Went to the local lake to wet a line tonight. It's been windy the last few days, so I've got a light-action spinning rod in my hand, throwing some 1/16 oz Roadrunners for crappie on the riprap. Well, I get there and the wind starts to lay down. There's baitfish swirling on top...
So I hustle back to my car to get my 5-wt out. CRAP! All I have is 6x leaders for trout fishing, not my usual 4x I use for panfish and small-ish bass. So quickly I cut off my fairly-used 6x leader to about where it's a 4x diameter, tie on my 4x tippet, and tie on a size 6 chartreuse-over-white Clouser minnow. After 10 or so minutes of working a downed tree, I feel a bump and set the hook too hard....crappie. Cast back, and catch a small little black crappie. Cool! First warmwater fish on a fly this season.
Work my way down the jetty, don't catch anything at all, so I come back to the same downed tree. About the second cast (and getting pretty dark) I feel a good thump. Figuring it was a crappie, I set the hook and feel nothing but weight. It's maybe 3 feet from shore, and breaks surface pretty fast. I saw a mottled looking fish, about 4 pounds..... a big saugeye. Three more shakes and my rod goes limp. Oh MAN!

Right now, I'm excited that it happened but also absolutely SICK that I didn't land that fish! A saugeye on the fly... ALMOST just happened! I guess I know where to head sunday night.

Zac