Fishing Update: Cold Weather

The fishing was starting to heat up at the beginning of last week with 40-50 degree days, plus our first 50 degree overnight. I tied all kinds of soft-hackles and other good buggies.

Then a cold front rolled in and put things to a halt. We're still in the chill. Didn't stop me, though.

Monday evening at the beginning of the cold front I hit Carter Lake. Ended up pretty wet, but I kept my back to the drizzle and tossed a dual-fly combination with a bead-headed soft hackle first and a plain soft hackle about two feet away. (Still dreaming of blind-catching a carp, if possible.) I was specific in targeting bluegill.

I caught four LMB and one bluegill, all fingerlings. Of interesting note, they all hit the bead.

I have to admit, with this lake, I'm always glad to not dredge up a human thumb.

Nom Nom

Can you spot the fish?!

Thursday of this week, I hit the water up at Lake Cunningham at an old haunt from two years ago with no success. Placid water with occasional wind movement. It is right next to a levy, so the rain/drizzle/snow was coming straight down for most of the time. Beautiful, quiet site and a chance to practice casting.

I also had a chance to go to the "fishing store" (Bass Pro) with my daughters. My sister, Jennifer, she lives real close with her three daughters, so I picked up Leila, one of the twins. She has had a hard time going through the difficulties of not having a dad around. I figured she doesn't have a man to just take her out and do things with her, to show that they want her around. We had fun.

Eva, Ruth, Leila (left to right, respective) and a fat and sassy carp in the background.

My family will always be the second best catch ever. The first best will always be my sweetheart.

Tight lines everyone!

Dave 'n' Fishn...Dave

Today's feature: FishnDave's recent post regarding the Bass Gurgler.

Three of Dave's creations, #4 on the left two, #2 on the right.

Everything and its fishy mother chases this fly. At least in warm water they do. Go to Dave's blog and read the last few posts that feature the use of this fly and you shall see things beyond awesome. 

As he states in his post, the original credit goes to a fellow poster, Jim Smith, on FAOL. Rather than hang on walls, buildings, and billboards, this poster gives out great fly recipes. (Cue the seal laugh. It was punny! *Ar Ar Ar*)

When I bought my first fly tying kit and materials, I found that I had enough to try this fly as well as the Dirty Rat, with one exception: I didn't have eyelash yarn, only chenille. But, I gave it a whirl, and man o manny wammy, Sammy, do these flies produce. Here's my third attempt at the fly, chenille body only.

 

And here is the second and third and fourth and... well, several more real-life testimonials to the effectiveness of this fly.

 

Tie it. Toss it. Love it. Thanks Dave for the great post, and thanks Jim for the great recipe.

 

My First Flies

With the new job and everything, being on the water in the early morning has been hard to get to because I would rather get every ounce of sleep that I can.

As I mentioned in my previous post, I got my first vise. Of course, I started tying some flies.

 I opened up my Ultimate Guide to Fly Fishing and followed the instructions to tying on for the first time. The bobbin is stiff and nonadjustable, but who cares? I know I didn't. I started wrapping away.

First on the list was the Dirty Rat. I followed the instructions, got down to tying the nose, then was pleasantly surprised by my wife snapping pictures. 

 

 

And....

Voila! A Dirty Rat.

It's so cute! The face ended up thin and the tail a tad short, but not bad for a first go round. Had to tie two, of course.

Dirty Rat #2. Wider face and a more prominent nose, plus a longer tail.

I set aside an hour this morning to hit the water before my wife wanted me to be home to let her go running. We both slept in instead.

Tonight, the wife - after dealing with her less than pleasant job and a boss that sent her home because of a business casual t-shirt, the reason why being beyond me - is out with her ex-roommate Lanae watching television and eating junk food, so I decided to jump on something I had gotten in my email: Dave's test of a Bass Gurgler. 

 

After following his link to FAOL, I clarified as to whether I could use chenille, pulled out my razor foam and:

Attempt #1: foam not long enough (it tore on the back) and funky maribou, but fishable.

Attempt #2: Better maribou, foam definitely long enough, deeper body.

Attempt #3: Best maribou yet, chunky little chugger!

Probably the coolest thing so far after trying just two flies is seeing how the different steps in the process come together to form something that looks segmented and alive. Such a cool feeling. Do you remember what it was like when you felt that the first time?

Store-bought plus five hand-tied

I can't wait to get these out on the water. The water I fish is primarily bream, hybrid and Green Sunfish laden, so the aquatic fare for the bass is pretty limited. I'm pretty sure we're looking at noisemakers or frog wannabe. We'll see how they do. Hopefully I can have a day like Dave's!

