Many of you who are into the fly fishing sport are aware of Temple Fork Outfitters (TFO rods). I actually own three of their rods and one of the reasons I purchased TFO was because of their outstanding warranty. When I initially purchased my first TFO rod, I believe the process involved placing the broken rod in a rod tube and mailing it along with $40 back to TFO and within a week, you would have a replacement section for that rod delivered to your door. I have had to use this several times before and I have never had a complaint. I believe once I had to return a rod that had been discontinued and they sent me a brand new rod in a comparable line of quality.
Most recently, I broke my two-piece, Lefty Kreh Signature 3 wt. This easy to cast, fun little rod has provided me with hours and hours of fun “ultralight” fishing for warm-water species and I have even landed bass up to 3 and a half pounds on it. The service fee for warranties has gone up to $50 so it was still going to be worth it to pay that and a shipping fee to get a replacement section for a rod that probably costs $150 + for a brand new one. Well, just like I expected, I received my replacement rod, which was delivered to my front door about one week after I mailed it to TFO. The only problem was, someone in the shipping department had not stapled the little plastic caps on the cardboard rod tube and when I went to open the tube, the rod had fallen out, and probably stepped on or crushed by other packages. I called FedEx and they filed an investigation report for me and they said they would look into it. I tried for a couple days to reach TFO but I must have called at bad times because twice, I had to leave a voicemail and I never received a callback from them. My third time was the charm and I was able to speak to a nice lady. YEAH! Not a computer! She looked up my account and she said she would refer it to her manager. I thought yeah, right, we will see. Well, that was on Monday and by Friday, I received another TFO rod tube with a brand new Signature 3 wt in it. I can’t tell you just how thrilled I am with their customer service and I would recommend TFO to anyone out there considering a new rod.
Today’s fishing report is brought to you bye the game, Never Have I Ever. In today’s pop culture, I understand it is a drinking game. From what I understand, players sit in a circle and someone says, “Never have I ever…and they fill in the blank with something they have never done before. Anyone in the group who has done the “thing” must drink. So, I’m starting this blog entry with Never have I ever and let’s see if you have to take a drink. It can be coffee, tea, water, or any beverage of your choosing.
Never have I ever been on the water in my kayak and seen a water spout.
Yep, this one got bigger and actually touched down, did its thing, and went back up as the storm lost all its energy.
So, how many of you had to take a drink? I’m sure some of you have been on the water with one of these. I have seen several of these over the many years I’ve been fishing. They really are quite beautiful. This one was probably 30 -50 miles away from me, out in the Gulf. This next one, from 2013 was a little bit closer. I didn’t take the pictures, someone else did and it is quite menacing.
This was in LeevilleThis was the same water spout as it passed over Grand Isle
Back to my fishing report. I passed on a trip with my buddy yesterday because I saw the radar and it looked like a mini hurricane was going to be hitting Delacroix right around the time I planned on getting there. It was probably a good call for me to stay in Baton Rouge but my buddy did land 8 redfish between squalls. After hearing that, I decided to get up early to beat the rain and headed to Delacroix myself. Herein lies my “never have I ever” number 2 or my never have I ever for the day.
Never have I ever had so many redfish REJECT a gold spoon fly! Conditions were quite favorable. There was virtually zero wind and I had a full sun until noon. The water was dirty (even where there was grass) but the redfish were feeding on crabs. I love sight-fishing for redfish but today, I had to rely on my ears. I push-poled my way through the flats and I would hear a big splash. I would then head toward the area where I heard it and I would wait for the fish to make its presence known. More times than not, this tactic worked for me. I saw a few redfish angrily come out of the water as they chased down bait. I later realized the “bait” they were chasing was baby crabs. The crabs were all over the place.
