My name is Justin Jacobson,
Im 14 years old and live in Tempe Arizona. I have family that lives in richmond (spellings?) minnesota and hope to visit every summer. I have been swinging a long rod for sence last summer. Im not a super great caster but i can get a fly out. I also tying flies for the local shop here in Tempe. (Arizona Fly Fishing). I hope to chat with you all and get good insight on fishing from different places. I participate alot on a local forum called AzFlyandTie (www.azflyandtie.com) and im also Bigfishjr. on there too. Im trying to inporve on my bass fishing skills as the biggest is 15 inchs 2 1/2 lbs on a fly rod.
My uncle has a cabin on Bowstring Lake and wondered if any of you have heard any or have done some good fly fishing in there. There are some small-nice pike and good walleye as well as crappy that I have fished for with conventional but is there good bass?
Hope to talk to you all,
-Justin
Welcome Bigfishjr.!
Starting out young will give you years of enjoyment from fly fishing and hope you stick with it. And great job on your bass, thats a nice bass in anyone's book.
Bowstring Lake is a popular destination for walleye fisherman. It's right in the mecca of fishing country in Minnesota. Anything around the Grand Rapids, MN area is a fishermans paradise. Lots of lakes to choose from and lots of different species to fish for. I've fished Bowstring Lake and Sand Lake (which is connected via a river) and have caught largemouth and smallmouth out of both lakes. I was mainly up there with a group to fish walleyes, but was able to steal a little time to chase some bass. Although I didn't bring the fly rod on that trip. The bass were nice and healthy looking and if someone were to take the time to find them, I would assume one would get into some good bass action, plus northern pike to boot.
Here is the MN DNR lake report http://www.dnr.state.mn.us/lakefind/showreport.html?downum=31081300
Here some info from a resorts page http://www.anchorinnresort.com/lakes.htm
If there are bass and northern pike in the waters your fishing, then breaking out the fly rod would not be a bad idea, so give it a shot. There are a ton of lakes (I mean lots of them) in the Grand Rapids, Deer River area that hold bass. Lots of small lakes and lots as big as Bowstring. I've fly fished other lakes further north, like Club House Lake and a few other around there and the bass (both smallmouth and largemouth) action is excellent for the fly anglers.
So the next time your up, break out the fly rod and let us know how it goes. You might get some strange looks, especially when fly fishing lakes, because bass fishing is not as popular as walleye fishing let alone fly fishing for bass, except when you get more into the boundary waters area, but there there is nobody around to see you that far north.