(By the way, Dave, I think your coloration on that chugger contributed to your awesome day fishing because the breast on those greenies gets pretty yellow, and their fin gets extremely dark during the spawn. Maybe the flash of yellow against the black was just too much for them.)

On my "must tie" list: The Dirty Rat

Poor, recently-graduated-from-college, enthusiastic fly fishermen dream of the day when they can begin to tie their own flies.

I am no exception.

So, I have herein decided to begin a "must tie" list, which I will refer to personally when I forget all about the amazing patterns I see online. I figure it may also be useful to those of you who read this.

Ladies and gentlemen, I give you:

The Dirty Rat

 

Many thanks to Jackie Treehorn of Hatches magazine for turning the morbid observation of rodent immersion into an amazing looking pattern.   

Fly fishing for bass with a mouse pattern is definitely a lot of fun! I plan on trying it with Northerns this year sometime, too.

Tie away, my good friends. Tight lines!

P.S. The only other fly I've seen fish take as or more aggressively on top of the water is the Chugger. Check that one out while you're here!

I graduated with a bass thumb!

That's right folks. Chew marks.

Bass thumb!

Got up early this morning as promised and hit the pond with my brother. I threw a deer hair mouse and hooked into the first bass of the morning with a quick release right at shore. My brother kept having green sunfish smack onto his.

Little chubby. The fish, not the fisherman.

We moved down the shore, fishing weed lines on the way. I dropped the mouse about 6 inches outside the surface weeds. Had a bass explode on it. (No picture, but wow, what a feeling!) 

Good landscape, and Mike landed another bunch of green sunfish. I hooked into two more largemouth at the favorite spot before we went home. No pictures. I was more focused on my bro, and getting the fly on the water.

Can't see it... nice greeny, though.

The pond.

Then it was time to eat, shower, and graduate from college. My family was very supportive and it was a whole lot of fun. Here is my lovely wife who carried me all through college. She graduated too, just as much as I did.

She's also really buff.

Love you, honey.

Just so everyone knows, the Cabela's deer hair poppers are a new fave of mine. Also, caught a bass on a pencil popper for the first time. Good fun and good memories.

 

Dead week ends with a little warmup.

My family is in town for my graduation. My dad, his wife, Diane, and my brother, Michael, all drove in from near Provo, UT to spend the weekend.

My bro and I have already planned some time on my favorite pond.

Turns out we had a chance to hit the water a little early. We took my daughters up to scout the fishing.

There was a big Asian family harvesting massive amounts of Green Sunfish. One other mother and son shared in the awesomeness of this pond, and we mutually swore secrecy against telling anyone about it.

My bro introduced me to the Muddler Minnow and a couple new little bass and bluegill bugs, which we promptly lost. We didn't manage the hook-sets and the fights right, since he had his trout leader on. Got some pictures of the fun ones, though!

Mike hooked into some big green sunfish first. I had to explain the difference between those and the common bream, or bluegill. 

Then, my 4 year old explained that she needed to go potty. I held her just right off in some privacy, only to feel my right leg getting warm. No sweat, though! I'll take one, as a Dad.

After that, we got down into my favorite bass waters. (Yes, pee on pants and all.)

They are definitely much more active as the water hits just the right temperature and the fare explodes for them.  Mike and I traded off on the pole after I hit the first one. Dropping those chuggers in the water amongst some weeds and watching the bass smash them made that adrenaline kick in for the both of us. It was wonderful to share that with him again.

We had a blast! That's my 1.5 year old on my back.

Last bass of the day took the last bright green foam chugger of the day. Darn that blasted trout leader.

On the way back up to the car, we walked past a gentleman with a tripod headed to take pictures. He is from Colorado, and we chatted for a little bit about hitting 6 lb. rainbows at midnight in some of those lakes out there.

All in all, a great time, and we're just warming up.

Early morning fog, and a putz (Updated)

I rolled into my favorite fishing hole bright and early, about 5:30. Leader was too short, so had to tie a double surgeon's and add a couple feet. It was about 39 or 40 degrees out, but the water was warmer from the day before.

Heavy, amazing looking fog. I have to admit, I felt a little freaked out as I crested a bluff and only saw about a hundred yards.

Dropped my black topwater by some familiar structure just at the beginning of the pond, had a bass pop it on the second cast. Too dark for a picture. A nice porker, about 13 inches. They obviously have been feeding very heavily, because I have been catching them with fat bellies.