My first and only good eat came early during the day (actually while I was still monitoring that water spout). I saw a fish chasing bait in the shallows near a broken island. I pushed poled my way over to the fish and I slowly and stealthily eased my way up to where I had last seen it. I noticed several times during the day, that as I approached a feeding fish, I could hear my own heartbeat in my head. It’s absolutely nuts what adrenaline can do. I imagine that’s what happens to a bow hunter as he/she draws his/her bow on a big buck. As I got closer, I saw my pumpkin-colored adversary. I put my spoon fly about a foot in front of it…strip…strip…strip…bam! The fish immediately dug down in the grass. I tried to keep my rod tip high to keep the fish from digging into the grass but It was fruitless. The redfish had about 5 pounds of “salad” attached to my leader. I reached my hand in the water several times to strip the grass off my leader so I could work the fish. I would pull grass away and add a little pressure to my line. Then I’d feel the fish shaking on the other end so I knew it was still on. I guess having to fight a kayak and several pounds of grass zapped the fight right out of the redfish. After what seemed like 10 minutes (it probably wasn’t that long), I was able to get the fish in my net. I felt like I had really earned that fish with all it took to sneak up on it, get it to eat, and then fight it without it breaking my tippet.
I worked hard for this one
I was on the board. I usually don’t keep anything over 24 inches and this one went 25. I had a hard time trying to revive it and after about five minutes of trying, I decided to put it in the ice chest. My daughter and the grandkids will be here this week and I know they love Nanna’s redfish courtboullion.
I got as much of the grass off as I could.
Little did I know it but that was the last eat I would get all day. I saw lots of fish. I spooked lots of fish, but never, ever, have I seen so many fish reject the spoon fly. I tried casting 2 inches away from their nose. I tried a foot away. I tried two feet and then strip the fly across their path. They either spooked and took off or they ignored it completely. I had two or three that actually followed the fly for several feet and then they decided not to eat. I got several multiple shots at fish that didn’t even see me. Oh. I forgot to ask. How many of you had to take a drink? I’ve had fish reject my fly before but I guess I had about 20 fish just say no to the gold spoon fly.
So, I changed tactics…and flies. I tied on one of my crab imitations. The problem with my crab flies is, I use a small lead dumbbell weight to turn the hook point up. While this works just fine, it sinks too quickly and I end up catching grass on every cast. The spoon fly wobbles on down and can actually be fished in a way where I rarely have to clean grass off it. Well, after I had two redfish follow my crab imitation and decide not to eat. I switched back to my spoon fly. This pattern continued all morning long. By noon, I saw several small squalls heading my way, so I decided not to be a statistic and I headed in. Wind, rain, and clouds don’t work well when sight fishing. So, now I’m a man on a mission. I will work on tying a crab fly that isn’t so heavy. That just means I’ll have to do some more research. You all know how much I like “research.”
I’ve had a little time on my hands as I prepare for upcoming time with my grandkids and then band camp. So, I’ve been trying different types of foam flies that 1) would be easy for my students in my fly fishing club to tie and 2) would catch fish. I tried a different version of my last “crease” fly and I finished with these:
These aren’t my creation. Just a copy of someone else’s idea.
I don’t mind trying other people’s ideas, as long as they catch fish. Well, here’s proof of concept:
This little guy inhaled the flyMore proof this fly worksSorry about the blurry picture. It was getting late
That last bass hit around 8:30 PM and it was getting dark, thus the blurry picture. I almost didn’t see the bass slurp the fly and had me laughing out loud as it tried to jump, but it just flopped and plopped on the surface of the water. It’s always nice to know that the neighborhood fish are eating well and are looking healthy. I am hoping the weather cooperates tomorrow and I get to get my 8 wt out to try for some marsh redfish.
This is just a short addendum to my last post. As I mentioned there, I bent the hooks a bit to widen the hook gap. I got to do some “research” after the monsoon rain we had this afternoon and the bass didn’t disappoint. I did miss three strikes but I think it was because of poor hook sets by the fisherman and not the fly. I did manage to land these two and you can see the hook was lodged firmly in the side of each fish’s mouth.
This first one was a good pound and a halfThe second one I landed was also hooked well.
I think I have some more tweaking to do (like getting that hook eye closer to the “belly” of the fly). I can’t wait to improve on this one and teach it to the students in my fly fishing club at school. It can be tied with inexpensive foam, inexpensive Mustard hooks (size 2/0) and some stick on eyes. A little craft fur for the tail, stick on eyes, epoxy, and these flies will be ready to catch fish.
