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Manual de Lanzado
Sección de Carlos
The Downloads

Falsecast

Monday: Paul Arden
Tuesday: Harps
Wednesday: Bernd Ziesche
Thursday: Mr T.
Friday: Ray
Saturday: Viking Lars
Sunday: Bruce Richards

Ronan's report

Now for many of you the thought of anything other than a hooked trout may be disturbing, ok, but its the name of the game casting a fly for a hook up.

What has this to do with Bullfrogs you might ask, well l will tell you.

First we both have a common interest. We cast flies to catch fish and the Bullfrog catches flies to eat.

Some years ago Dave Whitlock and l did a float on the Buffalo river, here in Arkansas, mainly fishing for smallmouth bass and sunfish. At that time l had never seen a wild Bullfrog, could not believe how large they were either. Well Dave tells me we could catch em with the fly rod if you could make a very accurate cast, and l mean a very accurate cast. The secondary deal here is also frog legs are good to eat, taste like chicken !!

The fly used is a popping bug, or a very bushy dry, or something along those lines. These frogs sit along side the shorelines waiting for prey, they are also amazingly fast at catching bugs. I have watched them catch dragonflies, try that one yourself.

First locate your frog and do not spook them, they can jump in a hurry and a long way if needed. Most casts are going to be within 20ft, all be it l have hooked some further than that. The trick is to land the fly at the frogs feet or just in front of it. The reaction of the frog is pretty fast and so needs to be your hook set or they will spit the fly in a hurry.

Once hooked be prepared for acrobats, with babless hooks the frog can be released unharmed. Actually l have a fondness for these guys never killed a wild one but have eaten legs in restaurants, cant say l am over fussed on them, rather have a good steak. Anyways I caught wild frogs and introduced them to my ponds l had dug. I now have a healthy population, one of which pictured here chose to leave the pond some 30 yards from the back door and come visit me at the back door this evening, he had figured out that my back door light attracted bugs. This guy is big, at least a couple of pounds in weight.

After weeks of no rain, garden crops, trees and plants dying and temps in the high 90s, low water on the river at last today we had a heavy rain, so refreshing. Everything comes back to life, all be it tomorrow will be humid and hot, not comfortable to say the least.

Fishing despite the heat has been great. The best of the sulphur hatches are done with. Lower water flows with no generation provides for us great dry fly fishing with terrestrials, hoppers, ants, and generics such as GRHE, Elk hair, Adams, and a few UK favorites of mine such as the Baby sun fly, Black Gnat, Cock-Y-Bonddu, Kites Imperial, Tups indispensable and the dogsbody, which l think is a very underestimated fly, its a killer in small sizes.

Wet fly and soft hackle fishing also comes into play here which often results in some very large Browns obliging at times, l mean 25ins plus fish. Kind of a good getaway from the heavy deepwater nymph rigs we have to use when we see high water generations, all be it you are fishing with a fly its not what fly fishing is all about, these rigs can be fished with a spin caster at the end of the day.

Have a great week all and next time you eat frog legs think about what l have written here.

Davy.

Pic Of Day

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