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First off, you might be wondering if there is such a thing as a $8,000 fly fishing reel. Yes, there is. It’s the Hardy Zane Ti Reel and it is indeed beautiful. Designed for saltwater fly fishing, this heavenly reel is made from a solid bar stock Titanium and takes six days to make just one. This reel is hand polished and finished by Hardy’s top engineers. This reel is indeed the Ferrari of fly reels. So does this reel catch more fish than a $500 saltwater reel? Does it really matter? You don’t buy a Ferrari or a Rolex to be the fastest or have the most accurate time, you buy it because you can. Hardy has been making some beautiful and classic fly reels since 1872 and the Hardy Zane Ti Reel is no exception. When I was young I would always dream of having a Porsche or Lamborghini but as an adult and an avid fisherman I dream of having a Hardy Zane Ti Reel although a Hardy Marquis on a James Reams bamboo fly rod wouldn’t be bad either.

For other great Hardy reels and other fly fishing reels, rods and gear click on the picture of the Hardy Zane Ti reel above.

The weather may be getting colder and the fishing season is starting to end in some areas but this means you can get some great fishing gear for some great prices. Save the gear for next season, stock up on holiday presents or start fishing with it right now. Bass Pro Shops is offering some great prices on rods and reels right now. Click on the link below for some great deals.

“Just one more fish, then I’ll head home.” How many times have we all said that. Is it an addiction or an appreciation and love of fishing? I would say the latter, while my wife would say an addiction. Even when we do catch that “one more fish”, we start over again and say “just one more fish and then I’ll go home.” When does it end? Usually when it gets dark, too cold to hold the rod or your significant other calls you asking when you’re coming home.

But what if that next fish is the big one? What if this whole time you’ve been fishing in the wrong spot and if you go down the shore a little bit rather than heading home, you snag that big one? What if you change your lure and go smaller? Will that entice the “just one more fish” to bite?

You may never know unless you go by the rule of “just one more fish”. Maybe you should switch from your spinning rod to a fly rod. Maybe a clouser minnow on a fly rod will get that big small mouth to bite. You know he’s down there. You anticipate him biting everytime you reel in your line but he doesn’t bite. You don’t get frustrated, you just get more curious as to what that fish is thinking. Sure, your supper is getting cold and your wife is getting perturbed but there’s a big fish down there and you’ve got to catch him. Fret not, as fishermen we’re all in the same boat and we understand our love which others may call a disease or addiction. It’s the joy of fishing. It’s the excitement of the hunt for the big one and it’s just one more fish.

My son is 11-years old and while I taught him to fish many moons ago, I’ve recently taught him more advanced ways of fishing. The first lesson I taught him was learning to use a spinning reel. Not a difficult lesson but a rewarding one. But a month ago or so, my son wanted to try out my fly rod as I was catching more blue gill with it compared to his spinning reel. Now teaching someone how to use a fly rod and reel takes a little more patience and a little more time. In fact, I would say, mastering a fly rod and reel takes a lifetime of patience and learning. But in minutes, he got the basic timing of the cast down and was able to cast a dry fly out onto the water for the panfish to grab. It was no “River Runs Through It” moment on the great trout streams of America, but it was a memorable time. And a it’s hobby I look forward to sharing with him for the rest of my life, the same way my dad has shared it with me.

My daughter just turned two but I can’t wait until the day I teach her to fish and she catches her first fish. Right now, when I catch a fish, she screams and doesn’t want to get near it. We’ll need to work on that but we’ve got time.

I could explain how low and high pressure works and how it relates to cold and warm fronts and what a stationary front is and the rotation of the Earth and the Coriolis force but I won’t bore you. You don’t want to be a meteorologist, you just want to fish. So I’ll explain in fishermen terms when the best time to fish and where the fish are during different weather.

Warm fronts go with low pressure. The air is warm and moist and rising producing clouds. Cold fronts go with high pressure. The air is dry and cold producing clear, sunny skies. When a warm front is passing, the pressure drops and the fish start feeding because they know a possible storm system is approaching and they want to eat up before the lightning spooks them and the impending winds which will whip up the water making it more difficult to see baitfish. So fish on the surface or right below it when you hear that a warm front is moving in.