As a fly fisherman and someone who loves the challenge and thrill of catching fish on flies that I tie myself, I am always looking for new fly patterns, new color combinations, and new materials to tie. I recently stumbled on some beautiful flies on social media that were tied using craft foam. These were basically crease flies but crease flies on “steroids.” I have tied crease flies in the past and I had some success catching fish on them, but I found my hookup ratios weren’t as good as those on deer hair poppers and divers. After seeing these beautiful I thought I would tie a few of these up myself. These are ties by Carl Harris (you can find his work on facebook). I think he ties these in size 5, probably for big pike, so I wanted to tie a few in a size 2 for bass. Another motive I had for trying to tie these was to be able to teach an easy pattern to my high school fly tiers next year. They looked pretty easy enough. 🙂
Well, I came up with these.
Boy, they sure look pretty, don’t they? Well, it was time to do some “research” in my neighborhood lake. I got up early this morning and put my kayak in our upper lake. I was fishing with the shad colored one and I got an early blowup before the sun had even come up. My first missed fish. About 15 minutes later, and I missed another fish on the popper. I also had a lot of small bream that snapped and missed my fly. No worries because they were my target fish anyway. This pattern of missed fish continued until I had missed four bass. Well that was enough “research” for me. I cut my foam imitation off and tied on one of my deer hair bugs. In a hurry, I didn’t tie a good knot. About four or five casts with that diver, I had a big blowup. My hook found its mark and I had a nice bass on for about 3 seconds when it popped my leader. Had tied a bad knot, but luckily, the fish spit my dahlberg diver out and it was floating about three feet from where I had lost the fish. I quickly retied, making sure to secure my knot well. Ten minutes later, I had a big bass roll on the bug but it didn’t eat it. Two casts later, its little brother couldn’t resist and I landed a feisty little largemouth bass.
I was back at my house before 8 AM and I had to do some thinking about those foam flies. First of all, I realized my hook gap wasn’t wide enough.
Notice how high the eye of the hook is. That’s no good. There isn’t enough hook gap on this fly
I actually threw that fly in the garbage and I decided to widen the hook gaps on the other flies I had tied.
While the eye of this hook is still too much in the middle of the fly, I was able to slightly widen the hook gap.
So, now I have to do some more research. My goal is to come up with an easy pattern for my club members to tie with inexpensive foam they can purchase at a local hobby store. I’ll do some tweaking, some more research, and I’ll post my results here. Research is fun!!
I am truly thankful for all the good gifts that God gives me every day. I thank Him for life, for my family, my health, and so much more. I am also thankful for some of the good friends I’ve made through my love of the outdoors and fly fishing/kayak fishing. When I was going through some of my photos on my computer, it occurred to me I had only made one trip to the Southeast Louisiana marsh this current calendar year. There are numerous reasons for this from family obligations, to work commitments, to poor weather conditions, but as weird as it may be, the planets lined up perfectly for me Wednesday. I was able to witness this in person as I drove down to Delecroix Island to target my favorite fish, le poisson rouge.
Not my photo, but I did see it 🙂
Of course, I texted one of my New Orleans fishing buddies, who has been my guide lately as I am learning new water that is only a two-hour drive from my house instead of the usual two-and-a-half to three I have been taking down south of Golden Meadow. I don’t know if he would want me to mention his name on this blog, so I’ll just say that he has a blog that I list as one of those I follow. He has fished out of Hobie kayaks for a while and he’s a valuable resource to have around. I have learned a lot from him in the few trips I’ve made with him, and he’s been such a tremendous help answering questions like: “What’s this extra gadget on my Hobie for?” “Where do you stow the pedals when you’re standing to sight fish?” “What’s the best way to strap the kayak to your truck?” and of course… “Where can I find the clean water?” He was a Godsend yesterday when we were peddling away from our launch site and he commented, “Have your rod ready to toss a fly at a redfish if you see a big swirl on the way to our first spot.” I replied, “Sure, I’ll…wait…no way…I’ll…on my!!” I left my rod on the bank at the launch! So I peddled back the nearly quarter mile or so to retrieve about $600 in fish-catching gear. Oh, I know what you’re thinking…No, I didn’t spend that on it but I won the $250 reel in a fishing tournament and I won the $350 rod in a raffle. I know I needed to work up a sweat anyway. I was reminded just how good God is when I turned around to face the east again and I saw this.
