Lucky Accidents

Late last week I started off the evening flyfishing a local public pond for bass. Had one tiny bass follow the big topwater. Switched to flyfishing for Crappies and Bluegills, and started catching plenty of fish, including a few bass.

Then I saw some Grass Carp in the shallows, and started fishing for them. I was watching a Grass Carp near my fly, when this invisible fish hit...a nice chunky 20" Largemouth Bass!
http://i28.photobucket.com/albums/c2...psh8g6jvtt.jpg


Later, after I finally spooked the Grass Carp, I switched back to catching crappies and bluegills, then put on an unweighted chartreuse Woolly Bugger to cast around an area where I suspected a bass might be. Instead, a big fish (not quite Grass Carp-sized) hit and headed for deeper water, spooking some other large fish. It turned out to be a 26" Channel Catfish!
http://i28.photobucket.com/albums/c2...psltasl5mj.jpg

I wish I could actually catch what I'm fishing for, but since I can't its nice to catch some big fish by accident once in awhile! :)

Dave, I have never caught a catfish on a flyrod on purpose or very many largemouth bass, to be perfectly truthful. But I have enjoyed the battles with them very much in each case. Congratulations on the harvest.

BTW, that bass is not invisible, I can see her in the photo just fine.

Nice fish. You have to be on the water to have a chance at those accidents

Nice fish and sounds like you had a great time! Just curious - do you always have two rods with you or are you just switching spools with different weight lines on them?

Warren,
Good question! I'm not that fancy yet...I try to keep my flyfishing simple. Its the same reel and line... The line is an Airflo 40-Plus line. The front end is white, and the back end is orange. In the catfish picture, I displayed poor line management and did not put the extra line on the reel during the fight. Then when I dragged the fish up the bank to somewhere flat so it wouldn't flop back into the water, all that white line trailed out behind me so all you see is the orange line on the reel, although you can see a bit of the white part of the line in front of the catfish's head. The color transition zone is behind the fish apparently. :)

I get partial points...I DID put the bass on the reel.

I would take accidents like that.
Rick

Man, you gotta be more careful next time...

Nice fish!

Dave,

I give you all the points because you did land both fish and that was your goal. Who cares how the book states you should land the fish. From what you stated and after looking at the pictures again, I can see the color change in the line. Both are very nice fish and I know they were fun to catch. Job well done....

Whatever pulls back....

I catch "accidental" cats on bugger variants too... looks like you stumbled across some dandies!

Nice! What weight rod/line were you fishing?

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Prairieschooner

Nice! What weight rod/line were you fishing?

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I was using a TFO BVK 9' 6wt rod (overkill for bluegills, but I love casting with this rod and line!) lined with an Airflo 40Plus WFF line. Leader is (probably) 2x, with 2x (8lb test) tippet.

Congrats on a good day, catching fish (maybe not the species being targeted) but catching fishing is a whole lot better than just fishing. Congrats again.

It continues.
I was fishing for these:
http://i28.photobucket.com/albums/c2...psqk1jaycx.jpg

http://i28.photobucket.com/albums/c2...psngdv6421.jpg

and then caught one of these:
http://i28.photobucket.com/albums/c2...psqqi2dwec.jpg

And a little bit later, these:
http://i28.photobucket.com/albums/c2...psgpkdmee5.jpg

and these:
http://i28.photobucket.com/albums/c2...pskrk3pl2y.jpg
Ok...those last couple weren't accidents...but the Pike was definitely a surprise! :)