Any Interest in a Fly Fishing Leader Board?

[DanMarino]

Didn't know if guys on here wanted to keep track of the largest and smallest fish caught on the fly rod in 2020? Would be kinda fun to see examples of small and large fish by species and the types of flies people had success with.

I think there are a few fly fishermen on here and hopefully those numbers can grow in 2020.

Tom

[Mark]

Tom,

I'd play. I had some good kayak fish on the fly last year in (for me) limited outings including a 20 inch largemouth at Centennial Lake. It hit an olive-colored bluegill popper. I caught several 24 inch pickerels on articulated streamers in two Eastern Shore ponds and my first ever pike (near 23 inches) hit a blue foam fly rod popper intended for bass in an Adirondack pond. I caught some real nice 24 to 26 inch TX redfish too on small shrimp pattern fly but I wasn't in a kayak for those. Great pullage regardless.

I didn't catch one legal striper in my kayak all year with a fly rod or spinning gear. Nor did I catch a decent white perch on the fly either. I don't think I ever crossed 10 inches despite bringing a good number to the kayak in Weems and the Bodkin. Most that I caught on the fly hit blue over white or yellow over white Clousers.

And for whatever reason I could not break the 8 inch barrier for bluegills despite catching enough to lose count. It was one 8 inch clone after another no matter what I used from wooly buggers to foam spiders to small foam poppers. Our 2019 FSFF contest winner exceeded 9 inches. I wasn't even close. Finally, I caught an 11.5 inch black crappie on a yellow over white Clouser on my last Eastern Shore pond outing which was 12/27/19, almost a month ago! I think that was the largest crappie I caught last year. Unfortunately, I haven't been on the water since.

So when I get up and running in 2020, I'll be glad to participate.

[J. Rentch]

Put me in also Tom, sounds like fun. Don’t think there will be much on the Striper area this summer.

[DanMarino]

Great, I’ll make sure to bring a measuring device more often and post my interesting catches in this thread.
I hope to target largemouth bass, smallmouth bass, bluegills, and perhaps my first ever OBX saltwater fish on the fly (red fish, speckled trout, striper, or flounder). I always end up catching a bunch of fallfish too. Haha

[Mark]

Sounds good, Tom.

Each of the fish you mentioned will readily hit a fly. Don't forget that you have opportunities here in MD to catch those same fish plus you can add white perch and bluefish to the list. True, you'd have better chances in southern Bay and OBX waters for the first two species you listed. But here in the mid-Bay region it's rare that a summer white perch outing does not also produce a few schoolie stripers. They swim together in the shallows at that time of year.

My only flounder on the fly came from the shoreline of Hog Island near Kent Narrows. I was fishing a Clouser for stripers when it I caught it. It wasn't large. In fact, a guy in a nearby boat saw me pull it in and shouted to me, "that's a big white perch". He was surprised when I told him what it was. But I was happy to catch a flounder on the fly even if it was a little guy.

John Rentch caught a real nice channel cat on the fly last year in a Severn creek. That's one species I have not caught on a flyrod.

However in FL I have caught some odd flyrod catches: gag grouper, gafftopsail catfish, sheepshead, pinfish and lizardfish to name a few. Lots species swim on the flats in warm southern waters and I suspect the same is true at OBX.

So we may get some interesting flyrod species listed here.

[DanMarino]

I'm headed to the OBX this weekend and brought my measuring device! Hope to get the fly rod out for a day or two and hopefully start document some fish lengths.

[Mark]

Good for you, Tom.

You picked a nice weekend to go. We're finally getting blast of winter temperatures.

I kept my fish-a-month 2020 intact with a nice LM bass from Smithville Lake this past Wednesday. Got it on the fly too, a bullethead darter. But I didn't think to measure it so I have no official entry on our board yet.

Have a great trip. I hope you show us some good catches.