Grand Slams and Hat Tricks

caulfield — Mon, 01 Jun 2009 16:21:07 +0000

I was reading a recent post on FoulHooked the other day about fishing “Grand Slams” and “Hat Tricks” and it got me wondering…

What would I call a Grand Slam on my home water? What would a Hat Trick be on my home water? Then came the real question…

WTF is my home water?

What kind of flyfisher can I be with no home water?!?! I started searching through the pics of places I’ve been searching for a place to call home.

Unknown- PA

Mad River- OH

South Branch Au Sable- MI

The local whore pond- OH

Rocky River- OH

Au Sable Mainstream- MI

Unmentionable- OH

I started to find myself in a bit of a panic as I realized that not one of these places is less than a half hour away from my house.

Then I remembered this:

and how the guy that took these photos, while he loves living on this nice little river, gets a little reminder from Mother Nature every once in a while that she is still the boss.

Then the panic resided and I realized that it doesn’t matter where I live, I can call any body of water home. Being on the water has always been home for me. Ever since I was a kid I have always felt better when I am near water and I’m guessing that I always will. Sure, I would love to have my own personal lake/pond fishery to manage and call home but for now I’ll be very happy to have the Midwest’s waters, cold and warm, to call my home waters.

Now back to Hat Tricks and stuff…

What is a Hat Trick on your home water? What about a Grand Slam? No need to mention the name or place if you don’t want to. (Remember, a hat trick is three and a grand slam is four. That was the part the had Foul Hooked all pissed off so we better get it right here)

Southern Hatch and the Caufield Factor

hatch — Fri, 24 Apr 2009 12:38:32 +0000

A couple weekends ago some the Hatchless crew headed south to the Mad River in search of a Henny hatch. Now before I get into this grand adventure let me remind you that we are not very lucky when it comes to the so called “hatch”. As a matter of fact I have yet to sit in a river during a hatch and land fish after fish after fish and think “WOW”. This so called lack of successful hatch fishing has now allowed me to invent a new term called the Caufield Factor. I will use this term many times on this blog to describe this situation as we go through the 09 fishing season. But to define the Caufield Factor is simply stated that we will go to X river, to X location, to chase X bug, to then in turn catch fish. This will be prempted by numerous reports of bugs and fish being caught with a marathon session of bug tying and strategic planning. Then something happens…who’s going?…well everyone, yep even Caufiled( in case you weren’t listening Caufield is one the fishy types who contributes here ). What’s that mean…well it means NO BUGS and even worse no fish. Seriously folks it blows my mind that everytime I have gone to chase bugs, Caufield is there and the bugs never show-up, ok well maybe I am exagerating a bit but it really seems that way. So I poke fun and we get a laugh. Seriously though I think we do our best fishing when we don’t think and just throw streamers and have a good time. So perhaps if your new to the fly and are just not getting it…maybe it’s just time to enjoy what’s around you. Beautiful rivers, good friends and maybe a whiskey or two.

Mad River tilt shift

So anyway that’s what we did the Mad is a seriously small stream, very clear and to Caufields credit there were some bugs and some fish caught. Perhaps a first? Either way it was a beautiful day on a very nice stream. Thanks to some peeps at Madriver Men TU chapter for the location tips. Tight lines.

Hatchless » Mad River

Grand Slams and Hat Tricks

Southern Hatch and the Caufield Factor