8/04 report

[Charlie Gonzales]

Spent my birthday on the water with my good friends Matt Johnsom and Andy Guibord and had a blast.
Had the guys throwing top water for the first couple hours but didnt get have any luck. About 10am the fish woke up and Matt picked up the fist fish of the day, a fat 5lb'r that ate a 5/0 rainbow Airhead on an I line. Down stream Andy picked up his first fish of the day, a good size schoolie that had company with it. Matt threw out the airhead again and had a large fish boil on it on the surface but didngt get a solid hook set. He picked it up, threw it back out, and the fish inhaled it, again on the surface. So now we have a double on and the fish are goin crazy. Andys schoolie comes unbottuned durring the fight but Matt still had his fish on; after brinigng the fish to the boat several times and it making several strong runs, I reached down and got the Boga on her. A very fat and healthy fish that went just over 15 lbs. So we get a few pics and make sure shes revived and watch her swim away, then I row us back to the top of the run to do it all again. Picked up a couple more schoolies in it but no more big girls. After that not too much more action, a few grabs and couple follows on the big airhead, but no more hook ups.

Hopefuly Andy will post some pics soon.

Thanks to my friends for making it a very special day for me.

[Jasonh]

Charlie, Why didnt you say anything at the shop yesterday? I didn't know it was your birthday.

Happy Birthday!

Jason

[Scott V]

I'm glad to see you were rowing on your birthday. Happy Birthday buddy, I have a present for you, just let me know when we can get together and I will bring it with me.

[STEELIES/26c3]

Happy Birthday Charlie

It's fun when you reel up a schoolie and it gets marauded by a lone wolf. Glad you had action and company.

M

[Ed Wahl]

Happy birthday you old fart.

Sounds like a great time on the water.

Ed

[matt johnson]

Big thanks to Gonzales and Andy Guibord for getting a hack like me into some great striper opportunities! All I really had to do was get the fly out there...

Also tremendous thanks to Charlie Bisharat for the "Airhead"! That fly is versatile, effective, and totally cool to fish, especially in the upper water column.

Charlie Gonzales has really got that Intermediate /Airhead presentation dialed in. It was a real door opener for me. I can't think of a better way to conduct the "search" for stripers in water of 10 feet or so or less with good visibility (well, outside of using topwater during the magic hours!). Those big flies just move fish, and the I line keeps you up out of the weeds and out of the tree limbs. Places that just don't fish with lead core... Plus, you get to SEE the fish move to the fly. What a rush!

Happy Birthday Charlie! Matt.

[Charlie Bisharat]

Matt,

What a fun way to hang out with a couple of good buddies on the water. Charlie does an amazing job with the boat positioning and yes he has figured out where the stripes live and how to make them grab.

It has been very cool to watch Charlie make his way to the front of the line with regards to the guiding business.It is a damn tough thing to be good at for sure and it is not for everyone who is a good or knowledgeable fly fisherman.It takes a special personality as well.Good for you Charles!!!!!

Matt glad that you enjoyed chucking the airhead as well. It is not often that you can throw a 5/0 73/4" fly that pushes that much water,the full length of a fly line with a quality 8, 9, or 10 wt rod. That does make the airhead an interesting fly for sure.As you may or may not know that fly was created to imitate the planted trout,steelhead and salmon smolt that DFG puts in the river and lake systems of our state. It took some time to develope and perfect but it has brought a pile of really big stripers to hand so far.

It is fun and exciting to fish the airhead high in the water colum as you have mentioned. I think fish are much more willing to chase and eat a fly that is very near but still under the surface of the water. It occurs to me that they do not feel as vulnerable as they would if the fly is sitting on the surface.Great visual stimulation for certain.

I routinely fish the airhead very deep as well. I will use T-14 often to get it down.The key to getting it deep is to strip it one time just after it hits the water to pull out any trapped air from inside the head.You can also modify the fly by adding a rattle ,dumbell eyes or lead BB's for weight .To do this,just install a small amout of shoe goo or goop inside the head of the fly and imbed the desired weighting object in the goop and let it dry.A set of dumbell eyes installed at the very back of the fly's head at the hook bend will create some crazy erratic motion when stripped.I add rattles to a lot of the ones I fish ,especially in turbid water.

Glad you enjoyed fishing the airhead, and be sure to keep that Charlie at or near the top of your favorite friends list as he has developed quite a nose for sniffing out those stripers.

Cheers Chas

[Tony Buzolich]

Charlie,

Thank you for your description and explanation as to how you use your Airhead. I've just started using Airheads on the local rivers up here but was concerned about them swimming below the surface. This makes better sense now.

If it hasn't already been mentioned, several of the guys in my La Paz group really knocked the roosters with the Airhead this year as well.

When are we going to get a look at your new creation? Pole Dancer?

[matt johnson]

Matt glad that you enjoyed chucking the airhead as well. It is not often that you can throw a 5/0 73/4" fly that pushes that much water,the full length of a fly line with a quality 8, 9, or 10 wt rod. That does make the airhead an interesting fly for sure.As you may or may not know that fly was created to imitate the planted trout,steelhead and salmon smolt that DFG puts in the river and lake systems of our state. It took some time to develope and perfect but it has brought a pile of really big stripers to hand so far.

Yeah Charlie, your new Rainbow Airhead is definitely unique. In addition to the big stripers, I bet that pattern is going to sting some big ol' Largemouth this winter/early spring in the stocked lakes. The only problem I see with the pattern is the trouble the retailers are going to have trying to fit it into their fly bins! It is a really big fly! Can't wait until they are available. At the end of the day I tried to snake one out of Charlie G.'s fly box, but he caught me and closed the lid on my fingers. Ouch!

Ok, so I just got a pic of the 15 pounder in. The grab(s) were just incredible. This fish was totally lit up. It was going to eat. It pounded that giant Airhead right in front of our eyes. I haven't whooped it up like that over a fish since my first dry fly steelhead:

Awesome photo courtesy of Andy Guibord. Matt

[Charlie Bisharat]

Matt and Charlie,

What a beautiful fish!!!!! Nice work , both of you, Andy as well. Nice job!!!!!. You know , the most enjoyable thing about fly innovation is seeing the fruits of your labor in the form a satisfied fisherman and a beautiful fish. A fish that was totally fooled by what you dreamed up and will soon swim away thinking "what the hell just happened, that was a fat good looking half pounder " Cool for you guys and really cool for me aswell to be a small part of it.


Cheers Chas