Beautiful Delacroix Sunrise. Pictures on an iPhone just don’t do it justice.
So, I fiercely peddled to catch up to my buddy. Thankfully, he was doing some blind casting to structure to kill some time while I caught up with him. We stopped to fish a point early after that sunrise and I caught my first fish of the morning, a nice marsh largemouth bass. I was told that Hurricane Ida took a big toll on these marsh bass. I assume it was because of the inundation of salt water to the brackish water. I released this one to go make babies for future generations.
This beautiful marsh bass gave me an acrobatic display after it sucked down a gold spoon fly.
I was told that we would be peddling about a mile from the launch to our redfish spot. The wind had kicked up in the bay and even though it wasn’t howling, the combination of a shallow bay with 5 – 10 mile winds made it a difficult and wet peddle. It’s times like this that I purchased my Hobie. At my age, I need to work smarter and not harder. While I am a strong paddler, my leg muscles are a larger group and common sense tells me I can cover more water using a larger muscle group. Covering more water lately is becoming a necessity these past few years. I think I’ve written on my blog before, that I think one of the reasons it’s harder to find fish in areas that used to be so productive, is simply due to the popularity of our sport. It seems everyone down here is fishing out of kayaks. These days, it’s not uncommon to see 100 trucks and cars carrying kayaks on LA 1 between Leeville and Grand Isle on a summer weekend. Now imagine if everyone one of those fishermen are harvesting 3-5 redfish a trip. That’s a lot of redfish being harvested within a mile of the launch. Now, add to that the popularity of big redfish tournaments and bow fishing and you can understand why places I used to catch up to 25 redfish in an outing are becoming hard to come by. I find I’m having to explore water further and further from the road, thus the addition of the Hobie to my plastic navy.
Anyway, back to my fishing report. When I got to our predetermined, spot number one, I saw some commotion in the shallow water. I made a few casts and I determined they were bass chasing bait because I saw a bass go airborne like it was shot out of a cannon. I couldn’t get my fly in close enough to where the action was because of all the grass and I was actually cleaning the grass off my spoon fly when I saw a big swirl about 20 feet ahead of my kayak. I was able to get a good clean cast out there and bam, fish on! That redfish took off like it was shot from a submarine (it didn’t get air like the bass). I still had my peddles in so I was able to maneuver my kayak and let the weight of the kayak help to act as drag to wear the fish down. A around 27 inches (I left my bump board at home but I have a ruler on my paddle), it was way too big to harvest so it is still swimming today.
My first redfish of the day
About an hour later, and I was now standing and push-poling my way through some very “fishy” water. I was thinking, I’m one for one. Spotted one caught it. Then I spotted redfish number two. It was cruising the edge of a grass bed with about 3 friends. I made an errant cast, or so I thought, which landed the fly about six feet to the left of the school. This guy was so aggressive, it looked like it was determined to beat his buddies to the easy meal. My, was it surprised when it found out that that shiny piece of gold spoon had a hook in it! It made several angry dashes and after a long fight, I eased redfish number two into my landing net. This one measured about 28 inches on my paddle ruler so it was released too.
Not only long, but thick too!
I need to vent now. Here’s what happens when you don’t fish often enough. So, I already mentioned I forgot my rod on the bank. I bring two and you can see my spare on the ice chest on my photo. I never had to use it this day. I put the other one down on the bank because I’ve learned not to put the rods in the kayak until I’ve gotten the boat in the water. I’ve actually flipped a kayak over on the bank in my neighborhood lake and it flipped over two rods. Thankfully, neither of them broke but I’ve learned my lesson. After landing my first redfish, I had about 15 feet of line still in the water with my spoon fly. I began to peddle to get away from a shallow weed bank and I ran over my line. Of course, my fly got caught on one of the blades. I thought if I’d pull it up, I could retrieve my fly. When I pulled it up, I lost one of my gold spoon flies. No worries, because I had four gold ones, a crab colored one, and several black spoon flies. I also caught my fly on my rudder. When I tied on a new fly and I tossed it into the water, the wind blew me over my line and it got tangled. Another reason I bought the Hobie Compass is because it’s very sturdy. I was able to turn around and reach over my ice chest and under the bottom of my kayak to grab the line, retrieve the fly, cut it off, pull the line through the rudder system and retie…all without falling in. Yeah!!
