Day went well, but I did learn a few things...
#1 Be aware of the water and environment you are about to fish.
#2 A wading staff...would be nice.
#3 I better get stronger leader for bass....arg.
So I arrive at the creek at about 8 AM. Light fog in the air, nice and cool.
The water was fairly clear. After getting all my gear together, I began my long process of deciding what in the world to start off with. With the weather as it was and fall here I figured the fish would be fattening up a bit and active, so I picked a black and yellow popper fly. After a few casts along side a log I moved on to a nice looking pocket down stream from some riffles, about a foot deep I assumed, and got my first bite of the day...a lunker..maybe five inch long rock bass. A few casts later i hooked on to a tiny smallmouth...and decided it was time to move on from that spot. Moving from pocket to pocket, fishing some nice looking eddies and pools I had no luck. About an hour passed by when I reached a beautiful spot. The creek widens a great deal, and the bed changes to almost completely stone, like your walking in a bathtub (now I call this area the bathtub), right at the end of the "bath tub" the creek bed drops about 2-3 feet creating a nice little water fall. The fall spans the width of the creek. To make a long story short, this spot looks ideal for getting on a couple smallmouths...but like the last two times I fished here, I didn't get a single bite. I figured now that an hour had passed it might be a good time to sit, have a cup of coffee, and do some changing. I finally switched to my trusty woolly bugger, black with a little gold lateral line.
After a cup of coffee and a few more cast at the falls I moved on. As I mentioned the bed of the creek turns almost completely stone (upstream from falls), this stone bed, or bath tub continues down the creek about fifty yards until it finally changes to sand and gravel. For the next hour or two I fished a few fallen trees which sat in a few feet of water...truly ideal for a bite. And this is where I had the first of my two heart brakes. I wasn't having any success with the black bugger so I switched to a brown with gold lateral line hoping maybe the bite would be on crayfish. A couple cast along side a fallen tree my line jumped! I pulled the rod up setting the hook with heart beating when I saw my leader come out of the water with no fly...no fly??? The fish broke off on the bite! before I even had time to set the hook!
Disappointing to say the least. One fly down. So I tied on another brown fly with gold lateral line now believing that I did indeed find the bite, but in the back of my mind realizing that I may have a slight problem here. After working the same tree once again hoping that maybe, just maybe he might bite again (yeah right) I then began to fish another tree, with it's roots sticking up out of the water. Suddenly my line jumped! I set the hook and he was still there, thank God!
It was a nice little fight which surprised me when I got him next to me and realized it was a chunky rock bass. Not bad, probably the chunkiest rock bass I have caught.
After releasing him and five minutes passed I thought I heard a beeping noise?
Oh, it's my phone, and the battery is dead. Reaching in my vest to turn it off my line suddenly pulled from my hand! With my right hand half inside my vest reaching for my phone and the other holding my fly rod I made a sloppy hook-set, and out of nowhere a torpedo shot out of the water about two feet in the air with my fly in the corner of his mouth! Kinda caught me off guard, and got me laughing! I managed to get my other hand free and get him in. Not a bad smallie, especially his acrobatics.
As time passed I caught a few more smallmouth with the brown bugger and a green bugger, but no fish really note worthy. As I approached 1pm things got really slow. Earlier while I was fishing the fallen trees I kept hearing and seeing fish jump up stream near what I remember a very wide, deep area. What was past the deep spot, I have no idea...that's about as far as I have gone. So deciding that I have been fishing the trees for far too long I moved up stream in hope of hooking onto one of those jumping fish (maybe a few nice smallies feeding?). Not knowing the are very well I had no clue how to approach it. The water got deep quickly, before I even reached the area I believed the fish were, so I had to get out and walk around and approach the other side of it...from up stream. Once I finally got out on the creek I learned my next lesson (one I have learned many times). Understand the water, structure and area your about to fish before you approach it. Basically...to put it simple, I looked like a drunken idiot trying to balance myself, stumbling over huge rocks, and boulders, all the while stirring up the dirt beneath me as it flowed down stream on the spot I was in such a hurry to get to. No good. No bites, nothing.
Smallmouth are very spooky when dirt is kicked up, and the rocks knocking against each other is louder than you would expect under water. The fish were long gone by the time I got my footing. Pulling myself away from the spot I moved upstream after seeing a smallmouth leap in a frenzy. Now casting up stream I had a little more confidence that I may get a bite. Ten, fifteen cast into it I decided to switch one more time. I have seen a lot of caterpillars lately around my home, and their nest are everywhere in trees...so I switched to a fly that I think resembles them pretty well. It worked. The first cast up over some boulders in about two feet of water I got a hit. He ran right instantly and leaped out of the water and threw the fly...lost-em.
A few cast later I decided to move on up the creek to an attractive bend ahead. All along the left bank is a rocky slope into I believe about three foot of water. Along the right side of the creek the bed rises into a sand bank. Wading in the right side and casting up to the rocky ledge I got a bite quickly. A nice little smallie with tons of energy and no head to the fact that he is not a truck makes a nice leap right in front of me as he tries to throw the fly. This time I win.
The image on the right you can see the fly I chose that i thought mimicked a caterpillar pretty well.
