My Best Fish Of '22 20Dec22

As typical, I provide a roundup of my best fish of the year. Here are the top 13 (there was a late year 11th landing in Colorado and two big fish in New Zealand).

20" Male Cutbow On Ark @ PT Mar22

19.5" Male Cutbow On Ark @ PT Mar22

21" Cutbow On SPLatte @ 11Mile Mar22

20" Male Cutbow On Ark @ PT Mar22

21" Redfish @ Rockport, TX Mar22

22+" Cutbow On Ark @ PT Apr22

21" Cutbow On Ark @ PT Apr22

23.5" Cutbow On SPlatte @ 11Mile Jun22

Triple On Gore Ck Aug22

22+" Cutbow On Blue @ Green Mtn Oct2

22" Slab Male Cutbow On Arkansas @ NC Dec22

25" 5+# Brown In New Zealand On Baton Dec22

Another 25" 5+# Brown In New Zealand On Baton Dec22

Updating The Rodfather Redfish Attack System 30Sep22

I learned on our trip with Haine to Rockport last March for redfish that the Rodfather Redfish, while a great rod, could not be cast well with the Aoka XS 7.8 loaded with SA WF8F line. The rod is just too strong with a measured intrinsic power of 3320 grains. The head of the SA line I had attempted to use was just 2730 grains. I borrowed Rob's reel & WF9F Orvis line and it was dreamy. Others thought so too. So, I repurposed the Aoka 7.8 onto the Rodfather Colorado, now gone ~ lost in the parking area of the Blue River below Green Mtn Rez, RIP.  I acquired an Aoka XS 9.10 reel, in a rod-match teal, as well as some Rio Winter Redfish line in WF9F, with a 3840 grain head. The new system is a skosh heavier but balances great and shoots quickly and like a demon ~ I wasn't able to not shoot to the end of my spare line. I am now fully reloaded for more spring TX Redfish. Weekend celebrations via the Cerebral NEIPA Plate Tectonics.

 

Redfish On The Fly ~ Op Cobra Kai ~ CoWW In Rockport, TX 03Apr22-06Apr22

Five SoCO fly fisherman boarded a plane for Texas and grabbed rides to Rockport for some redfish on fly rods from the gulf flats. This is a known challenging sport but our 6th, bro Haine, set us up with the best redfish fly fishing guides in south Texas and an AirBnB to match. We were very excited to arrive on Sun night after having stopped for provisions; this'd be the first time on saltwater for many of us and to do it with fly rods in hand, a deep seated need for us, was great. We had some beers, bobbed in our own private pool (& the canal), shaved heads in solidarity with Yvette, ate Rob's killer gumbo, and otherwise readied for Operation Cobra Kai to start in earnest.

We ate eggs your style and fruit every day from the CoWW house chefs. We met our 3 guides early at Conn Brown Harbor for a foray into Redfish Bay and Aransas Bay and the "lakes" and flats thereabout. Jeff took Rob & me, Sean took Matt & Rick, and Gibson led Jim & Greg. Redfish on the fly is a target sighting and casting sport done from a platform above a flat-bottomed boat bow polled slowly along the flats by the guide who is polling and spotting redfish. We drifted past mangroves and grasses growing from the bay. We wielded 8 and 9 wt rods over-loaded with shooting head heavy floating line finished with a 9ft leader and 12# tippet material. Rob & I used the Rodfather Redfish rods (effectively 9 weights) and loaded them with Rob's Hardy reel spun with SA Redfish Cold 9wt. Our imitation fly was primarily a lightly weighted black & purple streamer meant to imitate a baby crab. They are cool looking and pretty easy to cast with the big telephone poll rods and heavy line. The idea is to see/find a redfish, swimming or still, sometimes with its tail up out of the water (as it is feeding on stuff on the bottom of the bay) and quickly cast to it some 3-5 ft in front of and beyond it then strip and twitch the crab in front to elicit a vicious and aggressive kill strike. The reds have no predators in this habitat other than us fishermen. We knew from the outset going would be tough as there was a thick overcast blotting the sun (our sight was mostly gone). The result is that we often came too close to the redfish too quickly and spooked them. Plus, the lack of warmth was putting off the bite much of the day. Unfortunate conditions for a well-coordinated but pre-determined, as to dates not weather, trip.

Unfortunately on day 1 the team managed only a couple of fish; Greg caught a red using a open reel spinning outfit dragging a 3" top water plug and I targeted and landed a red via the desired scheme. Fishing was slow and there was some frustration. Fried shrimp (locally caught) in a decent non-alcohol  restaurant quelled most boiling.

Day 2 was similarly overcast and even foggy and results were only a bit better. Jeff's boat saw  Rob catch a trout (catch that fang) and a small red and Matt caught a nice red on a blind cast near the end of the day. Gibson scored with Rick (fish-on shot) and Jim & I on Sean's craft were skunked. It was maddening not being able to see the fish as typical (nee needed) for this kind of fishing. The sandwiches we made were great and we feasted on killer brat & steak sammies that night, and uh... some bourbon.

