Fly Fishing Arctic Water

Fly fishing today a "hinged leader" that I make on a lake today that just thawed water was just above freezing-this is how it looked exactly a week ago. (Stay tuned for a future blog about making/customizing your own leaders.)

Three bass, which I normally turn my nose up about catching. But on a day the goal was avoiding a skunk, I was pleased to catch them. Especially this near keeper!

Then it happened. Gold. The fish that makes any day a complete success. The target species, today. Red ear! The difficult to catch adult red ear! This one already putting on his colors for the girls come April-May!

Don't think that just because the water is almost ice, fish can't scoot their booty. I was experimenting with all kinds of strip retrieves and this one ran down a ginger/flash jig head fly on a long and fast strip!