Pelican yields bigness.

Adrian and Zach hit Pelican, and for all I know they only caught one fish all day long;)  Here it is.  It's worthy in my book.  That's the Spro Popping Frog, which is quicly becoming one of my favorites.

For the record, Zach spanked his old man in Zach fashion.  16 to 4.

Wrickittttty Wrecked...

There is no finesse in this story, but a well placed hole in a lawn claimed my ankle as it's own last week.  This is a pic one week after.  Swelling is down, but the nice colors are inspiring me to tie bass jigs in a nice junebug purple.

The medical term for this is "trashed," and I meet with the Ortho-Dudeness to determine my fate next week.

Disclaimers: I am not sponsored by Chaco.  I also just DON'T bruise...

Drop Shot King, Cheech, and the Ferrari.

Dropshot King:  Hey I'm breaking in my new Ferrari up at Jordanelle you want to go.

Cheech:  Dude, I just wrecked my ankle.  I can barely walk...  What time?

DSK:  Uhhh just leave your house whenever you get up in the morning...

(The two anglers meet at Jordanelle to find peace and tranquility the next morning)

(Cheech limps to the boat dock and scans the horizon for a black Ferrari boat)

(Cheech sees a 1,000 foot roostertail from across the lake)

(DSK rolls up in his new ride, and subsequently asks...)

DSK: so whadda you think?

Cheech:  Youch

What a day.  DSK is really Adrian, Cheech is really Cheech, and the Ferrari is a Phoenix with a 250 that will rip you out of your seat.  We rolled out for some smallies.  I farmed out the cookies whilst DSK checked fish for swine flu...  We have a confirmed case of the swine flu.  

  This fish began at 4 pounds when first caught, and I think it ended up at 8 pounds at the end of the day.  Right now, folks at home, the fish is a world record smallie.  Go out and throw for it...

Madman in This Is Fly

Czech it out!  www.thisisfly.com  

Turn to page 67.

Big props to Bryan G and Corey K for this bad boy.  

Big Trip #2. Snake River Demons.

So as explained here I decided to limit myself to two trips of epicness this year. Really, I didn't decide this, but my pocketbook sure did. This trip was to be one of constant fishing action for the red eyed demons and Crappie that cruise the Snake River on the Idaho / Oregon border. I was particularly jazzed for this one because I don't fish for smallies as much as I do for Largemouth, and I really wanted to try to hone some techniques. We left around mid-day Wednesday and drove for 7 hours up to Ontario, OR to stay at Le Hotelle Frito. Believe me, you will not find a more friendly staff anywhere in the world. Thursday didn't come soon enough, and when it did, we headed out for some famous donuts. I could live on those maple bars, and It was reconfirmed that Curtis' dad, Rudy Guliani, is THE most talented baker in this world. On to Brownlee Res where the smallie reports were hit and miss. I hit 3 times in about 12 hours. That is how hit and miss it was;) That was OK though because we wanted to catch the trillions and bazillions of Crappie that inhabit the lake. Curtis surely had the advantage with them as he was the only one fly fishing that day. I filmed him for about 5 minutes and I think he landed 7 Crappie on 6 casts at one point. It was phenomenal fishing, and I did the best with a micro dropshot rig. We decided to keep a "few" for some Crapacos (Crappie Tacos) for the evening snack. A "few" turned into about 75, and we stopped at wallies to grab an electric fillet knife before tackling that little job. Brian and I cut fish, and Curtis was le petit chef de le hotelle frito. That was seriously some of the best food I have eaten. It was a combination of being HUNGRY, and eating excellent, excellent food.









Off to bed to get about 5 hours of shut eye until the next outing. Days two and three took us to Oxbow Res. This was the reservoir that held the quantities of smallmouth that we were looking for. Brian got a good one his first cast, although he'd disagree every time I would say "that's a nice fish!" We were floating fast current in a 21' bass boat casting gear to smallies. It was weird. Down river quite a bit we found said quantities of fish, and they pretty much ate whatever we threw at them.





































The best baits were:

1- 3" Maniac Salt Stick in Green Pumpkin
2- Black Grape Roboworm on a drop shot rig.
3- White custom spinnerbait.
4- White Yum Houdini Shad
5- Yamamoto Shad Shaped Worm in smoke with black flake. Wacky rigged on a dropshot;)
6- Yamamoto senko 4" in smoke with black fleck

It was everything we thought it would be as far as numbers go. During certian times of day, if you weren't getting bit every cast, you were doing something wrong. Biggest fish was about 3 pounds, and one of the dinks of the trip came on Brian's jerkbait that was dern near as big as the fish it caught...

Biggest Fish of My Life.

Buffalo Bill came out to the pond to rattle a few fish with his favorite chatterbait.  He got several, so did I.  We didn't bring a camera like usual, but when I caught a 4+ pound LMB out came the camera phone.  I hate camera phones, but there is a time and a place.  Then it happened.  I was whacking the bass on a bluegill crankbait when this behemoth grass carp rolled on the surface before I even started retrieving.  I was worried for my carrot stick's life, but I loosened the drag enough to fight it effectively.  It finally gave in, and I used all my strength to lift it up.  That... was fun.  

Grass Carp were planted at the pond to control the weed issue.  They commonly go way over 30 pounds.  I don't even know how heavy this was, but I'm guessing that it was close to 50...

City Slickers.

The call came unexpectedly.  "Hey Cheech, we want you to take us fishing."  Nice.  My two younger bros finally got to that point in life that tells one that they must angle.  See, we didn't really have the fishing kind of dad.  However, if we would have showed any ambition to become a figure skater, we could have done that with mucho supporto.  Uncles who fish, yes, but we don't throw down Bud, so not too many fishing trips with them either.  Anyway, they just happened to have a friggin expert fisher for a brother, but he was unavailable, so they called me.  The plan was set for Pelican Lake because if any place is good for a bit o' bendo, it's up ta ol' Pelicans.  We were to fish from 6 am until the bite stopped.  Jer and his buddy Ty were in Jase's drift boat with me (thanks again Jase), and Nelson was in the pontoon boat with his lonesome.  Jase was nice enough to let us fish the boat while he fished out of his standing pontoon.  

Ty's first cast produced a huge 8" bass on a handcrafted spinnerbait made by the aforementioned expert brother.  Not another fish was taken on a spinnerbait by the slickers, so Jase finally led us in the right direction and told us to start flippin' tubes.  On went tubes.  Watching someone "try" to set the hook on a bass the first time is a popcorn-junior mint-eating spectacle.  Jer was quite funny as he almost jumped in the air whilst trying to bury steel into their lips.  I guess it didn't help that I had them set up with medium spinning gear, but still...  COME ON!  They ended up putting a few fish in the boat to boot.  I, on the other hand, was having decent luck flippin' beaverish baits.  I was dinkin' it up so I decided to throw a 10" worm.  Guess what... More dinks.  Frog...  More dinks.  Nelson outfished J and T pretty handily because he was on bluegill patrol, but Jase was the winner of the biggest and most fish categories.  

We fished until about 6 pm and we were beat, reddened by UV rays, and full of Mt. Dew.  They got to go to their beds, and I... I got to drive 4 hours home.  My bros are my very best friends, and it was really cool to spend a day with them in my element.  It was an EPICCCCK day in which skills were learned, fish were ripped, Dew was drunk, and The CITY WAS SLICKED!!!