OK. Back to the fishing report. So I was two for two. Sighted two fish. Caught two fish. I was feeling proud of myself…shouldn’t have done that, Doc! The next redfish I saw didn’t go so well. A bad cast by me in the wind and it spooked. So now it’s Doc – two. Redfish – one. I’m still winning. Well that didn’t last long. I spooked probably another 15 fish before my next hookup. I didn’t even get to cast to most of them. They would see my boat or my rod when I would lift it up for a cast and they would bolt out of there, drumming as they scramble away. By that way, if you haven’t heard the sound of redfish drumming in the marsh, you aren’t fishing shallow enough. That’s why they are in the drum family. There were actually times when the redfish saw ME before I saw them. The reason I knew is because I heard “the drum” and then when I looked I spotted the fish as it was swimming away from me. For those of you who don’t know what I’m talking about…I would assume it’s similar to what a squirrel does when it sees you and it starts barking at you.
Well, I was able to connect with my third redfish. This one was another “baby bull” and I was playing it perfectly, except it kept on collecting “salad.” I was having to play the 8 pound angry fish along with 3-5 pounds of wet sea grass. Just when I thought I was going to win the battle, the fish took one more hard run and broke my line. Oh well, at this point, I had quit keeping score so we won’t talk about it, but it’s like gambling. The house always wins and with fishing, it’s the same analogy. My ice chest was still empty.
My wife loves to comment when I do get home after a day-long fishing trip, “where are the fish?” My reply is usually, they were hard to find today or I only caught the big ones today. So far, by answer was going to have to be the latter. I texted my buddy and he had caught a 31-inch redfish. Yep, neither of us would be bringing home fish for supper this day. But seriously, I began to look for smaller fish. I made a few casts to groups of fish, trying to target the smaller one in the pack. I thought about when I used to duck hunt…don’t shoot randomly in the flock…pick one out first…and I did! I saw a group of about 4 to six redfish working their way away from me and I cast to the smallest one in the group. It didn’t disappoint. A few minutes later, I landed one around 18-19 inches long.
Take a closer look at what this little guy did to my spoon fly
When I went to unhook this fish, I saw that it had destroyed my spoon fly.
All the “spoon” was crushed off this spoon fly.
Anyway, now I had one that was a perfect size for grilling so my wife won’t hound me when I get home. Well, yes, she did ask about all the fish I caught. I had to honestly tell her, “they were too big, honey.”
Anyway, the day had been great. I had gone through all four of the gold spoon flies I had in my box and Oh no. I was out of gold spoon flies. I decided to try an experimental spoon fly that I colored to look like a small blue crab. After getting two refusals; I mean, both redfish I cast to looked at it, followed it, but didn’t eat it. That was all I needed. I tied on one of my black and gold Charlies. I knew in this murky water, I would need some flash. I also thought about what another good friend of mine, Catch Cormier, says about redfish flies, “A redfish will eat any fly, as long as it’s gold.”
