Spent the weekend in Virginia hiking the great Appalachian trail. Met up with Dreamer, Tex’s dad, who is thru-hiking the trail this summer and hiked 36 beautiful miles with him.

The trail is an absolutely incredible experience that I would recommend to everyone. The solitude and peacefulness combined with the challenge physically and mentally is an experience that inspires you to think long and hard on the meaning of life.

The people on the trail are also awesome and very welcoming with each bringing a unique experience and story to the trail.

Good times, lots of sweat, good weather, bad weather, good people and nature made for a fantastic weekend.

Opie

It will be nice to have a safe range now to test new predator reloads and continue to sharpen my skills!

Tex

It’s the first day of turkey hunting out west and we are putting a hurt on some turkeys.

The hunting is tough but after hiking 10 miles this morning we finally got on a hot bird that wasn’t henned up. The gobbler committed perfectly and I dropped him at 30 yards.

Kirt dropped one on a solo mission earlier in the morning and we are on cloud 9.

Stay tuned for some more action coming soon. I’m hopping behind the camera to get you guys some Meriams action.

Shoot straight,

Opie

Opie and I pictured here with Yotehead Ed (Left) and Bob Patrick with Rare Earth Predator Calls (Right). Both of these guys are world class predator callers and they’ve been a huge help to both of us and have influenced our predator calling greatly!

It was a great weekend and nice to hang out with a bunch of other predator hunters from around the state. Looking forward to next year already!

Tex

Tex

I had grandiose plans for the weekend of spending all day on the stream chasing spring steelhead and having fun relaxing. Turns out Mother Nature had other plans and dumped a whole pile of rain on us this week causing the rivers to all blow out. And to top it all off it’s snowing, blowing and cold today. Go figure.

I’m pretty bummed out because PT snuck out fishing on Tuesday an absolutely slayed the steelhead which puts me seriously behind in the FLG Steelhead challenge.

The run is hot and heavy right now and there is still some time left so I might have a chance at redemption once the rivers come down.

I sure hope that’s the case or PT isn’t going to let me live down the defeat.

At least one of the boys is out there getting it done. Nice work PT.

Tight lines,

Opie

The family and I took an impromptu weekend away up at the lake after snatching up a coupon good for 1/2 off a couple nights at a state park cabin. I grabbed the boat and all the fishing gear I could get my hands on including my tub of catfish juggin’ gear. I wasn’t sure if the lake would be calm enough to get the kids out in the boat but Sunday afternoon presented that chance and we took it. Not having time to catch any fresh bait, I went to the bait store and picked up some worms, crappie minnows and frozen shad. The boys, Cody and I launched the boat with intentions of fishing for crappie and sandies at some of the mountain run-offs since we got quite a bit of rain the night before. With no success and the sun dipping below the mountain top, we decided to explore and find a spot to set a few jugs to “soak” overnight. We found an island that had a nice sand flat around it, baited 4 jugs and threw them out for the night. I went out solo the next morning early to snatch them up and, to my surprise, we got ourselves about 15 lbs of fish! Fantastic end to a relaxing weekend away with the family.

Kill ‘em!

Rooney

Tex

With the winter months locking down most of the watersheds, and most recently the melt off/rain blowing them out to unfishable levels, it was time to start re-stocking the steelhead boxes.

The past few years of my late winter/early spring steelhead success can be attributed to 2 primary patterns, an often overlooked pattern and a twist on a common Great Lakes nymph.

As most everyone is aware salmon make their annual spawning migrations in the fall, and fishing several river systems that support a substantial amount of natural reproduction – several thousand salmon fry begin to hatch in the late winter months. These fry often times become extremely easy meals for steelhead and trout that are looking to get a signficant amount of calorie intake without doing a lot of work. Salmon fry tend to congregate in softer seams of pools and runs – causing predatory fish to seek them out in those areas. I don’t often hear of many folks fishing fry patterns in the Great Lakes, and maybe that is a contributor to my success (showing them something different).

My second most successful fly during this time period is a version of any standard hex pattern – a flashback grizzly hex. One of my counterparts refers to his version of the pattern as a “Double Duty Hex” as it could easily be mistaken in the water as a salmon fry/parr as well. As the swamps and mucky areas where these burrowing nymphs begin to unfreeze and escape the grip of winter lock down – often times these nymphs are dislodged and washed into the current to become easy meals for steelhead.

Time to start stocking up on these 2 great patterns and getting ready for chrome the next 2+ months!

Tight Lines,

Bob Barber

Tex