Day 3 started similarly but was expected to clear before a low rolled in in the afternoon. That's the way it played out  ~ so for some time we could see, but not cast well due to the building gale winds. Grrr. We did catch some more reds and these boys were happy. Rick even went out hunting for jacks for a bit. Matt & I with Gibson gave it our all and withstood 5ft swells for an hour, returning late to an inebriated team. We prepared awesome fajitas with tasty meats and caramelized onion & chilies with fresh pico de gaillo.

All in all it was great sharing time and catching my $1200 redfish with the boys; we all agreed the sport was cool AF, but we all sure wish there were more fish. I hadn't seen Rob in a minute so that was special - even though he over-touted the Buc-ees vibe ~ I got the pic anyway with some ghetto TX shades. Till next time you lucky redfish.

Building The Rodfather Redfish [drc #14 & #15 9ft 9wt 4pc fast] 14Jan22-19Feb22-03Mar22

In rapt anticipation of early April in Texas, I designed and built another rod; this is drc #14, the Rodfather Redfish. It's a potent 9' 8wt 4pc based on a powerful IM12 Japanese Toray fiber graphite blank. I built a custom "arrowhead with diamond in a box" handle with 1.5" fixed fighting butt for this rod. The fighting butt need is obvious but the arrowheads (I've never seen one on a handle) are indicative of the needed quickness and distance of casts for tailing redfish... shoot like an arrow. I also selected a salt-impervious aluminum & woven graphite uplocking reel seat in titanium coloring and matched that with true salt impervious, ultra-light, titanium guides (eeesh $$$). I employed oversized guides, including 2 stripping guides, to match the quick & powerful casting needed on the bay when using fat casting heads of an 8-9 weight (225-260 grain) SA Amplitude Smooth Redfish Cold floating line. I wrapped out the matte brown rod in sea blue and mated it to a Piscifun Aoka XS 7/8 reel, also in sea blue. The Aoka XS is not expensive but does have a sealed drag system needed for salt water; I chose it as my experience with other Piscifun reels has been solid and it was fairly inexpensive (as the spool is cast aluminum, not machined, as the reel body is) and light (5 oz) for it's size. I know we'll have spectacular Scott Sector rods on the guide boats, and I'll sure try them, but how much cooler will it be to wield my own weapon. It measures out at an strong ERN of 9.9-10 and AA of 68°, so it's a truer fast 9 wt, yet sports just a light 4.65 oz rod weight. The RFRF balances well as a system and I can cast "miles" with it at the park doing recasts and single and double haul casts quickly. I hope the Amplitude floating line picks up as quickly on the bay as it does on snow.

I'll show the build out in chronological sequence. First to arrive were all the "hardware" parts.

And the first task was to build the custom handles. My idea required the normal amount of jigsawing, reassembly, and then turning. The fighting butt end piece is a solid chunk of rubberized cork for sturdiness; I usually make them this way. I had to change blades on my inset cutter to cut the end of the handle for the fixed hood of this slightly larger (.85" diameter) reel seat hood than typical for me. The resultant full wells arrowhead & diamond handles are pretty keen... shoot the fat, fast and far.

I did craft another handle using basically the same idea but as a "negative" of the original - the 2nd one has light arrows and light boxed diamond)... a brother to the original. I call it the Brother Haine handle.

When the blanks came in (they actually took 5-6 weeks to arrive - slow boat and supply chain issues from Asia I guess) I was able to mark the splines, mark distances for guides, and assemble the butt section with arrowhead handle, reel seat, and fixed fighting butt. I was a smidge concerned as the plastic bag they arrived in was marked 5 weight 8#. Measuring thankfully indicated the 8-9 weight as needed. As I wanted to extend the butt section blank piece through the reel seat end and into the fighting butt, I had to drill a hole in the provided end cap of the reel seat. This allowed me to retain a much more finished look at the fighting butt than if I just slammed the cork up against the screw barrel.

I decided to use a smidge larger colorfast nylon for this bigger rod, expecting a bit more stress on the guides. I chose Pro Wrap size D color-fast nylon (in teal & sunset). Working with this larger thread is much easier to handle during wrapping but really soaks up the epoxy. They both are stunning IMO. Here is Rob's sunset wrapping...

For mine I used sea blue teal but did the middle ferule mixed with sunset in deference to it's brother rod. The RFRF rods have two stripping guides and big titanium snakes for salt water and big shots.

The dead-on matching reel, 85 yds of 30# backing line and SA fly line arrived and I spun the backing and line onto the reel in normal fashion. I will wait to have our guides add leader & tippet setup for Operation Cobra Kai; heck, it's included so why not. The reel & line weigh in at 6.6 ozs.

Measuring the RFRF shows it's a very strong 8wt with an ERN of 9.9-10 (so really a 9wt - and therefore a better line is WF9F) and it is righteously fast with a AA of 68°, despite being just intermediate modulus Toray graphite IM12. Total rod weight is just 4.65oz built out. Balance & mating with the Aoka XS with WF8F is fine.