So, we were heading back toward our launch point and to get there, we would have to peddle through a small cut in the marsh to get to another large pond. I spooked a nice redfish and I alerted my buddy that it was heading his way. It was just deep enough to use my peddles and then I would paddle when it got too shallow. I spooked a large redfish and it headed back behind me toward my buddy. I hollered to him to be on the lookout for it. Then I spooked another small one and I told myself, I need to be standing so I can cast to them before I spook them. Every trip provides me with a lesson to be learned and this trip had already taught me a thing or two about what NOT to do. I was about to learn another valuable lesson. When I stand to fish, I usually remove my pedals in order to clear the front cockpit and eliminate things that might tangle my fly line. I began pushing myself with my paddle through this narrow (maybe 15 feet or so wide) cut in the marsh. It was muddy and surprisingly had some redfish and lots of mullet in it. I got to a point that widen up and I spooked another redfish. I watched its wake move into some deeper water. I went into super stealth mode and creeped up to where I last saw its wake. Then I saw the telltale amber side of its body slowly moving away from me. I put a cast out two feet in front of it…strip strip…bam. This one wasn’t the smaller one I was chasing earlier. I gave it a good hook set and watched my rod bend over. I could tell it was heading for my kayak and it would probably go under my boat. I thought about those fins so I thought to myself, “if I can just keep it from going under my boat.” Then I looked down to see my fly line entangled in the pedals. Now my thoughts changed to, “if I can just get this line untangled before it really realizes its hooked and makes a huge run.” It seemed like slow motion. I got one loop untangled from one pedal with my left hand, while maintaining pressure on the fish with my other hand, and then I felt it take off. I started letting some line slip between my fingers and the rod until no more slack line was left, except what was wrapped around that last foot pedal and…snap. I watched futilely, while I saw the escaped redfish send a large wake far away from me. Lesson learned…if I’m going to stand and fish, get the pedals put away before casting. This isn’t a big problem when I’m sitting because the line falls harmlessly in my lap.
We push-poled our way in another productive area, but the redfish were cruising below the marsh grass and by the time I would see one, there was no opportunity to cast without getting caught in salad. I had gone through one large bottle of water and four bottles of sports drinks. Being satisfied with the fact that I hadn’t cramped up, I wasn’t bleeding anywhere, I hadn’t fallen in, and I was able to do battle with five redfish and land three, I decided it was a great day and it was time to head to the truck. My buddy felt the same way and we paddled back to the launch together. We each had one redfish to take home for supper and we decided to catch a burger and a beer on the way home. I thank God for the beauty of nature, the ability to pursue my sport, and for good fishing buddies.
Here are a couple more pictures from the day.
Ready to launchAnother photo of the sun beginning to make its appearanceYes, the tug is the drug. Those of you who know him…well, you know him. Thanks to my fishing guide and buddy.
Epilogue
I know I titled this post, The Tug is my Drug, but in reality, my grandkids are my number one so, Their HUG is my drug!
There’s this little guyThis little angelAnd this one who will be starting kindergarten this fall.
I recently heard the term ‘brown-lining’ used by some buddies of mine in the Red Stick Fly Fishers Club. I kind of had an idea what they meant because I knew what blue lining was. Blue lining is fishing small, cold water creeks for trout. You look on a map of the area and you hike on out to the “blue line.” Since we don’t have any cold water creeks in south Louisiana, we do the next best thing…brown lining, or what I used to call it…ditch pitching. I guess brown lining sounds more sophisticated? or not??
Anyway, now that I’m through with camps, I wanted to get a mid morning trip in. My buddies said that this kind of fishing is fun, because you never know what you’ll see or catch. This morning’s trip was that sort of trip. I pulled my truck over to a drainage ditch that I had actually fished many years ago with a former student of mine. I remembered catching a lot of bass, bluegill, and what I consider the most beautiful and colorful fresh water fish in Louisiana, the long-eared sunfish. That was my target species for the morning.
We have been in a mini drought here in south Louisiana and I was prepared to see very shallow, but clear water. I would have to look for deeper cuts in order to find fish. I began with a hare’s ear nymph and I quickly began casting to some pretty spooky fish. It didn’t take long for me to realize these fish were looking up, so I tied on a yellow foam fly. No sooner than I had made the switch, I landed a pretty bluegill. I also quickly landed a small largemouth black bass, but I lost my fly when I tried to set the hook on another fish and it got caught in the tree behind me. No worries because I had a whole box of foam flies. I tied on a black beetle and quickly caught several more bluegill.
This bluegill sucked in a black beetle
Soon there after, I landed my target species, a long eared sunfish.
Look how pretty this little guy was
And another and another. This went on for an hour or so until I got tired of catching these. I then spotted a garfish sitting still in about 10 inches or so of water. I tied on a squirrel-tail jig pattern that looked like a leech or a small crawfish. After several bad casts, I managed to get one close to those sharp teeth. It turned on my presentation and crushed the fly. I actually got the hook to stick (miraculously) and I had to figure out how I was going to land it without a net. I worked it down to an area that looked like I could ease it over a mud bank. Well, that hook set eventually worked itself out and the garfish casually swam away before I could snap a picture.
