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Casey Key Anglers, Nokomis, FL

Great Outdoor Provision Co. Charlotte, NC

Frank Amato Publications Portland, OR

Jesse Brown?s Outfitters Charlotte, NC

Brumfield Enterprises Parkesburg, PA

Outdoor Specialty Products Truckee, CA

Rainy?s Flies, Inc. Logan, UT

J. Fisher, LLC Mobridge, SD

Blue Ribbon Flies West Yellowstone, MT

Creative Publishing Minnekota, MN

Ozark Anglers

Hiwassee Chapter, Trout Unlimited

San Diego Fly Fishers

Long Beach Fly Fishers

Virginia Coastal Fly Anglers

Lacey Sportsman's Fly Club

Sportsman's Warehouse

Oaks Fire Company Fishing Club

Indianapolis Fly Casters

Wildcat Creek Outfitters Zionsville IN

Orvis Fly Shop Carmel, IN

Panhandle Flyfishers of Destin, FL

Updated 08 March 2010

Hey everyone,
     Several big items for this update.  First, Maj Tom Baker has redeployed and has passed on the leadership of the club to a group of folks.  We all thank Tom for his time and energy - words are not enough.  Travel safe, enjoy your family and we'll see you on the water Tom!

       With Tom's departure, we have civilians, Jackson Russell and Phil MacMillen, plus  a fellow Navy man, LCDR Ken Nguyen, running the show.  I know they will  carry on the tradition that is coming into its fifth year.  Jackson, judging by the report and photos below is more than up to the job!

     That kind of leads into our second big news item. Joe Mercurio is coming back to bring Operation Catch Fish III to the troops deployed to Iraq.  Things are still very much in the planning stages, but it will come together very quickly.  Target time frame is the third week in April, only six weeks away!  Very short fused to pull it all together, but the guys on the ground are up to it and looking forward to the opportunity.  I am working to find a way to tag along with Joe.  I am sure where there is a will, there is a way.  

     The store is still up and running.  I've added a couple new products.  Proceeds go solely for supporting the club.  If there is something you'd like to see added, let me know.
 

         
 MAJ Tom Baker with his last Iraq fish, a very nice barbel, which he caught on Jackson's Orange Bug.

Jackson Russell has sent in his first Sunday Fish Report.  The day they went fishing was the day of the recent Iraqi elections.  If you've watched the news, you'll recall it was not exactly a peaceful day in Baghdad.  None the less Jackson and Jeremy set out to catch Jeremy's first fish in Iraq.

"Jeremy is something of a fishing newbie, and on his first two times out had struck out, so I was determined to get him on some fish today.  I got there a little early, so I pulled out the flyrod and hit the lake for a few minutes, and caught two small asp.  Looks like the asp spawn is over, so they'll be back in the lakes again...   Jeremy arrived, and we headed over to the chow hall.  This is when the day got a little interesting...
Right as we walked up to the chow hall, we heard a loud "boom".   I looked at Jeremy and said, "Happy Election Day!"  I figured it to be a car bomb somewhere out in the city.  

After breakfast, we headed over to the Palace Lake.  Since I'd caught a few fish already, I thought it would be a good place to start.  Not so much.  After hearing about 4 more loud explosions, I started to wondering about standing there near the parking lot of the Palace, and thought a little more about the fact that if someone was going to target something on base, we were at Ground Zero.  If a car bomb or something was gonna go off, I didn't wanna be anywhere around.  So, I asked Jeremy to reel in, 'cause we were going somewhere else.

Over to Liberty to the helipad canal, farther from the perimeter walls, away from anything much of value...   and Jeremy caught his first Iraqi fish!  I felt vindicated...  He'd switched over to a spinning rig and was splitshotting a fly.  While we were out there, we kept hearing loud booms every little while, some coming in rapid succession.  Sounded like a war going on.  What I thought were car bombs turned out to be mortars that the bad guys were firing willy-nilly around the city.  I lost count after about 20, and figured 30 or more, total.  On CNN, they reported "over 30 mortars" in Baghdad and about 38 people killed.   It was very interesting, weird, even, to be fishing, catching fish, and every so often feeling the ground shake and hearing a BOOM!  Nothing ever blew up on base, so that was a good thing for us.

Evidently, the explosions didn't keep the people from voting, nor did it keep the fish from biting!

We caught a ton of small to average asp and some decent barbel carp. and when the fishing slowed down, we moved down the canal to the "Pipes" (where water from another canal is pumped into the one we were fishing) and I started catching small to medium asp on every cast.  Wow!  I was using a new fly I'd dreamed up (no name, yet...) that uses some copper Mylar tubing that Jim Mauries was kind enough to send me.  It's basically the same as a JOB (Jackson's Orange Bug), but with the Mylar for the body instead of a dubbed body.  Okay, just came up with the name...  a "Copper JOB".   Kinda rings like "Copper John", doesn't it?  Well, okay...

It was getting on about 10:30am or so, and I wanted to check another canal over on Camp Victory where we'd had good luck back in the fall. The explosions had calmed down, so we loaded up and headed over.   It didn't take long to figure out that there still weren't the numbers of fish in the canal that there were back in the fall, but I made a few casts with my Copper JOB where the canal joins a lake and hooked up.  It turned out to be my best fish to date!  The asp taped out at 28 1/4"...  a gen-u-wine whopper.  I really like that fly now!

Despite the excitement of the numerous explosions and earth shaking, it was a great day.  The weather was perfect, the fish were numerous and hungry, and I didn't get blown up!  Cool.

Hope your day was interesting, too!

Jackson

Jeremy shows off his 1st Iraqi fish, the every willing Asp!


Jackon Russell shows off his monster Asp - that is huge!


Jackon Russell with a 2 foot asp


Jackson and another nice asp on the fly rod

          Jackson has also agreed to share with us the recipe for  his killer Jackson's Orange Bug or JOB, which resulted in so many of those big fish.

Jackson's Orange Bug (JOB)

" Jackson's Orange Bug" (JOB)

Size 10 Tiemco 200R
Small, black bead-chain eyes
Hook shank wrapped with .015
lead wire from even with hook point to behind eyes
Amber Grizzly Marabou tail
Copper rib / "Brassie" sized wire
Body of Awesome Possum dubbing, burnt orange and Natural Brown or
Light Ginger (light tan) mixed together.

         For other Baghdad fly patterns, you can check out this link: Iraq Fly Patterns.

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Baghdad Time & Temp