 6inch 4 weight echo shadow II. The extra length really helps to mend and cast and it is a lot cheaper than most other options. I am not big on high end reals for trout as I think it is generally over kill. About any floating fly line will do but i do have the airflo euro nymph line which I don't think is much better than any other floating line as you do not cast the line but rather your leader. The leader is really important and there are a number of recipes out there. My standard one is 17 feet of 10lb maxima (mono), 12 to 18 inches of neon red/green mono siter material to a tippet ring (not necessary but makes for easier leader change), then fluorocarbon tippet (the leader)in the length desired for fishing conditions.
 



FlyFishingHusker said:
Hi all- new member and I thought I'd jump in and introduce myself. I joined for the football discussion and was so (pleasantly!) surprised to find there's a whole hunting/fishing forum- full of fly fishers, no less! I haven't had time to browse through this whole thread (on my lunch break), but look forward to doing so.

I got in to fly fishing about 4 years ago when my dad gifted me a starter set that he won in a raffle. Since then I've really fallen in love with the sport. I live in St. Louis, MO so there are tons of great spring-fed rivers within a 1.5-2.5 hr drive to fish for trout and even more spots for smallmouth.

I only do a little bit of tying, but I would like to get into that more as I do enjoy it.

I currently fish a 9 ft 5 wt Orvis Encounter (their basic starter setup) and it has served me well, but I'm looking into a new set up. Trying to decide between an 8 wt for throwing streamers or a 3 wt Euro nymphing rig. Leaning more in the Euro rig direction, but would appreciate gear recommendations for either. Lucky to have 2 great fly shops in St. Louis- Feather Craft and T. Hargroves.

Tight lines to you all! I'll leave you with my favorite recent fly fishing meme:

View attachment 45431
Click to expand...

If you'd like to borrow one of my extra rods, you're welcome to do so. I have every weight rod from 2wt to 11wt, and I have multiples of all but the 11wt. For a Euro rod, I've ended up with an actual European rod: 10' 4wt AmmaLa Scorpion euro nymphing rod from Germany. They cut their line of fly rods a couple years back, and I spoke with a guy at the company about buying one of their last in stock. I use it for all trout fishing except big streamers and tiny dry flies. I had a few others before. I wouldn't go shorter than 10' or heavier than 4 wt, leaning towards 3 or 2 wt. I have an acquaintance in MO who wraps and finishes what should be about $300-400 rods, usually selling them for about $125. Let me know if you want to chat with him: great guy. I'd recommend fishing with someone else's Euro rod first, if at all possible so that you more fully understand why you want such a light and long rod.

If you want to borrow an 8 wt, let me know. I have some extra Cabela's rods you could use. I mostly use (including today on the way home from work in crazy strong winds) a 10' 8wt Greys fly rod for bass of all shapes and sizes. It's ALWAYS windy here, so I use the same rod even for bluegills and crappies. If you want a great new fly rod without costing a lot, take a long, hard look at the Fenwick AETOS. You can get them new for around $150 with a lifetime warranty, and the rod consistently scores near the top in fly rod shootout comparisons.

I could go on. Ask questions if you want more info.
 




We're so used to thinking about the impact of invasive species here in the US, but there often isn't much discussion about what invasive species from North America have done elsewhere. I got to discuss this with a riparian ecologist a few years back, and he said that bluegills and bass are the two species most commonly introduced that take over fisheries in other countries. It's not hard to imagine why. Though few complain about them, rainbow trout are another species that has pretty much conquered the world. If reading about that interests you, I highly recommend An Entirely Synthetic Fish:

 
Middle-aged_Ball_Coach said:
We're so used to thinking about the impact of invasive species here in the US, but there often isn't much discussion about what invasive species from North America have done elsewhere. I got to discuss this with a riparian ecologist a few years back, and he said that bluegills and bass are the two species most commonly introduced that take over fisheries in other countries. It's not hard to imagine why. Though few complain about them, rainbow trout are another species that has pretty much conquered the world. If reading about that interests you, I highly recommend An Entirely Synthetic Fish:

Click to expand...


It's an interesting topic of conversation.

I'm going to get the years wrong, but I'm thinking it was early 80's, anyway.....Colorado had an environmental group that was petitioning for removal of all non native species and reintroduction of only native fish to all public bodies of water in Colorado. For trout, that would mean only the Native Cutthroat. Rough fish included Whitefish, the Squawfish (not sure what they'd call that now), suckers, chubs, etc. Not much worth fishing for other than the Cutt's and Whitefish, though indians used to catch and smoke the Squawfish (which would grow quite large).

The movement didn't go much of anywhere, but there was some heated debate about it for a few years.
 




WestTexasHusker said:
you live near there? What do you catch in the small streams? That is fun fishing - no stress!
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I'm in Los Alamos, so it's only a ~30 minute drive to get to a few streams like this one. They get pretty good pressure though considering their small size. Mostly browns, but they do stock every once and a while with triploid rainbows. Supposedly you can happen across a cutt if you're in the right spot, but I haven't found them yet. I just got into fly fishing last summer and haven't had a chance to get out to waters in the eastern mountains. Definitely want to though. There are some good brook trout streams northeast of where I am too that I want to check out.
 
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