When a cold front is passing, the pressure rises, the clouds disappear and the fish run for cover and the deep waters. They also tend not to feed as aggressively. The fishing probably won’t be that good, but if you’re going to fish, try crank baits and jigs to go down deep. It’s also best to avoid clear lakes during cold fronts and go for the murky water lakes for any chance at catching a lot of fish.

The last front is the stationary front. A stationary front is the area between two different fronts. Neither is strong enough to push the other out of the way, so an area between the two weak fronts is the stationary front. The stationary front tends to share characteristics of both a warm and a cold front. It could be cloudy or it could be sunny. The air pressure in a stationary front is constant and unchanging. While this pressure could be high or low, fish tend to acclimate to it and begin acting like normal and eating normal. They won’t go on a feeding frenzy but they also won’t go dormant.

So to rate fronts, when you see a warm front is approaching your area, it’s probably a good time to catch some crazy feeding fish on the surface or right below. During a stationary front, the fishing can be anywhere from ok to great like during a warm front. When a cold front approaches, the fish tend to stop feeding and go to darker waters either under cover and brush or down deep. This usually is not the best time to fish. But then again, it’s never really a bad time to fish, just a bad time for catching fish.

While I love fishing topwaters and dry flies, sometimes the fish aren’t there. When there are no clouds out and the sun is shining bright, the fish tend to go to deeper waters, bottom cover and off the ledges. This is a good time to get out the crankbaits. Crankbaits allow you to fish the deep depths down to about 20 feet depending on the lip of the crankbait. Crankbaits are also popular because they mimic the bait fish the big fish go after.

The first step in crankbait fishing is to choose the right color and the right depth. Take a look at the bait fish that are swimming around or ask a fellow fisherman and pick a crankbait based on the color of the baitfish. For murkier waters, it’s sometimes good to go with a brighter color crankbait like orange, yellow or white. Using a medium-action rod toss the crankbaits up to the shore lines, along cover, down drop offs and around any deep cover like rocks, trees and brush. Crank baits work better when you retrieve them in areas where there aren’t many weeds. They tend to snag on weeds but can be bounced off the bottom because the hooks hover higher than the lip of the crankbait. Also by varying up your retrieve, you can dial in your speed and figure out how the fish are hitting. Sometimes depending on fronts and barometric pressure, the fish are moving slower and won’t go after a fast moving bait. Other times when a front is moving on and the barometric pressure is fluctuating, fish tend to go on a feeding frenzy and will go after the fast running crankbaits.

The biggest part of fishing crankbaits, as is anything involving fishing, is to learn the waters, the baitfish and ask the local fisherman what works best for them. You can learn a lot by simply taking a little time before tossing your line out to study the waters and the spots where the fish seem to congregate. Good luck and happy fishing.

Fishing isn’t really all about actually catching fish. It’s about getting away and getting on the water and being able to actually breathe and relax. Whether it’s with good friends or just by yourself, there something very calming and satisfying about throwing a lure out there, reeling it in and hoping something bites. But whether we admit it or not, it’s also satisfying to actually catch a fish every once in a while. But what do you do when the fish aren’t biting. You downsize.

Some of my favorite rods to fish with are my ultra-light rod and my 5 weightt fly rod. With the ultra-light rod, a little Rooster Tail usually gets some action. When you want to catch fish, go after the little ones. Run a rooster tail along the banks and the cover where the “bait fish” congregate. You might not catch a trophy but you’ll catch plenty of pan fish. Just get yourself a decent ultra-light rod and reel with about 4 pound line on it and plenty of Rooster Tails, grub spinners and other ultra-light lures and go have some fun.

And if you love top water action, nothing beats a fly rod and a dry fly. It doesn’t much matter what type of dry fly as long as it’s fuzzy and floats, pan fish will go after it unlike the picky trout. A decent 4 or 5 weight fly rod with floating line will work but if you want to have some fun grab yourself a 2 or 3-weight fly rod and reel. With a small weight fly rod, those tiny pan fishes will feel like big bass. Wooly buggers, streamers and other wet flies also work really well for catching pan fish.

The ultimate reward of ultra-light fishing is when you do hook into the occasional small mouth or other large fish. So if you’re feeling out of luck on the water or you just want that smell of fish on your hands, grab your ultra-light rod and reel or your fly rod and have some fun. Because in the end, fishing is all about having fun.

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