Chronicles of a Fly fishing Kid

Lockout Continues

2011-10-09T20:14:00.002-04:00

http://vimeo.com/30071605 - check it

FFTA Lock Out-153rd day

2011-09-23T19:42:00.005-04:00

Have to keep it limited or FFTA might also force me to change my name to Toby, but im doing what i can. Here's a draft of a paragraph that I wrote about my first day out steelheading for english.

I lagged behind my dad and our fishing guide, as we followed a trail thronged with protruding roots and stray rocks. My wading pants drooped on my wiry frame, making it a challenge to dodge the obstacles of the trail and not trip on my oversized pants and boots. In fear of making a bigger fool out of myself, I kept my gaze on my feet, limiting me from seeing the budding oak and maple trees that composed this Spring Ohio forest. The trees ahead of us began to thin, while the sight of the river and its loyal fisherman became more defined. The river tumbled over boulders, ran fast and shallow, merged with a creek, and then became slow and deep again to create the long run, which will always be etched in my mind. The crisp air from the tumbling of the water cleared my head, while my legs felt numb from trudging against the oncoming cool water. I had never seen a steelhead before, but as I stood elbow to elbow with my fellow fishermen, I could see these chrome sided fish stacked head to tail throughout the whole run. Hearing splashes behind me, I turned to the parallel creek to see even more steelhead chasing and fighting each other off the spawn bed. Unfortunately, this was my first day for steelhead ever, because not only did I have no idea what to do, I will be forever spoiled.

FFTA Lock Out-145th day

2011-09-15T20:44:00.011-04:00

If you were expecting some posts over the past couple months, cant blame tammy, blame the ffta. They are trying to mess my vibe up. Heres a little something something to satisfy your desires.

http://huntfishguide.blogspot.com/2011/05/browns-browns-and-big-rainbow.html

check this vid out

2011-04-23T12:43:00.001-04:00

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yv15svR3hSg&feature=player_embedded

Elk Creek/Swinging vs. Nymphing

2011-03-17T11:37:00.006-04:00

For my birthday, I only asked for a camera to make videos, and I was fortunate enough to get a HD flip video camera. So, during our first outting on Elk Creek, my dad and I recorded some shots of the trip. Late last night, I came up with the idea that I should do a voice-over, consisting of the material that I was going to post; consequently, I would get "2 birds with 1 stone", combining the video with my post. So here is my first video post, which focuses on the swinging and nymphing debate.

http://www.youtube.com/user/thekidtyhughes?feature=mhum

The Lost Posts pt.1

2011-02-27T18:51:00.017-05:00

Well, it's been a long long time, since i've made a post. I know most of my original followers have hopped off the Ty Hughes Bandwagon, but rest assure I'll always be fishing. This fall has been rough to say the least, 6 classes and 6 days a week of football has left me beyond tired. Then, right after midterm, I got a bad concussion, and I've been out for 3 months, missing all of basketball season and falling behind in school. Luckily, I've now caught up with all my work, and I feel almost back to normal. After studying all weekend for my exams, my friend, who runs flybible.blogspot.com (check it out, he posts a lot more than me too), encouraged me to make another post so I don't lose all my followers. So here is the first half of the lost posts.

Colorado

Colorado is like California's younger brother. It has the fruits and the nuts, abundant cannabis shops, double rainbows (yes, i saw a double rainbow) but more interesting to me, the fishing is excellent. Back in Janurary of 2010, my dad made a steal on a condo in Telluride, deciding that it would be a great family trip, which it was. We went out a few times, fishing the San Miguel, the Uncompahgre and some rivers in the Rocky Mountain national park near Denver. The San Miguel, which is still recovering from mining effects, had a healthy population of wild fish. Before, I fished the miguel, I thought that there was no difference between wild and stocked fish, but after that first Miguel bow, my mind immeaditely changed. The fish weren't huge, but they fought against the heavy currents as if they were twice as big.

Here's some pics from the Miguel

The Uncompahgre was my favorite of all, mostly because there were some monster fish, browns and bows. It was a wide, shallow, clear river, so the fish were literally stuck to structure. I remember when I lost focus and drifted under a submerged branch, I thought I got snagged up to the branch. So i tried to break off my fly, and to my surprise, the angry bow shot up stream with my fly. I also won't remember this one monster rainbow. It was at least a 20 inch bow jumping out completely out of the water for the dry. Doing my best impersonation of mike pawalski, I missed the strike like a bum.

Here's some pics of the fish i didn't lose.

And I'm mugging, because i love brown trout, so don't come at me sideways.

The Rocky Mountain national park reminded me of Yellowstone. Like yellowstone, there were some rivers in the dense forests, and difficult spring creeks flowing through open plains. According to Orvis fishing reports, it was supposed to be red hot, but the only red hot thing was my face when i realized that the fishing was not red hot. I was expecting the fish to be going Ichiro Suzuki and hitting everything, but this was not the case. The one image in my mind that goes along with that 20 inch bow that i missed, is this one spring creek monster brown. He was right in the shadow of the undercut, big kype and just completely b.m.f. looking. I was throwing a sz. 16 slate colored parachute adams. I must have put 10 perfect casts over him, and he finally ate. I set the hook, he rolled, and the 7x broke. He would've made a hell of a picture.

