I like the look of that nymph. Nice mouth shot!
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I like the look of that nymph. Nice mouth shot!
Fly-fished last night after dinner. Tried the pond I fished during lunch. NADA.
Its nice to have options...I went to a different public pond. Caught 5 crappies, 4 bluegills and 1 bass before dark.
The bluegills had that deep, cold water "purple" color to them:
http://i28.photobucket.com/albums/c2..._3-31-2011.jpg
http://i28.photobucket.com/albums/c2...3-31-2011b.jpg
The bluegills preferred a microjig (red/black variegated sparkle chenille body, chartreuse marabou tail) under an indicator. The crappies and bass preferred a chartreuse craft fur bead-chain-eye Clouser.
4/9/11
Local public pond
Fly-fishing
Time fished: 10:30am-Noon
Weather: Mostly cloudy. 52 degrees when I got there, 62 when I left.
Fish sought: crappies
Fish caught: 13 crappies, 2 bluegills
Last time I fished this pond, I caught ONLY green sunfish in the usual crappie spots. So, I fished the opposite side of the lake. Sure enough, the crappies were there. The fish were a fair ways out from shore. Caught most of the fish on a goldish microjig under an indicator. It was good to see a couple decent bluegills in this pond....I rarely catch any bluegills here.
There was another kid fishing, but I didn't see him catch anything.
http://i28.photobucket.com/albums/c2..._4-9-2011b.jpg
4/10/11
Copper Creek Lake
Fly-fishing
Time fished: 1:30pm-3:00pm
Weather: Partly cloudy, then sunny. 90 degrees.
Wind: Wind from the SSW. 30mph sustained winds, gusts to 43!
Fish sought: any
Fish caught: 1 crappie, 11 bluegills
I thought it would be too windy to fish. So, I walked a lap around the lake first. Saw a guy catch a 12" largemouth bass on a rattle trap. Lots of people fishing, that was the only fish I saw caught (besides what I caught). As usual, I did see a nice "blow up" out in the middle of the lake, that sure looked like wipers attacking shad! It didn't last long, though. DNR says they shocked it last fall and didn't find any of the wipers they stocked. I really think they are there, but I have no solid evidence. :glasses9:
Anyway, I decided to fly-fish one shoreline. Casting was challenging, and I had a few rather ungraceful tangles around my rod, and the shoreline brush behind me, and line tangles around the rocks at my feet...and I had to chase my hat up the bank when the wind blew it off at one point...
But, I caught fish. Mostly medium-sized bluegills, and the chunky crappie. They all fought really well! The groups of anglers on either side of me started closing ranks once I began catching fish. One guy even sent his kid over to ask what I was using for bait. Bait? :spam4: I explained I was using a small microjig. I was doing really well with one, but it eventually started falling apart. I switched to a different one and it caught fish too, but not quite as fast. Guess I know what I'll be tying this week!
4/10/11
Local public pond
Fly-fishing
Time fished: 7:45pm-8:30pm
Weather: Mostly sunny/dusk. 65 degrees.
Wind: Wind from the W. 21mph sustained winds!
Fish sought: any
Fish caught: 20+ crappies, 2 bluegills, 7 green sunfish
I had visited Jay ("flipper")a bit earlier, and he showed me his "Thunder Glass"? Or something like that. Anyway, its a device that sort of measures barometric pressure. The thing was overflowing due to extremely high pressures. I decided I should fly-fish again.
I went to one local public pond, planning to fish the upwind shoreline (protected), and fish the calmer water there with bass-sized poppers for...BASS. I got to the pond, and the wind was blowing from a very bad angle, so the shoreline I wanted to fish was NOT protected much. I scrapped that idea. I thought about a second pond, but the shoreline that would be protect there is one that doesn't usually produce much for me. I considered pond #3, but the side I would fish there would be facing directly into the wind. I could have been done, but casting would have been difficult. So, pond option #4 won out.
It was the pond I had fished yesterday. Today, the fish were much closer to shore, and many of the crappies were looking like they have eggs. The fish were VERY aggressive, either because of the warming water, or the high barometer? Anyway, the best pattern was a chartreuse microjig and I also did well with a hot-pink craft fur Clouser.
4-11-2011
Local Public Pond
Fly-fished
Time Fished: 7:30pm-8:30pm
Weather: Sunny/dusk, 61 degrees F
Wind: 15mph from the North
Fish sought: Bass
Fish caught: 9 bluegills, 1 crappie
Best pattern: microjig
The wind was finally blowing out of the right direction for me to try some topwater poppers for bass. No takers along the short stretch of shoreline I fished. A guy with spinning gear on the opposite side of the pond did catch a small bass (<12").
I saw a nice Grass Carp porpoise within casting distance, so I chucked the popper in front of it, but no luck.
I'd seen some surface activity that I figured was bluegills, so I switched to a microjig. The first one (mostly black) got some attention, but no hookups. I switched to one with an olive grizzly marabou tail and an olive sparkle dubbing for the body. I caught all the fish on this.
