Midwesterners!

[Mark Patenaude]

Thought my fellow trout fishers would like this one.

I post to a board here in Illinois that focuses on fishing for Smallies.

A topic came up about fishing a dry/dropper rig and I made some suggestions which included throwing the rig with an open loop, which is also required for any tandem rig, despite giving up some accuracy.

This yahoo answered saying that due to the necessity for casting accuracy needed for Smallies he could only recommend a tamdem rig being used for trout... Wow!!!

Just goes to show, when you haven't cut your teeth on the freestones fishing for trout, your fly fishing IQ is about 3.

More casting accuracy needed blind fishing to possible holding water for Smallies than to a trout with a visibility window of about 2' in all directions while the fish endeavors to stay within their feeding lie in conflicting flows...

I'm debating on whether I should launch a full frontal attack on the knucklehead.

[bartman]

Hey Mark,

Just checking in. Haven't thought about flyfishing much as its darn cold here in NY. We've been ice fishing every weekend. Two weeks ago we were out in the ADKs at -15 degrees, last week -5 degrees and yesterday we were out in 30mph winds. I'm looking forward to spring in a big way.

As far as smallies, they must have some pretty sophisticated bass out there because the ones I fish for in the Hudson will ambush my crayfish pattern from about 10 feet away. No accuracy needed!

[Mark Patenaude]

bartman!!!

Long time/no hear from you.

You got some big brass ones if you are out ice fishing this winter.

I'm always thinking about fly fishing. That guy just pissed me off with the way he structured his response. The Smallies you fish for are the same as the ones here and don't require alot of accuracy. A nice mohair leech pattern dead drifted and then swung (blindly I might add) will usually do it.

Stay warm!

Mark