Monthly Archives: July 2013

We hit the lake last weekend for a couple days of chasing some bass and panfish. The fish have moved into their summer patterns but there were still a few bass to be had in the shallows. I caught this bowfin on a variation of Rich Strolis’ Hog Snare just before dark in the canoe. He put up a great fight on the fly rod. I caught a good sunrise–but not much else– early the next morning. The mist and the super calm lake made a very picturesque morning.  Braden and I got out in the rowboat and fished docks for bass with spin rods later in the morning. He thought he snagged a log on his Rattle Trap, but then it started moving….he managed to land this beast of a 20″ bass after a good battle in the weeds. We paddled up the creek a few times to the outlet of another…

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After a long, wet spring full of high water here in Minnesota, summer’s low, clear water and hot bronzeback fishing has finally set in. Here is one of my top flies for summer smallmouth bassin’ – Murray’s Strymph. As the name implies, it is a crossover of a streamer and a nymph. It is deadly both dead drifted like a nymph or stripped like a minnow through a fishy hole. The Strymph was created by Virginia smallmouth expert Harry Murray. It’s a great pattern for wary summer smallmouth in low, clear water. Small stream bronzebacks like them tied in #8 to #12; their big water cousins like them a little larger. I’ve had a lot of success this past season fishing a black strymph tied on a small streamer hook. The smallmouth love them! Hook: #4-12 streamer Thread: Black 6/0 UNI Tail: Ostrich herl (I like mine with a few…

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As we started the hot, demanding hike down the steep canyon walls, I wondered if it would be worth it. I’d been here only once before, and caught brown trout, but that was in the cool weather of September when the trout were quite active, not the smothering heat of a July afternoon. Other rivers around here shut down in the midsummer heat, and I was worried I might find a similar situation down in the valley. But the thought of having a beautiful stretch of water all to ourselves was enough to make up my mind. Most people don’t think of the Driftless Area having a “backcountry”. It’s certainly not the vast tracts of unbroken wilderness you’d find out West, but there are definitely remote, unpressured waters deep in the Driftless wilderness that seldom see a fly or a fisherman. A few have trails, but most require an often difficult bushwack…

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