The biggest bluegill was a chunky 8.5" female, which is the biggest I've caught on the fly rod so far this year.
http://i28.photobucket.com/albums/c2...4-11-2011b.jpg
The fish that got me all excited (and still couldn't fall asleep 2 hours later) was the crappie. It was a BEAST! Its my PB on the fly rod, although I've caught bigger on spinning gear. It is a white crappie, and measured 14". It fought really hard, taking line a couple times. I was sure it was a bass, until it finally got closer to shore! I released all the fish, as usual.
http://i28.photobucket.com/albums/c2...4-11-2011b.jpg
David - Congratulations on a couple of really nice fish!
Dale
Today's lunch report:
I had it all planned out, where I wanted to go fly-fishing during lunch. I got there, and the parking lot was FULL (ok, I saw one spot open). Some folks fishing and some eating lunch with their kids. Well...shoot.
Off to Option 2 I go. Several cars in the lot there, one guy just finishing fishing. The others were people walking their dogs, and letting the dogs splash around in the water. I tried it anyway.
Water was clear, sun was bright (and dancing in the streets...nevermind), so I didn't expect much. But, I caught a medium-sized bluegill.
http://i28.photobucket.com/albums/c2..._4-13-2011.jpg
Then, I saw bluegills a bit down the shoreline (but about 30' offshore) with their backs sticking out of the water! I cast near them, some would scatter, some would leave a wake as they charged over to investigate. But, they must have been biting light, as I only caught one more. It was a nice one, though. I didn't have the best fly selection with me in the box I threw into the car this morning. I need to fix that soon. I think I could have caught more with the "right stuff".
Last night I had about 25 minutes to spare for fishing, so of course I took it. I fished a public pond in Urbandale. It was almost dark, and the water was murky. Fish were occasionally hitting the surface, so I knew they were there. I ended up catching 5 bluegills on flies...including at least 2 of them on topwater, which is always exciting (not as exciting as white bass on topwaters...but still exciting). Those bluegills can get pretty wild trying to catch a bug on top! :)
This one was pretty colorful, but I had to use the flash,which washed the colors out:
http://i28.photobucket.com/albums/c2..._4-13-2011.jpg
4-18-2011
Local Public Pond
Fly-Fishing
Time Fished: 12:20pm-12:45pm
Weather: Cloudy, 41 degrees F
Wind: 10mph from E
Fish sought: any
Fish Caught: 8 crappies, 1 green sunfish
I started out fishing with a yellow boa yarn leech, and it was working. But, I wanted to try one of those Jointed Minnows I had tied a couple months ago. It looked great in the water, and caught fish good too!
Here's a photo "montage" from today...not because the fish were impressive, just because I thought the pics turned out really well.
http://i28.photobucket.com/albums/c2...4-18-2011f.jpg
http://i28.photobucket.com/albums/c2...4-18-2011e.jpg
http://i28.photobucket.com/albums/c2...4-18-2011c.jpg
http://i28.photobucket.com/albums/c2...4-18-2011d.jpg
http://i28.photobucket.com/albums/c2...4-18-2011b.jpg
And, I took a picture of this Green Sunfish, because his colors were so dark when I pulled him out of the water...he was almost black! But his color started to lighten up by the time I got the camera ready, so you'll just have to imagine it 4 shades darker.
http://i28.photobucket.com/albums/c2...4-18-2011a.jpg
http://i28.photobucket.com/albums/c2...4-18-2011b.jpg
Fantastic pictures and report, Dave. Keep them coming. Sort of miss crappie and gills.
TT.
Mike is a member of Central Iowa Anglers, which is a multispecies fishing club. A handful of members fly-fish, but we are in the minority. But what better place to get a few "converts"? I mean, these folks already LOVE to fish! Mike is an open-minded guy.
Mike had gone out on his own the night before to practice fly-casting for the very first time. He didn't catch any fish, and he had some questions about improving his technique. So...we made plans to fly-fish last night.
While waiting for Mike to arrive, I fished a section of shoreline I usually ignore. I wanted to save the "good section" for when Mike got there. The section I fished had me casting directly into last night's wind. It worked out pretty good, though. I caught 4 crappies and 2 green sunfish there. One was a pretty good green sunfish that was longer than my hand, and chunky!
http://i28.photobucket.com/albums/c2..._4-18-2011.jpg
Mike arrived, I gave him a couple dozen patterns I had tied that have worked well for me for the local bluegills, crappies, and bass. We moved over so we were casting sort of quartering into or across the wind. It wasn't easy, but its where the fish were, and I wanted him to gain some confidence by actually catching fish. Mike was getting the fly out there, and that's really the objective of fly-casting. When he slowed down his retrieve, he scored some fish, which were his first on fly-fishing gear!
http://i28.photobucket.com/albums/c2..._4-18-2011.jpg
http://i28.photobucket.com/albums/c2..._4-18-2011.jpg
It was tough conditions for learning, but I thought Mike did really well! Good job, Mike!
We've gotta do it again soon, it was really fun! I don't know what Mike's fish totals were...but he might have caught even more if he'd had a fly on the end of his line for the last half hour. We fished until after dark, and we eventually moved to the side of the pond that put the wind at our back, which certainly made casting easier, but there were very few fish on that side of the pond. He commented at one point that his line kept making a whip-cracking sound, and we decided he needed to wait a bit longer on the back-cast before starting his forward cast. Before we left, Mike had to use the restroom, so I told him I was going to use his rod for a bit. I picked it up to check the fly, and there was a tangle of line at the end of his leader, but no fly! :) Oh well, it was time to head home. The evening had been a success!