Fog cleared up down the bank, so I pocketed my fears of mist-born killer pumas and walked to my cove down the shoreline. Started dropping my popper around structure, had some big green sunfish hit it. Nothing else.

Second bass was caught at the end of the morning off of a point. Dropped the popper six feet from shore, and wham!

 

About 13 more inches. Once again, very chunky. I suppose they could be females about ready to spawn.

Headed back to my car to end my day, and caught site of some amazing wildlife:

the elusive putz,  Muchus idiottus. 

It was male, and it locked it's keys in the car. 

Again. 

For the second time in a week. 

I was able to grab a picture before he broke down into tears.

 

Wife came to the rescue, and I learned how to break into my own car using a shim and a coat hanger. What a day!

Remember Water Boy with Adam Sandler? And, a knife fight with a deer? WTFrench?

Ok, so do you remember in Water Boy when Adam Sandler's character starts getting really mad at the quarterbacks as if they were talkin' bad about his momma?

This week featured a rare double-header. (I don't count Monday's attempt at fishing because the weather was so bad. It was great to hang out with John for a bit, though.) By double-header, I mean I went fishing two mornings in a row.

This morning I was on a mission for topwater bass again. I was throwing the same black chugger that I did yesterday.

Turns out I can't find my deer-hair mouse. Sad.

Anyway, success with the Double Haul casting continued today. It makes life a lot easier. I was casting to the fringe of some underwater weeds looking for the ambush when I noticed to my left out on the water a large log. I assumed it was fairly shallow, but it could be several feet. 

As I was chuggin' along the shore to my right, I heard movement in the water by the log out to my left and saw a big furl tear off towards the middle of the lake. 

My eyesight was clouded by the imaginings of enormous bass. Of course, I double hauled my butt out to that part of the pond. 

Back to Water Boy. The log is the backfield. A small spot of moss floating three feet to the right of the log is the line of scrimmage. My chugger is the quarterback, and he just dissed on that fish's momma like you wouldn't believe.

I know I couldn't believe what I saw. Three chugs through the water, and the bass actually cleared the water up to its lateral line to cross the moss and land its fat mouth on my chugger. It was the most amazing take I have ever seen.

And the crowd goes wild.

I hooked into some more big green sunfish this morning.

Also, before I caught this bass, I heard something behind me that sounded like a bull snorting. I snapped my head around, thinking, "Oh no, I'm going to be eaten by a mountain lion," but didn't see anything right away. Sure enough, though, I heard it again, and about 40 yards away, a whitetail deer popped its head out, stared right at me and snorted again. I checked for antlers to make sure I wasn't going to have to get in a knife fight if it tried to charge me. No antlers, but the creature started hopping around and acting all funny. I didn't know what to think.

No more fishing this week for me. Man, what a fun sight that was.

Early Morning Fly Fishing Report 4/18

Light rain and scattered thunderstorms were in the forecast when I looked at it last night. I woke up at about 10 minutes to 5, listening to a steady spattering on the roof. I saw one or two lightning flashes while in bed, but no thunder.

Perfect for an outing, in my opinion.

I got up quietly - if you want to call the horrible, horrible creaking of my floated, 50 year old wood floor quiet - and hurried downstairs. I grabbed a poncho out of the basement, threw my smartphone in a plastic baggy and left.

Without my LED light, I made sure to tie this morning's fly on while at the car. Shown below. I call it my "black foam chugger." My brother gave it to me.

 

Almost immediately, my practice and visualization with the Double Haul paid off, because it finally clicked! I found myself feeling the load of the pole and being able to shoot line effectively this morning. I dropped the chugger over a few well-known parts of the pond without results, before heading to my favorite cove. 

 There, I began depositing it on the backside of some lightly submerged cover. I waited with held breath, listening for the gurgle that meant a fish had taken it. It surprised me when it happened!

The fist got caught in the branches of the cover, so I had to take a bit of a swim, but I got it out. Probably about a foot long. About 2 lbs. or so.

 

After my swim, I tossed further into the cove, and hit some big green sunfish that took the chugger off of the top.

 

Finally, as I told one of the other bloggers I met on Fly Anglers Online, his blog found here, I tied on a Royal Coachman and tried for more sunfish. I landed one more green sunfish, shown below, and two bluegill a little further up the shore. They are definitely starting to spawn.

 

Can't wait to continue my adventure on that pond. I just need to get my wife out to walk with me!