So I stayed in this area for a while. Just down about fifty feet from the rocky bank
I found submerged grass, and thought there has got to be fish here. A few cast later I felt a thud on my line, and missed it...casting right back to the same spot he hit again, and I hit him right back! This fish felt great! He had no intentions on coming in, and came up for a nice jump as well! Not a bad smallie..I thought as he landed and took off again. Is is amazing what an average size smallie can do when you only have a four pound leader. I can't imagine if he was much bigger :\ As that thought passed I got him next to me and pulled him out of the water. Fish of the day for sure. Not huge, but not small....and man did he fight! So I brought him to the bank and took a nice picture of him next to my fly rod (thinking of all those beautiful pictures I see in magazines with trout). Man was I surprised, the picture came out better than I planned.
Next time I will be out there with at least 6 lb. leader...and we'll see how that helps!
After a cup of coffee and a few more cast at the falls I moved on. As I mentioned the bed of the creek turns almost completely stone (upstream from falls), this stone bed, or bath tub continues down the creek about fifty yards until it finally changes to sand and gravel. For the next hour or two I fished a few fallen trees which sat in a few feet of water...truly ideal for a bite. And this is where I had the first of my two heart brakes. I wasn't having any success with the black bugger so I switched to a brown with gold lateral line hoping maybe the bite would be on crayfish. A couple cast along side a fallen tree my line jumped! I pulled the rod up setting the hook with heart beating when I saw my leader come out of the water with no fly...no fly??? The fish broke off on the bite! before I even had time to set the hook!
Disappointing to say the least. One fly down. So I tied on another brown fly with gold lateral line now believing that I did indeed find the bite, but in the back of my mind realizing that I may have a slight problem here. After working the same tree once again hoping that maybe, just maybe he might bite again (yeah right) I then began to fish another tree, with it's roots sticking up out of the water. Suddenly my line jumped! I set the hook and he was still there, thank God!
It was a nice little fight which surprised me when I got him next to me and realized it was a chunky rock bass. Not bad, probably the chunkiest rock bass I have caught.
After releasing him and five minutes passed I thought I heard a beeping noise?
Oh, it's my phone, and the battery is dead. Reaching in my vest to turn it off my line suddenly pulled from my hand! With my right hand half inside my vest reaching for my phone and the other holding my fly rod I made a sloppy hook-set, and out of nowhere a torpedo shot out of the water about two feet in the air with my fly in the corner of his mouth! Kinda caught me off guard, and got me laughing! I managed to get my other hand free and get him in. Not a bad smallie, especially his acrobatics.
As time passed I caught a few more smallmouth with the brown bugger and a green bugger, but no fish really note worthy. As I approached 1pm things got really slow. Earlier while I was fishing the fallen trees I kept hearing and seeing fish jump up stream near what I remember a very wide, deep area. What was past the deep spot, I have no idea...that's about as far as I have gone. So deciding that I have been fishing the trees for far too long I moved up stream in hope of hooking onto one of those jumping fish (maybe a few nice smallies feeding?). Not knowing the are very well I had no clue how to approach it. The water got deep quickly, before I even reached the area I believed the fish were, so I had to get out and walk around and approach the other side of it...from up stream. Once I finally got out on the creek I learned my next lesson (one I have learned many times). Understand the water, structure and area your about to fish before you approach it. Basically...to put it simple, I looked like a drunken idiot trying to balance myself, stumbling over huge rocks, and boulders, all the while stirring up the dirt beneath me as it flowed down stream on the spot I was in such a hurry to get to. No good. No bites, nothing.
Smallmouth are very spooky when dirt is kicked up, and the rocks knocking against each other is louder than you would expect under water. The fish were long gone by the time I got my footing. Pulling myself away from the spot I moved upstream after seeing a smallmouth leap in a frenzy. Now casting up stream I had a little more confidence that I may get a bite. Ten, fifteen cast into it I decided to switch one more time. I have seen a lot of caterpillars lately around my home, and their nest are everywhere in trees...so I switched to a fly that I think resembles them pretty well. It worked. The first cast up over some boulders in about two feet of water I got a hit. He ran right instantly and leaped out of the water and threw the fly...lost-em.
A few cast later I decided to move on up the creek to an attractive bend ahead. All along the left bank is a rocky slope into I believe about three foot of water. Along the right side of the creek the bed rises into a sand bank. Wading in the right side and casting up to the rocky ledge I got a bite quickly. A nice little smallie with tons of energy and no head to the fact that he is not a truck makes a nice leap right in front of me as he tries to throw the fly. This time I win.
The image on the right you can see the fly I chose that i thought mimicked a caterpillar pretty well.
So I stayed in this area for a while. Just down about fifty feet from the rocky bank
I found submerged grass, and thought there has got to be fish here. A few cast later I felt a thud on my line, and missed it...casting right back to the same spot he hit again, and I hit him right back! This fish felt great! He had no intentions on coming in, and came up for a nice jump as well! Not a bad smallie..I thought as he landed and took off again. Is is amazing what an average size smallie can do when you only have a four pound leader. I can't imagine if he was much bigger :\ As that thought passed I got him next to me and pulled him out of the water. Fish of the day for sure. Not huge, but not small....and man did he fight! So I brought him to the bank and took a nice picture of him next to my fly rod (thinking of all those beautiful pictures I see in magazines with trout). Man was I surprised, the picture came out better than I planned.
Next time I will be out there with at least 6 lb. leader...and we'll see how that helps!
4 comments:
Sounds like an AWESOME DAY!! Where did you go?
Darlington :) It was a nice day man!
Thank you Joseph for stopping by my Blog.
Alex
I had a dream the other night that I was going down the canal on a luge and a fish jumped onto my luge then and angel of God appeared and said i told you not to use a net, but I told the angel I use no net it jumped into my boat on its own.
Post a Comment