FUMBLIYA!

I went out last night for an hour of fishing before dark.  It was hot and humid.  It was 90 degrees when I left  the house and 85 when I got home.  It didn’t feel any cooler despite the 5 degree cool down.  The water was over 90 degrees and flowing at about 35 CFS.  It was a bit muddy from the rain the night before.  I caught several little fish on a white bugger at first.  I switched to a blue popper as dusk began to settle in.  I was working the shoreline near at the end of a fast run when a bass leaped out of the water taking the popper on the way up!  The fish fought hard and jumped a few more time before it was brought to hand.  I said to myself, ”wow, that was an awesome fish.”  I figured that was as good as it was going to get for the evening.  I continued to fish my way down river working the wood piles and rocks on the far bank with the popper.  As I had popped the fly from the bank to the middle of the stream, I was preparing to cast back to the bank and a fish slowly came to the surface and sipped in the fly.  I set the hook and pulled the fly from the fish’s mouth.  It was one of those frustrating moments that makes you say “DAMN” out loud like when you miss a long putt.  I cast the popper back to the same spot and let it sit for a moment.  A dark form appeared below the fly, slowly rose revealing its bronze sides, the fish was about to take a second swipe at the fly!  The bass sipped in the popper again, I let it turn and take it under before I set the hook and the fight was on!  As I was fighting the fish, I got a good look at it and it was a beast!  It must have been between 18-20”.  As I lipped the fish and picked it up out of water, I said to myself, “this is a trophy fish.”  As I said this out loud to myself, the fish flipped and flopped itself out of my hand and threw the fly at the same time.  Before I knew it the fish was gone.  No pictures of this beast, but I did have it in hand.  It was like catching a 50 yard pass, breaking through the secondary with no defender between you and the endzone, then triping and fumbling the ball on the 1 yardline.  It was a great fish, and a good moment on the river, but it could have been so much better!        

Cesar's Creek

I was visiting my Aunt and Uncle the weekend.  They live near Cesar’s Creek.  I managed to get out and fish for a couple of hours on Saturday morning.  On the way to the creek it began to drizzle.  It didn’t seem like it was going to rain.  It’s been drought like for the last month or more.  I was betting it wasn’t going to rain hard.  I rigged up and my wife called me and said it was pouring at my aunt’s house.  I told her, “yes, it is raining, and I don’t have a rain coat!  I’m never listing to you again.”  When we were leaving for my aunt’s house, I was packing my rain coat and a fleece.  My wife insisted I didn’t need these things.  She said “we’re only going for a day; you don’t need all that stuff.”   She asked if I was going to come home.  I told her I was going to keep fishing.  As I began fishing, the drizzle turned into a light rain.  Still no big deal, I kept fishing.  Suddenly the sky opened up and it began to poor.  This was too much.  I ran back to the parking area where there was a shelter house picnic area.  I waited out the storm there.  When the heavy rain passed, I went back to the creek and fished for another hour and a half or so.  I had a few missed strikes and I caught a couple of nice fish. Over all, the creek was slower than I expected it to be.  It was still a decent place to fish.  The scenery pics are a bit blurry because there was water on the lens, oh well.

The great outdoors

Here are some pictures of the natural beauty of the river and critters that call it home. 

Swallows nested in the side of a cliff

Hello Mr. Crayfish

Secret Waterfall

Deer 10' from me (taken with my phone)

Koi  fish

Sunday Moring Trifecta

I hit the river yesterday morning at about 7:00am.  It was already 85 degrees and humid.  The water was warm, over 80 degrees.  The flow was about 60 CFS, low and clear conditions.  I decided to explore and fish a new stretch of water between two places where I’ve fished a lot.  I found some decent water separated by long stretches of fishless water that was real skinny and had no structure.  I finally got to a nice pool and pulled a couple of smallmouth and even a few largemouth from.  In the next pool down, I got a good tug and found an acrobatic smallmouth on the end of my line.  It was a good sized fish.   I kept working downstream and hooked a real beast of a fish a good 18 incher, maybe bigger.  Then, from the same spot I must have pulled 10 or more rock bass on successive casts.  I kept going back to this spot until I came up empty.  I came to a large bend pool and worked a brush pile at the bend.  I caught a 12 inch fish.  As I was stripping the small bass in, a huge smallmouth chased it down and almost ate the fish I had caught.  It was a holy sh!t moment.  I’ve seen that kind of thing before, but it always amazes me.  I immediately put on a big streamer and went back to see if the big fish was still juiced up and would hit the streamer.  No luck there, he wasn’t fooled.  I walked down stream and started working the flats of a huge pool down from the bend.  I spooked a carp and caught another good sized smallmouth.  The last big bass I caught came working a crayfish across the bottom of the big pool.  I got the fly within a few feet of the rod tip and stopped to untangle the fly line.  When I went to pick up for another cast there was a small tug at first.  I set the hook and the fight was on.  At first I thought it was a carp because of how hard the fish pulled.  I got the fish on the reel and finally worked it to the surface to find that it was another huge bass!  Three huge bass in one morning and several other good sized fish, it was a great morning.  I headed out at 11:00 for brunch one very happy angler.         

Smallies on Hoppers

I’ve been tying hoppers in preparation for my trip to Yellowstone.  I decided to take one of my recently tied hoppers for a test spin.  First cast, bam!  A sunfish came up and wacked it.  I caught a couple of smallies on the hopper too.  In a short hour on the water, my hopper stung several fish.  I can’t wait to see how the trout like them!