Chernobyl Ant - It's a Smallmouth and Panfish fly too.

My father and I were speaking about what we enjoy about fly fishing. Most of my friends us spinning rods and even though we can relate about fishing, there is one thing that upsets me.  They put a lot of emphasis on size.  What my friends think about fishing is that it is important to land large bass.  Occassionally, someone will pull out a magazine and show me what a bass really looks like.

I outfish them.  Sure, I'm not pulling in steady numbers of 3 and 4 pounders but who is??  They pull in small bass and chubs.  I land quite a bit of smallmouth while my friends continually try to land a big bass.  They won't even brag until catching something around 2 pounds.

So, as I was speaking with my father, I mentioned that the one thing that excites me most about fly fishing is having a fish - any fish - slam a foam fly or popper while I try to land it on a light action fly rod.  My father told me that he's just fine going out and landing one nice trout.  I said that it's the same with me.  If I go out and land one smallmouth on a foam fly that I tied, I can be satsified.  I try not to measure my "manliness" by the size of fish but the productivity such as how many fish I caught using a fly I made.

Foam patterns are my favorite flies.  I enjoy inventing my own patterns.  It's great to be able to think outside of the box and foam enables me to step away from traditional flies.  Drifting the Los Alamos Ant and Chernobyl Ants can be productive for me.  The Chernobyl Ant was initially tied as a trout pattern but it can be used for smallmout bass and fiesty bluegills too.  I've tied up a bunch of Chernobyl Ants and listed them on ebay.  Just trying to share the love.  It's about enjoying the trip out.

http://myworld.ebay.com/riverwalker74