Hooks, Flies, and Ice

We have been spending a little bit of time tying flies this winter. We've learned a few new patterns from John Barr's book. Will is really good at coming up with his own ideas and here is one of them. He thought about calling it "The Cat" because it always lands upright when dropped into the water. We are pretty excited to see how the bass will like it as it pops across the water.

Testing to see how sharp the hook is isn't the funnest part, but it is necessary.
We fished on the Bear again this weekend. It was VERY cold, much colder than it looked. Even though the sun was shining, it still didn't take much for us to freeze. Will may have gotten sick. He hasn't been feeling 100% today. The rod guides kept getting ice in them and there was ice frozen near the bank of the river that we had to wade through. It was pretty fun to break the ice and see it float down the river in big chunks.


Catching a nice-sized rainbow (13") on a dry fly that I tied puts a big smile on my face!