guiding, pike, and black flies

Hi Folks, Just returned from southwest Florida for a little vacation with my wife.  Stayed in Captiva Island.  Great place with lots of good fishing and yes I did hire a guide for a day.  Loads of fun.  Anyway, guided a day before I left Vermont. and just did a fly fishing trip for northern yesterday.  Whether seems to have been a little helter skelter with snow one day and eighty degree temperatures the next.  Bank fished with a family before I left and we tugged on all sorts of things.  Bottom fishing with set lines we kept it simple and caught lots of keepre size yellow perch, suckers, bullhead and one very large brown trout.  Good fun for the kids and parents.  Yesterday under the  threat of thunderstorms which never developed we cast flies for pike.  Water temperature was 56 degrees with a steady south/southwest wind.  Made paddling the canoe interesting.  Worked very hard for one northern and missed two other pike.  Did see one very large smallmouth chase a fly but it would not eat.  A classic #2 chartruse/white clauser minnow was the winning fly.  Tried a few different patterns and made lots of casts.  We fished primarily in shallow dark bottomed bay with new weed growth from 1' to 5'.  There did not seem to be any pattern to the fishing yesterday.  I will be piking some more this week and investigating some trout streams.  Look for #14/#16 Hendricksons on our rivers and I think it should be a good year for early rising fish. Remember to clean your gear and keep the non-native species at home.  Have Fun, Willy