Curious mouse/cat/dog/lion/mouse game

Got to a pond for a couple of hours Sunday evening. 2.5 hours before sunset, but the afternoon clouds made it seem like sunset. This pond has loads of blue gill and at least a fair amount of bass. Have seen a couple of something else large that look like carp, but that go after the gills.

When I got there, was disappointed that a lot of algae had grown in the last week, but quickly cheered up seeing and hearing lots of feeding and chasing activity. I'm still green, and haven't had much success with bass, so maybe this time, and newly armed with a RichZ-spec black boa leech.

Went to the side where there is a deep hole, but only managed a few gills with the leech. Since time was short, decided to go to a corner with shallows loaded with hungry gills. Tried a couple things; an unweighted green weenie was the irresistable winner, even when its tail got stripped down to white thread.

Here's where it got interesting. I had noticed some thrashing fights going on all around, fairly often, figured bass after gills. But where I could see, there were patrolling bass and a couple of those carp models hanging around the shallows, and around these, the gills casually swam and hovered without apparent alarm or chase. But if I had a gill on and it fought near one of those fellas, it would give chase and grab on. Once it's cheap meal proved tethered, it released - not enough hook to get the "dog". During the play, the "dogs" would ignore the "cat" if I pulled it to the surface, or whenever it paused the fight.

After going through this 3 or 4 times, I quit. Seemed to be a bit hard on the gills, perhaps inhumane?, and more like live bait fishing, so switched approach. The gills did seem to recover OK; had to do some reviving to one, although a face-full of algae may have contributed.

I had what I thought was a darned good gill imitation with glass beads and super hair, so popped that on. Hover, jerk, side-to-side wiggles, jump to surface, dive, you name it, but the big fellows ignored it. Put on a bigger one; no matter, no interest.

Went back to the weenie and caught some more gills to feel better before needing to leave.

Not really looking for someone to give me a short cut to figuring out how to catch these guys, just thought I'd share the story. Might be interesting to try one o' those propeller thingies, and perhaps a really large gill immitation, and ...

But I am curious about some things. Have a good idea what those carnivorous carp impressionists might be? If the gills were being frequently snacked by the bass and such, why did they behave like best friends?

And how to best deal with 4 teenage boys who think its funny to throw rocks in the pond and yell profanity just to make an adult feel bad, but that's another story.


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Keepeth they back cast out of the freakin' flora.

David, I've seen the exact same behavior. The bass and the bluegill would stay in fairly close proximity without issue, unless a gill was hooked, and then you could have some very interesting problems. I managed to get a couple of bass on a popper, but I had to work pretty hard, and knew there must have been a pattern those bass would have jumped on.

David,

What this shows you is that it wasn't the 'bluegill' that got the bass interested, but the ACTION of it after it was 'stressed' by being hooked. Bass, and mostpredators, are genetically programmed to single out the injured and 'different' from the sea of food surrounding them.

A blugill imitation, no matter how good, won't catch those fish well.

Something that looks like it's in duress, regardless of the 'pattern', will.

Big key to catching 'non feeding' bass (they only actively feed a short time each day). You have to 'trigger' a strike response by the action of the bait. This requires erratic movements (like the 'gill moves when it's hooked).

Good luck!

Buddy

Try using a dropper fly. I've experienced the same sort of thing. The gills are usually more agressive than the bass, but hook one and the bass turn right on. Let the gill hit the first fly and usually the bass will grab on to the dropper.

Kevin

You might try making your baitfish immi PUSH a lot of water. I believe it is the "accoustics" of the struggling fish that is the turn on. Again, we have had pretty fair success doing a bait and switch when the kids have a "dog" after a hooked BG or crappie useing the "Embellished Deceiver". It pushes water well. http://www.flyanglersonline.com/bb/wink.gif
We have had the "cat" scaled by the "dog" before. http://www.flyanglersonline.com/bb/smile.gif

[This message has been edited by lee s (edited 09 May 2006).]

[This message has been edited by lee s (edited 09 May 2006).]

[This message has been edited by lee s (edited 09 May 2006).]

Thanks folks.

> erratic movements (like the 'gill moves when it's hooked)

Yeah, that's what I was trying to do with the antics, but there's no way you can duplicate that with a fly without the help of Disney or Hollywood.

> dropper

Yeah, thought about that, but seems more like live-bait fishing.

> PUSH a lot of water..."accoustics"..."Embellished Deceiver"

Where I was going with the propeller, trying to imitate the quick/short head-shake movement/vibration. Will take a look for that Deceiver.


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Keepeth they back cast out of the freakin' flora.

There are several companies selling small cone devices which fit at the head of any fly. They cause erratic action on a steamer or nymph. Seem to work rather well too.

David

In TX its illegal (hi-ho, hi-ho, its off to jail you go) to harrass an angler or hunter.

Last Friday I was fishing the old stock tank up in Caney. I was in an area off of the main pond that had heavy growth all around. So I dumped some line and was swishing the rod tip to get some line past the tiptop and do a roll cast. The fly and a few feet of line were on the water and began to froth up the surface to (I thought) a marked degree. I was about to remark how I'd likely scared off any fish when {b]BANG![/b] something blew up on that popper. I missed the hookset in my state of surprise but it taught me a little lesson about noise and such as that that I am still mulling over.

I'm not 100% sure how this relates to your initial post but it sure seems to have some bearing. (There is a striper flyfishing guide up on Texoma who beats the surface to a froth with a fiberglass antenna to simulate feeding frenzy and draw stripers up from the depths).

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RRhyne56
[url=http://www.robinscustomleadersandflies.com:ca37e]Sweetness On The Water[/url:ca37e]
[url=http://www.tpwd.state.tx.us/huntwild/wild/species/bgl/:ca37e]Good Ol? Lepomis Macrochirus[/url:ca37e]

That is just So Wrong! http://www.flyanglersonline.com/bb/wink.gif

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Keepeth they back cast out of the freakin' flora.

David,

Maybe I can help a little. Even though I am still mad for not getting to be in on the action (had to work) my buddy had a good time last night. He went to a pond that he fishes often. He is a spin fisher and had his three y-o son and some minnows for bait. After finding bedding bass below the dike, he managed 8 LM's from 5 beds. His weapon was a rubber lizard dropped into the bed behind the fish. He tried other things including minnows without success. Seems that keeping the lizard away from the eggs was what worked. The fish would just nail it and try to carry it to the middle of the pond. He landed everyone!