No fish worthy pictures, just a beautiful landscape shot

All around, colorado was a good spot, for a family destination, and for some nice fishing. Lost Posts part 2 is coming soon, it'll be my opinions on swinging vs nymphing for steelhead.

shout out to m and m, you're the best

Another Slow Ohio Summer

2010-08-25T15:44:00.010-04:00

Fly fishing Northeastern Ohio tributaries in the summer is like the way Jim Thome runs, its pretty slow. The prime season for our lake erie run Smallmouth Bass is around mid spring to early june, and of course I got back from school in mid june. Smallmouth are the perfect fish for the fly rod. They are not afraid of anything and will hit almost any fly thrown at them. Adding to their willingness to take the fly, I'm sure that if they were boxers they would have the highest pound for pound rating of all time. The other game fish in Ohio tribs. are the elusive carp. I have read numerous articles on how to catch carp, watched youtube videos, and I have even bought a dvd on these fish, but these carp are not like your local carp. They only feed at the crack of dawn and after sunset. If they see you, hear you or feel your vibrations, the whole group will completely shut off. I know that people say that carp are good training for bonefish, but for me these ohio carp are more difficult to hook up with than bonefish. In 2 summers of fishing for carp I have hooked 5 and I've caught 3 fish. Out of the 3 times I've been out for bonefish, I've had 2 chances, and I caught 1. The other thing to consider is that these carp litter these rivers, maybe 50+ fish in a single pool. 20 pound carp straight up chilling in the river teasing every angler that sees it.

P.S. those are two different smallies that I caught on the same day

Late Spring Steelhead

2010-04-29T11:36:00.007-04:00

In the Great Lakes Region, most fishermen put their steelhead rods down way too early. When the season has passed its peak, people think that the season is over. Contrary to common beliefs, some of my best fishing days have been when the season is so called "over". Last weekend was one of those days. The water was extremely low, so the holding fish weren't hard to spot, but the fish were far and in between. On both Friday and Sunday, we found a pod of about 20-30 fish throughout a run. Some in the tailout, and some were at the head. Between My dad and I, we might've caught or atleast hooked up with every fish in the run. We threw everything from eggs, the no fail stonefly to a gummy larvae pattern that I thought no steelies would ever hit. Some fish were beat-up post spawn fish, but a majority of the fish were fresh run drag busting steelhead. I got in and I went hard.

Montana/Idaho Fishing Trip

2010-04-24T09:03:00.010-04:00

Last summer I went to a fly fishing camp in Wyoming. The camp sucked. Out of the 2 weeks the camp was in session, I went fishing 7/14 days. I expected fishing everyday, all day, but the camp was simply not well facilitated. I made up for the lost fishing days with my dad on our fishing trip to the Henry's Fork the following week. We stayed at The Trouthunter, which was a nice lodge with amazing food. We fished the upper Henry's Fork for small cutts and bows. We fished Hebgen Lake for the infamous "gulpers". Rainbows and Browns, who would sip on calibaetis mayflies on the glassy smooth lake. It was like fishing on the flats for 20" trout. My Favorite river we fished was the Madison. Technical nymphing and dry flying in a beautiful river and scenery. I'll never forget the fish that I lost during nightfall as it ran straight across the river and ran up stream into my backing. The fish wrapped my line around one of the many rocks in the Madison, and my trophy was gone. Last but not least we fished the world renowned Henry's Fork. We caught chunky fish in the box cannon, as well as got harshly rejected by the Harriman Ranch Rainbows. My trip at The Trouthunter was the perfect fishing trip that I would be lucky to go on again.

Here's some of the best pics

First Bonefish

2010-04-16T21:59:00.010-04:00

Bone fishing is like kissing to a teenage boy. Everybody talks about it like its easy, but in reality its not as easy as people say(this is implying if you have good taste). And once you get it, you feel like a boss. My first bonefish came on a last shot opportunity. I was in the Bahamas, and my flight was leaving that afternoon. I woke up at the crack of dawn in hopes to catch the silver bullet. As my time was running down, I spotted 2 fish coming across the flat. I threw out a bomb, by far the longest cast I've ever thrown. I felt a thump, gave a strip-set, looked up and bam. The fish flew off across the flat. I looked at my reel and saw my backing for the first time. 2 more similar runs was all the fish had, and soon I held the fish in my hands. For a while I couldn't believe that it was true. It seemed too good to be true, it must've been a dream. A silver dream for the silver bullet.

Ohio Steelhead

2010-04-11T19:08:00.014-04:00

My favorite freshwater fish is the steelhead. Steelhead-fishing is the best freshwater fishing hands down. The screaming runs that they make, the aggressiveness of one hitting your streamer, and the aerobatic leaps they make are incomparable with any other fish in freshwater. Fishing for great lakes steelhead is different than most people assume. Instead of fishing for steelies on 100 foot wide rivers, us great lakes fishermen fish for Steelhead in 50 foot wide rivers that average at 3-4 feet deep. The smallness of great lake tributaries makes our fishing more of a stalking game. During the spring when you can see fish holding in pools and runs, it becomes a game of "stalk your prey". Wild vs. Hatchery is always a common occurring argument, but I am just happy to have a good opportunity to catch a 25 inch trout every time I step in the river. In reality, who wouldn't want to catch a wild steelhead. Either way I have been one of the most fortunate fishermen to grow up on steelhead, because they truly are the cream of the crop.

Here are some of the best pics from the last steelhead season.

Give back, practice proper catch and release.

The Beginning

2010-04-06T09:30:00.004-04:00

With a good idea from my Mom I have decided to start the blog. My dream is to make a living out of fishing, make fishing movies or host a fishing show like Larry Dahlberg or Mike Pawalaski. Basically, I want to become the next fly fishing personality like Joan Wulff, Lefty Kreh or Bob Clouser. However the chances of this happening are very slim, so in reality I will probably seek a white collar profession, because if I became a guide my mom would probably beat me to death. So in hopes of my dream, this blog will get my young fly fishing career rolling.

P.S. I will hopefully give an update every time I go fishing, however I haven't gone fishing in a while due to my current situation (boarding school), so for the first posts I will just show old pictures and tell stories of the past.