Beiträge von LenHarris

  • Trout Don't Live In Ugly Places goes to Chicago!


    Trout Don't Live In Ugly Places goes to Chicago!


    I have been asked to speak at the Fishing & Hunting Show this coming January in Rosemont, Illinois.


    I will be speaking twice daily all FIVE days of the Outdoor Show.
    One presentation will be focused on the young angler and
    the second will be focused on ALL trout anglers of The Driftless Area.


    The site will be updated soon to reflect my speaking times.


    Where:
    Donald E. Stephens Convention Center in Rosemont, Illinois


    When:
    January 26 - 30, 2011


    http://www.americasoutdoorshow.com/index.htm


    http://lenharris.blogspot.com/…r-show-january-26-30.html

  • Headwaters

    I drove over bogger gut tonight at 6:30pm. The headwaters of a stream I fish.
    It is un-named...My dad gave it the bogger gut handle. It is where I caught my first trout.


    It was a little cloudy. But it was fishable.


    2 hours later and 20 trout later. I was happy.


    Most trout were in the 9-13 inch range but this one made the outing worth while.



    Where do you think the trout was laying. It hit three times before I got a hook up???


    It was obvious to me when I saw the stretch.


    Is it obvious to you?






  • Of MICE and Men

    two years ago I was fishing this hole with a friend.

    I let the friend lead. I warned Frank that the hole was treacherous. The photo is taken down stream. The left side of the hole has a rock ledge that sticks out in to the main hole. One bad step and it becomes 8 feet quickly. The lower end of the hole is shallower and I have seen trout sun themselves in there in the past.


    Frank stopped and was pointing at a fish in the shallows. He had sun glasses on. He said I brought him to carp water. I grabbed his sun glasses and looked at the the " big old carp" his words in the shallows sunning itself. Took off the glasses and told Frank to hold still. I wanted to try to cast to the "big old carp" before I could get in a cast I spooked it. Frank asked me "Why were you dinking with that dumb old carp?" I told Frank: "Carp don't have spots."


    I was back there a couple times and could not raise the monster. I assumed it was a night time feeder and a night time attack was in order. The rock ledge and the big drop off put a damper on my night time enthusiasm and I put it on the back burner.


    Just two weeks ago I was talking to a friend and he fished the hole and he spooked a huge fish out of the shallows. This piqued my curiosity . It has been raining non-stop since then and the water was too muddy and high to fish. It finally went down and started to clear. I thought a little bit of cloudy water would be good for a night time attack.
    One of my friends from Chicago Dave Heyman told me about luck he had been having with mice and told me how to fish mice and when. I went to a local fly shop and got a couple Whitlock Mice. Dave told me to run the edges of the banks. Slow steady retrieve with a pause and twitch from time to time. The reason for working the edge was that this is where wayward mice might fall in and the HUGE night time predators were out hunting at night for this type of lost mouse.


    I took my buddy Joe with me and we worked both sides of the hole. I was standing on the opposite side of the angler in the photo. Joe decided he was going to work the rock ledge drop off. It was 4am this morning. We were both casting. I could barely see Joe but I could hear him. The huge male hit like a freight train. The splash and roll was very loud and it sent shivers down the back of my neck. I didn't need to wait for him to yell..."Come HELP!" like he usually does.
    We both had the same rig. A 8'6" 5/6 rod with a 2x leader on. I told Joe to calm down and let the thing tire itself. The hole was deep and I reminded him a couple of times when it made runs to give it side pressure so it would turn and stay out of the underwater trees. I looked at my watch when the battle started. It seemed like it took forever but the entire battle last 11 minutes.



    My digital camera takes AWFUL photos in the darkness This is the best Glory Shot I took.

  • Of MICE and Men

    I can NOT get a decent night time photo to save my life.


    They always looked washed out or dead.


    played with fresco option to just bring out some colors.



    Can anyone give some digital photo help?

  • Hornbergs


    It was late May. John Armstrong called me. He told me that he and one his buddies had fished a stretch in Crawford County. The buddy had a fish on and a large brown attacked the smaller brown that was on the line.


    John said that he wanted to go after this large male brown at first light the next morning. We met at the local gas station at 5:30am. The light was already coming up over the hill. John and I jumped in to my truck and off we sped to "The Hole". John hooked on a size six hornberg and placed a split shot about 14 inches up from the fly. John planned on dredging the deep slot the big brown came out of with the hornberg.


    The cast was an upstream cast and it landed in the shallows just before the slot. John didn't strip more than 2 strips and the battle was on. I stood back a ways to NOT spook the hole. John crept up on the hole and put his hornberg to work.


    It didn't take long and John was yelling "Len!!!! Net!!!"


    I trotted up to the hole and John continued to battle the trout for 3-4 minutes. It finally tired out and came to my net.




    The first thing John said was: "That is not the fish. It is not marked correctly." He was satisfied and decided to leave the other trout for another day.


    The another day came about 10 days later. We were showing a father and son the ropes on that stream. The son and I went upstream and the father and John went to the hole and John still had the hornberg on and decided what the heck.


    I heard the familiar "Len.....NET!!"


    We jogged back to the hole. John had a huge bend on his rod and the father was in the water with his medium sized net awaiting the net job. I threw my much bigger net to him and then he netted it.



    Some people have a knack for catching big trout. John Armstrong is one of them.



    This is the big male from the first outing. John named it "Sven" and posed for one glory shot and sent Sven back to his home.



    John posed with "Lars" and sent him back to the exact same hole. Exact same fly.


    Luck plus skill equals......"Big" John Armstrong.

  • Buddy Andy & I Went Out This Morning

    My good fishing buddy Andy Kurth and I went out at first light this morning. Andy has been laid up due to knee surgery for 3 months. First outing since surgery.


    We both did well. Andy caught 18 and I caught 10.



    The trout below was an amazing battler. It screamed upstream and Andy had 5X on so he couldn't muscle it. It flew downstream and then buried itself in the bank twice. I swang and missed three times on netting attempts. It blew past Andy and I and got in 12 inches of water and shook the size 10 black bugger with green crystal flash. It was NOT quite fast enough. I swooped in with my BIG net and netted it before it could escape.



    We had a good mixture of browns and brooks. By noon the sun was high in the sky and the trout shut down.