Day 365

This is the 365th day of Bows and Browns.  It started with a family trip to Birmingham,  a dislike of football and shopping, some free time, and Wi-Fi. 

Happy Thanksgiving!

Click here to read my first post.

Lamson Konic Review

I have had the opportunity to fish this 4wt Lamson Konic 3 times in the last 3 weeks.  I'm diggin it. It's Lamson's least expensive reel, but I quickly understood why Lamson has a stellar reputation.    It seems to balance well with the Scott A3 8.5 4 weight I am fishing it on.  It just feels right. It is a true mid-large arbor reel, and picks up line quickly.  The drag is fine tunable, and when I pull line of the reel, the spool moves and stops easily on command.  It doesn't take a strong tug to get it going, nor does it continue to spin after I've stopped pulling. It reacts proportionally to the power I put into it.

Fishing primarily small streams in WNC, a reel has never been a huge priority to me when fishing for trout.  However, if you have a fish 16 inches or larger on, the reel suddenly becomes important. This reel gives me confidence handling big fish, and has already worked 4 fish over the 16 inch range well. 

As always, I didn't spend full retail on this piece of equipment. I caught it at a going out of business sale for $99 instead of $125. It's the best reel I've ever owned. It out performs the Ross Flyrise I have ($100 reatil, I paid $80) and the Reddington Redfly 2 ($80, and a gift). I do like both the Flyrise and Redfly 2, but I think the Lamson and is worth the extra.

** A year and a half later and I like the reel even more.  It has been durable, and the o-ring system to remove the spool is intriguingly simple. If you firmly push the spool out from the drag side of the reel, it slides right off. If you try to pull from the spindle side, its locked on tight. No buttons needed.  You can easily change right to left hand reel from there, and tighten the drag mechanism if needed.

Trouthood Obesity

The following trout are obese. I allowed them to get some exercise by impaling themselves on my flies and freakin' out at the end of my line.  Just doing my part to crack down on over eating trout.

I think this female was full of eggs

Gut full of something

I fished the Davidson Friday. It was 28 degrees at sunrise, but by the time I arrived with me friends at 9 it was probably low 40's. The water was low and clear, at about 40cfs. The red midge, veiled egg, and a birds nest hairs ear all provided fish. 20 or more were brought to hand in about 5 hours of fishing. I had two browns on that where over twenty, but one spit the hook and the other broke me off. The joys of 7x tippet. I was glad to land more fish than lose in these low water conditions, because I have definitely had low water days where it was tough to keep them on.

Here is a red i found on the D. The browns are spawning.

The day for before I was able to get on a small wild stream for a bit.  With the cooler water, the fish seemed to be spread out in different parts of the stream and not all in the deeper runs. It was in the low fifties, mostly cloudy sky. Picked up fish on a big copper wire stonefly and a red copper john. Here are some pictures.

Charles the trout tickler 

View back towards the foothills

Southern Culture on the Fly

It's a new publication.  I haven't read it all yet but it looks promising.

http://southerncultureonthefly.com/scof_fall2011.html




Here is carp a video a friend put together from this issue.

http://www.southerncultureonthefly.com/carp_mp.html

Ross Flycast reel review

I recently purchased a Ross Flycast reel for a 4 weight Scott A3 rod.  I own a Ross Flyrise that I am pleased with, and mistakenly thought I was buying the same reel in a different size.  The Flycast retails for around $80 where the Flyrise retails for close to $100.

Ross Flyrise

Ross Flycast

The Flycast is no where near the quality of the Flyrise in my opinion.  It doesn't reel as smoothly, it's made of cheaper material, and it looks cheap.  It was advertised as a mid-arbor reel, but seems like a run of the mill small fly reel.  I have been pleased with my Flyrise, and Ross customer service was excellent on a repair caused from a fall on the river, however, the Flycast is probably more comparable to Ross' entry level Flystart reel than the Flyrise.  The Flycast does not pair well with my Scott A3.  It feels kind of like having hub caps on a BMW.  I am going to sell the Ross Flycast, and have already purchased a Lamson Konic that I have yet to hold (20% off, $99)

 I rarely pay full price for anything, and bought the Flyrise on sale for $80 a year ago, and the Flycast for $50 off of ebay.  Honestly, for fifty bucks, it's not a bad reel, but I don't think it is worth $80. I think I would buy the Okuma Sierra reel before the Ross Flycast, and you can pick them up for around $50.  I'll let you know what I think of the Lamson Konic when I get to fish and review it.

Lamson Konic

Best Catch Ever

Trophies

The fam went for a quick fall hike after church.  I squeezed in 30 minutes of delayed harvest (stocked, catch and release this time of year) fishing just off the parking lot that we hiked from. Blair and I picked up some nice pictures along the way.

We hiked past some wild water on the way to our destination. I didn't fish it today, but we took some photos.

toxic