One of the cool things about this kind of fishing is you really never know what you will see or what you will hook into. I saw a catfish but I couldn’t get it to eat. I then began sight fishing to garfish. I hooked three more but each one ended up either getting off the hook or cutting my line. It was fun anyway. I figured I had had enough with the garfish so I tied up another foam fly that my friend, Drew Ross ties for trout and carp. I picked up several more fish on that fly before I called it a morning.
I have to remember to bring a net and some good hiking shoes next time. I hyperextended my big toe trying to climb up out of the ditch and I’m icing it down as I write this 😦
Here are some pictures from the morning:
These fish are so pretty, they look like they belong in an aquarium.
There were many other things to see this morning included great white herons, geese, a multitude of turtles, and one small water snake. If you haven’t tried “brown lining ” or “ditch pitching,” then you should give it a try.
The beginning of summer marks a time for me to get as much fishing in as I can. I do have to balance family, and prep work for upcoming camps, but after a rough week, I was looking forward to the peaceful tranquility… wait a minute…who am I trying to fool. I was looking forward to feeling the tug of a chunky fish on my 6 wt!
I arose early Sunday morning and headed to my “go to” lake. It was a beautiful morning with an early foggy mist on the water. The unusually cool morning temperature of 64 degrees was cooler than the temperature of the water so visibility on the water was actually limited early. It didn’t take long for that fog to lift and when it did, that’s when I got my first explosion on one of my crawfish colored deer hair poppers.
This early morning bass sucked in my crawfish colored deer hair popper.
By 6 AM, I was lipping my third bass of the morning.
You should be able to see the crawfish popper imitation in this photo. You can also see the fog is beginning to lift.Another chunky bass on the crawfish imitationYou can barely see the popper deep inside this bucket mouth.
I have to keep reminding myself to check my tippet though. After battling several fish, my tippet gets frayed and I usually loose fish…and my popper 😦 Yes, after landing my first 5 fish, I had one break me off. What a bummer, because I think that’s my last crawfish imitation popper. Luckily, I know how to tie more 🙂 The sun was coming up pretty fast now and I thought I’d stick to my crawfish theme. I found a diver in my box that had an orange belly, so I tied it on and tried my luck. I was treated to a sight I don’t see very often. I watched about a 2 lb bass go completely airborne after a dragonfly by the tall Johnson grass near the bank. I quickly tossed my newly tied deer hair bug but I didn’t get any hits. By now it was after 7 AM and the bass seemed to be leaving the shallows for deeper water. I had a choice to make. Either stick with my topwater approach or try a subsurface fly. Topwater is always more fun, so I decided to keep on keeping on.
When people ask me about strategy for targeting bass on a fly rod, I often use a baseball analogy. I can hit anything a pitcher throws at me as long as I know two things…when it’s going to get here, and where is it going to be. The same thing applies to fly fishing. I can catch ’em if I know when they will be there (very early in the morning or very late) and where they will be (within 10 feet of the bank). That’s where the fly fisherman has the advantage. Once I clear the first 10 feet of the bank, I can just lift my fly up and put it back within a second. There’s no need to reel in all my line and cast again like you would with a bait caster. That means, I can keep my bug in the sweet spot a lot longer with poppers on a fly rod than I could with traditional tackle. So, did my theory work? You bet it did. I was able to entice a few more to eat my offering before about 8 AM, by which time, the bite had just about shut down. I did try a subsurface fly, but I didn’t get a bite. No worries, because it was starting to get hot and I had had enough for one morning (I landed 9 bass)
I do get to meditate while on the water and I thought about a dear friend who lost his two-year battle with cancer this past week. This trip was for you, Ronnie! I also thought about the true meaning of the Memorial Day Holiday. I am thankful for all those who gave the ultimate sacrifice so we can live here and enjoy the bounty that our Lord has bestowed on us. Happy Memorial Day to all of you.
