"The Bully Bass Gang"
Bass are bullies! I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, bass are bullies.
It’s the end of May and I finally got to go fishing. I work as a computer lab manger at the local university and this means the last 2 weeks of the semester and the 2 weeks after the semester ends are hard for me to get time off, it’s even hard to get away for lunch. This means I usually miss some good spring time fishing, but sooner or later I get the itch so bad I just have to risk attending an afternoon meeting smelling of fish.
This time of year I keep my 7’9” 3wt and some extra clothes and shoes in the car just in case I can sneak in some fishing, either at lunch or after work. Last week it was over the lunch hour when I was able to get out. I decided to go play with “my little bluegill buddies” as I call them, the water was clear and they were in a playful mood. I caught several using a “Bloody Peacock Caddis”, (it’s an Elk Hair Caddis tied with a peacock body using red thread, but Bloody Peacock Caddis just sounds much cooler), when they suddenly get very tentative and then disappear, that’s when I see a “Bully Bass Gang” pass thru. These gangs consists of several 10-14 inch, a few 14-18 inch and a couple of “Bosses” that are much bigger than any of them, I’ve never gotten a real good look at a “Boss” just a couple of flashes when one shoots in from the depths after one of my buddies.
Well, with the “Gang” here I move down the shore a few yards and start playing with some more of my buddies. And guess what happens, yep, a “Gang” moves in here too. So I move again, we repeat this several times before I decide that someone needs to teach these “Gangs” a lesson. Since I’m at the lake I decide that person should be me. I dig into my pack to see what I’ve got that might interest the members of this “Bully Bass Gang”. First up a gurgler, I cast it out, and splash, the gurgler disappears into the mouth of—a green sunfish. I release him and try it again, the “Gang” doesn’t even look up at my gurgler. They just want sushi for lunch. So back into the pack I go, next up is an AM Crappie Candy, (AM=Available Materials), it’s the closest thing I’ve got to a minnow pattern with me. I have not had much luck with a Crappie Candy in the past, exactly three fish, an eight inch bluegill, a four inch crappie that grabbed the fly just as I was lifting for a back cast, (I wonder if he enjoyed the flight?), and a bass the size of my index finger. I cast the fly and watch my buddies rush to it and do nothing but watch it drop, and they watch as I retrieve it. A couple of casts later and farther from shore and I feel what I think is a take, I lift my rod and strip some line to set the hook, but nothing happens. I lift the rod a little more and give the line a slight tug and verify it is a fish on the line, he does nothing. I know he’s there at the other end, I can not only feel him, but after a few seconds I can see him and he’s a good one. The frustrating part is that he is still lazily swimming around bothering “my little bluegill buddies” while my line is still attached to a hook that is stuck in the side of his mouth. I put a little pressure on him and he starts to move with a little more energy, I’m thinking “Boy, don’t put too much pressure ‘cause if he decides..”, I never got to finish the thought, I felt one sudden massive pulse from his tail and my line went limp. “Hey, come back with my fly you big bully”, I’m not sure what the people on the walking path behind me thought of my talking to the fish like that, but this will give them something to talk about at dinner. Well, that fly worked so I tie on another AM Crappie Candy and try again, a few casts later I hook another “bully” but he spits the fly out and by now I’m late for work so I have to admit defeat, at least for today.
All in all a good way to spend lunch, an hour long break from the frustrations of working, a departmental re-organization that is causing more problems than it fixes, budget cuts and layoffs around campus, the stress of minor health issues, being married with 2 teenage daughters and a pre-teen boy. Yes Bass are bullies, but when that one took off with my fly he seemed to take all that frustration with him, at least for a little while.
I need to find and tie some flies to fight the “Gang” next time they pester me and “my little bluegill buddies”. Any suggestions would be appreciated; I’d really like some flies that both “my little bluegill buddies” and the “Bully Bass Gang” would be interested in. I will tangle with the “Bully Bass Gang” again and I’ll let you all know what happens.