An afternoon on the river

I left work a little early on Firday, grabbed my rod and headed for the river. Shortly after I arrived I caught a nice carp. The pool where I caught the carp usually produces some good smallmouth and rock bass; which is what I was fishing for. This carp went on some drag burning runs; it did not want to come to hand. Eventually the fish tired and I beached it for the obligatory picture. This carp trashed the hole in the fight. It ran up and down the length of the pool and thrashed wildly. The carp probably spooked every fish in that section of river. There was no way that this pool was going to fish after that fight so I moved on down river. I caught a couple of smallies as I worked my way down. They were average to small fish. I worked all the way down to a spot that is normally not very good for smallmouth. It’s a slow bend pool with a muddy and sandy bottom. I tied on a white popper and proceeded to cast to the far bank where there was some shade. I would pop the bug hard when it first landed, let it rest, then swim it under water and begin the process again. The appearance of a dying minnow was irresistible to a nice sized smallmouth it came from the depths and quietly sipped in the popper. I set the hook and the fight was on. The fished jumped several times and put up a respectable fight. I love catching fish on the surface. It has to be the most exciting fly form of fishing there is. There is nothing like seeing the fish take the fly. I released the smallmouth, pricking myself with the hook in the process, and moved on downstream. I fished some normally productive water to find nobody home so I kept on moving. I made it down to a tailout that is about 2’-3’ which has large numbers of rocks, bolders, and broken concrete on the bottom. The current here is somewhat slow; this is good habitat for crayfish. So I tied on a small clouser crayfish and fished it across the bottom so it scooted from rock to rock like a real crayfish. On the second or third hop, I had a fish on! It was another pretty decent smallmouth. I fished on down and caught a blue gill, and a crappie; they were not big fish bit it was a nice change of pace. At this point I decided to change venues and drove a few minutes down river to a spot I like to fish where a creek comes into the river. I fished the junction of the river and creek first- nobody home. I worked on downstream to a nice pool with a medium current and some big boulders on the bottom in the deepest part of the pool. I have caught fish around those boulders in the past so I gave them a little extra attention. I fished a popper first and brought up a smallie. After releasing that fish I changed flies and put on a clouser minnow in chartruse. I worked the fly between the two biggest boulders and something wacked the fly. There was a brief fight and then the fish just seemed to give up. It was a rock bass the size of my hand. I was surprised that such a large rock bass would just give up the way it did. Usually these fish are good fighters. I worked my way down river fished every nook and cranny of the river as I went. I didn’t find another player until I got to the tail out of a large slow pool. This tail out also had a lot of rocks on the bottom and some nice deep pockets between. I tied the crayfish on again and hopped it across the bottom. I caught a couple of nice smallies here doing this. At this point it was pretty dark so I fished my way back to the access point, catching a creek chub, another sunfish and a couple of dink smallmouth. I caught several good fish, I had the river all to myself and I had some and I had a nice relaxing afternoon/evening. It was really good to get out and fish. Being back in school; I truly cherish each and every time I have a chance to get out and fish. I used to get out almost everyday. Now I get out a couple of times a week at most.

The week in review...

I have fished a few times since my last entry.  I went out last Sunday and fished the river for a couple of hours and then headed over to a local pond because the water was so muddy.  Right when I arrived I caught a smallmouth, it was a little dink.  I expected it to be decent since I caught a fish on the first cast.  It wasn’t.  I had about an hour or so left to fish so I headed over to this pond near my house.  I had never fished there before, but I had heard there were bass in that pond and there were.  I caught a decent largemouth near a weed bed.  I fished again one day after class.  I fished another pond nearby.  This was the first time I had fished there.  A buddy of mine had said he fished there for blue gill so that’s what I was targeting.  I caught several nice blue gill and was having a ball when, to my surprise, I caught a bass!  I took off the nymphs I was fishing and tied on a clouser.  I managed one more largemouth before it got dark.  The next time I got out was Friday morning before I went on a trip.  When I arrived there was mist rising off the water, the sun was peaking through the trees; it was beautiful out.  The river was much clearer than it had been all week.  I was hopping it would fish well and it did.  I caught a bunch of fish that day.  I managed several smallies, a few rock bass, creek chubs, and a rainbow trout!  There is no trout population in this river and the water gets too warm for trout to survive.  This fish should not have been there.  Catching this trout made my day.  I also caught a nice smallmouth on a popper.  The fish just came up from the depths and crushed the popper; the fish came all the way out of the water on the take.  I waited a moment then set the hook hard and the fight was on.  This was probably the biggest resident bass I’ve caught this season.  I caught several other fish, but these were the memorable ones.  It truly was an excellent morning on the river.  Sunday, when I got back from my trip, I went out to wet a line for a few minutes before Father’s Day festivities.  I had a really good afternoon on Sunday too.  I caught so many fish that I lost count.  Things began with a good sized carp (on a 5 wt rod).  I caught a bunch of smallies, some shiners and few rock bass.  The carp was the trophy fish of the day.  

                                         Largemouth from the weed bed

                                        A misty morning on the stream

                                   Trout!!!!!!!!!  It's not supposed to be there...

                                 Trout fishing for smallies, on a crayfish fly (same fish as above)

                                             Smallie on a popper

                                 Big carp + light rod = hell of a fight

Muddy...