My Memorial Day photo (I nearly always bring my flag with me)Here’s a good picture with that Dalberg Diver (with the orange belly)
For many, there are four hallowed words that are heralded around the country by students and teachers alike. “School’s out for summer!” Well, it’s almost out for me. I have had several spring concerts, convocations, baccalaureate Masses, graduation performances, but as I check each one off the list and the list gets shorter, I find I’m more able to get my fly rod out and hit the local neighborhood lakes for some relaxation and some, hopefully, fishing action. I have even flirted with the opportunity to head south to do some sight fishing for redfish, but the conditions have to be perfect for me to warrant spending $60 on gas just to get there and back. Call me cheap, but my daddy raised a frugal man.
Anyway, the fishing in my neighborhood lakes have been hit or miss. I have had some hits like this.
I had a good morning a week ago and caught these two slabs on a fluff butt.
Some misses, (no pictures of misses of course) and what I call a grand slam…landing four species in one morning; a bass, several sacalait, bluegill, and even a spotted garfish.
An early morning 3 pound plus bass on the musicdoc shad flyCrappie on the music doc shad flyA bluegill on a fluff buttAnd even one of these prehistoric-looking guys full of sharp teeth.
That garfish ate my shad imitation and when I released it, it reared back and its teeth sunk into my pants leg. Thank God I was wearing long pants or I would be wearing battle scars from that encounter.
By the way, I think that big crappie (aka sacalait) was probably my personal best at 15.34 inches
That’s probably my personal best sacalait.
Of course, now that school is nearly over, you can bet the weather will be ugly. The winds will blow 15-20 and there will be lots of clouds and thunderstorms. Oh, well. I certainly will make the best of it. I want to do a float trip for some spotted bass and I’d like to try some small stream fishing in the Florida parishes. Too much rain may put a damper on that though. I’ll post reports if I do though.
I have been trying to find a consistent sacalait bite in our neighborhood lake all spring, but I have fallen short on several occasions. Then there were other obligations like school, family, and weather events. So, I don’t post the trips when I go out and I skunk (rarely happens) or I only catch a few bluegill or a bass or two. I guess I need to post those reports too, so I look human 🙂 However, I took the opportunity to walk my kayak over to the neighborhood lake this afternoon after chores (repairs to the chlorinator) and supper and fish for an hour.
I met a young man and his dad at my “put in” spot and we struck up a conversation. I watched him (a 5th grader) reel in a small bass on plastic. I tried to lure him over to the “dark side,” the fly rod, and his dad said he remembered his grandfather trying to teach him to catch fish on the fly rod and how much of a thrill it was to catch fish on a fly rod. After about 10 minutes or so of chit chat, I finally launched my kayak and was paddling over to one of my spots that had produced sacalait in the past. I was fishing with one of my black and chartreuse fluff butts for about 10 minutes when I saw my strike indicator disappear beneath the murky water. I stiffened up my fly rod and I found myself doubled over with a slab sacalait on the other end. The young man was very impressed on the bank.
My first nice slap on the fluff butt
Five minutes later and my 5 wt was doubled over again. I eased another 15 inch crappie (sacalait) into my kayak. The little boy was so excited now. I think he and his dad were heading over to Bass Pro to purchase a kayak and a fly rod. LOL!
slab number 2
So, you get the picture. Cast, strip, repeat. Cast, strip, wait a while. Repeat. Cast, strip… watch the strike indicator disappear, set the hook and ease another slab into the kayak.
I know. This is getting monotonous
After about an hour of this, the bite stopped, but by then, I had put a half dozen on my stringer. For those of you who don’t know this (I’m sure most subscribers to this blog do), crappie, or sacalait like we call them down here (Native American/French translation = “sack of milk”), is one of the best eating fish that swim in fresh water. When I got home I put some of them on the measuring board.
14.5 inchesJust under 15 inchesThis was the largest in the bunch
I sent these pictures with a message to the members of my fly fishing club and I’ll repeat it here. There is so much joy and peace in God’s good outdoors. Get off the couch, throw the gaming devices in the garbage, and get outside and experience the beauty that God has created for us. It is the best therapy out there, it’s less expensive than a psychiatrist, and it can provide you with dinner too. 🙂
Kayak Fishing With Kevin 