It rained real hard earlier this week and the river was blown. It has come down to a fishable flow, but it was muddy, it looked like coffee with cream. Friday afternoon, I had the chance to fish until dark, so I did. I read that if you are in knee deep water and you can’t see your boots the fishing is not going to be very good. I couldn’t see my boots, I couldn’t even see my shorts… it was muddy. I decide to fish anyhow. I fished a section of the lower river that I fish frequently. The recent rains had caused the rivers to rise so much, a huge tree that was on the bank previously was completely gone. The river had completely changed in this area; it had cut a new channel. I fished all afternoon and caught one smallie (in 5 hours). I was happy to get out and practice my cast. I got out again today (Saturday) afternoon. This time I fished way up river. The water was still muddy today. I had about two hours and hooked two smallies in that time. There were a bunch of kids on the river looking for crayfish. One of them took a picture for me, not such a good; he cut off my head in the shot. I hope to get out again tomorrow morning if it doesn’t rain tonight.

                                       Friday's fish

                                         First fish from this afternoon

                                     Second fish from this afternoon (picture taken by a10 year old)

In between the rain…

I have been in school so opportunities to get out and fish have been few and far between.  When I get a chance to fish, I have to find a way to take advantage of it as they are at a premium.  I had just one of those chances on Friday afternoon.  I had an appointment in Willoughby about 10 minutes drive from one of my favorite parks to fish the river.  I went down to the park and found the water to be off color.  There was some limited visibility, about 12”, but conditions were not good.  It had rained a lot a couple of days before and the river had not really dropped into shape yet.  I began by swinging through two good riffle, run, pool, sections that usually produce for me.  Nothing!  I decided to change flies and tactics.  I tied on a small crayfish pattern and a minnow dropper.  I drifted through the same areas I had just swung through making it back to the head of the riffle I began at and again, nothing.  At this point I only had about a half hour left to fish.  I decided to work the drop off just under the riffle really hard.  I was working the inside current break and my fly stopped, I knew it was either a fish or a snag.  I gave it a yank to set the hook Justin case it was a fish.  One of two things was going to happen I was going to hook a fish or set the hook deep into a snag.  Just as I set the hook, a monster smallmouth shot out of the water about 3’ in front of me!  It was a huge fish!!  It jumped again, ran down river, then it charged straight at me.  I was unable to pick up line fast enough and when the line had slack in it, the fish threw the hook.  It was sad to lose that fish, but I would say that was the largest small mouth I had ever had on the line.  It was huge and worked my 5 weight rod.  That was a fish I would have preferred to have on a 7 weight.  I was worried it was going to break the tippet or maybe even the rod.  Even though I lost that fish I still felt like I had accomplished something.  On the way back to the car I fished a slow run near the access and was rewarded with a good sized resident fish.  I managed to pull the skunk out on the way back to the car.  

It rained again Friday night, Saturday, and Sunday morning.  I had planed to get up early Sunday morning and fish a pond because the rain had blown out the rivers.  I had home work to do Sunday and that morning was going to be the last chance to fish for the next week or so.

It was poring rain on Sunday morning when I got up at 6:00am to go fishing.  It wasn’t going to happen.  I went to do some home work and the sun came out at about 3:00, I packed it up and headed for the pond to see if I could get into some largemouth bass fishing some still water.  I had only fished still water with a fly rod 1 time before with no luck.  When I was in Hammondsport last October I fished Keuka Lake from the pier with a sink tip.  It was worthless.  Needless to say I had low expectations for this outing.  I began fishing in an area that looked promising; the problem was brush.  I did not have any room to cast.  I moved to a spot on the pond that had an opening for a back cast that was near an inlet that was flowing at a good rate.  I thought this inlet was a good place to start.  On the second or third cast, I caught the smallest largemouth bass I have ever caught.  It was literally about 3.5”; unimpressive to say the least.  It was smaller than the small resident smallmouth bass I catch in the river; those are at least 6-8”.  I thought to my self “it’s going to be one of those days”.  Grrreeeaaat…  I continued around the pond and talked to a guy throwing hardware.  He said it was the worst day you could fish, the day after a storm.  He wasn’t catching anything.  I walked over to a down fall and began probing the edges; nobody was home.  I walked to the other side of the down fall and found another down tree that extended out about 14’ or so to the deeper water.  I cast my fly to the end of the tree and worked it in parallel to the tree, about half way back on the first cast I had a jolting strike!  I set the hook, I really whacked this fish.  I dove for the wood pile and I had to work it away from there.  I could feel a good pull, nut I hadn’t been able to get a look at the fish yet.  I finally worked it to the surface where it started tail dancing and thrashing as I brought it to hand.  It was a pretty good largemouth for this pond.  It fought a good fight on the 5 weight rod.  I continued to fish around the pond, changed flies to a nymph pattern and cast at some blue gills that were in plain sight.  The blue gills were on nests and were not interested in my offering.  I changed flies again and put on a popper with a rubber legged nymph dropper.  I worked a bunch of water making my way around to where I started with nothing else.  There is a second pond that is partially accessible from the park; the rest of it is posted.  I worked the part of other pond I could reach from park grounds with no sign of fish.  I was near the inlet where I caught the tiny largemouth when I first arrived.  I decided to tie a clouser on again and give the inlet another shot. This time I cast under the tree limbs stretched out over the water from the edge of the pond on the far side of the inlet.  These trees shaded the water and there was a lot of wood in the water over there; good bass structure.  I cast to a tree stump near a submerged log and began working the fly back to me, bam, fish on!  It was another largemouth.  This one was bigger than the first, but smaller than the second fish.  I got a couple of pictures and released the fish.  It was time to pack it in and head to Mom and Dad’s for Sunday dinner.  It was a pretty good afternoon at the pond.  I out-fished two guys fishing bait and a guy throwing hard baits.  The two guys fishing bait were right near me when I caught the second fish (the biggest bass I caught today).  They were very interested to see what I caught the bass on.  You could tell they were surprised to see a clouser minnow as they don’t look very effective to the angler, but fish love them!  Getting out on the pond was just the ticket to get some good bass action on the fly rod even though the rivers are all blown.  It was a happy afternoon for me since I thought my prospects for fishing today were drowned by this morning’s rain.