I tried the banana peel again last night. Once again no takers. The main problem seems to be that the water is really clear, and I haven’t been able to cast the rig very far (have to be very careful when casting, otherwise the banana peel falls off), and it ends up drifting back into shore. And those grass carp are WARY, SKITTISH creatures. Oh well.
I had a good evening anyway. I was casting around again to pass the time while the grassies went about their business of ignoring my offers to “come and play”. I was excited to FINALLY find a handful of NICE male bluegills in this pond. I caught the one below on a black microjig. Then I caught one on a brown craft fur Clouser with blue beadchain eyes. Then I caught at least a half-dozen on foam topwaters at dusk. After dark, I switched to a brown & orange boa yarn leech and caught at least another half-dozen on that. The males were mainly on shallow flats on nests, and the females were out over deeper water, but apparently near the surface (or at least they would rise to take the topwaters or unweighted boa yarn leech). The females are getting big bellies. Most of the males were 8"-8.5", and the biggest female I measured was a solid 9-incher.
I caught a couple bass, too. And after it got dark, my phone was ringing in my pocket. It was “iaflyfisher”, Dale! He tracked me down to give me some Grizzly Marabou, which my supply of had gotten dangerously low. THANKS DALE!!!
I’ll share some pictures from todays lunch fly-fishing…same place as yesterday’s lunch outing. Caught 2 crappies this time, though, along with the abundant Green Sunfish and just one bluegill. Caught a few fish on a microjig, but most liked a yellow Boa Yarn Leech.
I fished Friday (5-20-2011) after work in the drizzle at a public pond not far from my house. The male crappies are guarding nests in the shallows. I also saw some good bass on nests. Tried for them. Had 3 solid hook-ups. Two on a largish Clouser Deep Minnow, one on a different minnow pattern I had tied up. 2 threw the hook, and the last one I had sort of “beached”, and tried hoisting it up onto the grass by pulling my line up. The line broke, the fish swam off with my sweet sweet fly! They were probably 3-4 pounders. Males!
Also saw grass carp in this pond for the first time. Previously, I’ve only seen swirls and such (and caught one grass carp when blind casting at night)…but I could actually SEE the fish this time. I was within casting range on a few of them, and fired away with whatever flies I thought might work…although they weren’t ideal. Caught a crappie instead of the grass carp.
Saw some fair-sized bull-gills, but couldn’t catch the ones from the first group I saw. Caught some smaller ones later.
Last night (5-22-2011) I fly-fished a different local public pond. First four fish were: Largemouth Bass, Green Sunfish, Bluegill, and Crappie. So, I had variety going for me. Caught a few more crappies, but not nearly as many as the last time there. I did find a stretch of shoreline where there were some decent bluegills apparently on nests….I didn’t see the nests, but I caught a bunch from a fairly small area….and most were fair-sized males with good colors. Most of the bluegills were caught on an unweighted “Rubberlegs”, and then I switched to a foam topwater like a Chernobyl Ant/Hopper, and caught quite a few on that as well.
I THINK there were grass carp working in a certain area. I tried for them with flies only (ran out of bananas earlier in the week). No hook-ups. Frustrating creatures.
I took pictures of some of the bluegills I caught, because there were some interesting color variations:
This one had a lot of orange all along its sides
While this one had predominantly silvery blue:
And this one had a lot of metallic green on its flanks:
I let Dale (“iaflyfisher”) get a brief head start, as we both fly-fished the same local public pond last night.
What a difference a few days makes! The algae mats are really starting to show up around the edges of the pond now. I wonder how much of it has to do with the recent rain causing fertilizer run-off from the adjacent athletic fields?
Anyway we had a really good night of fishing. We picked a likely spot and worked it over pretty good. We both caught some nice bluegills (biggest I measured was a 9-inch male), and one or two bass. Maybe Dale will add his pictures to this thread. (He took this picture of me.)
Also had a couple instances of VERY VERY LARGE FISH shooting out from shore in front of us. One wake in particular was amazingly impressive. I can only guess it was a BIG grass carp, but who knows? It was big and bizarre enough to earn the “Ankeny Nessie” title! I hope we can do battle with that beast one day!
Anyway, the area of the pond we fished was a lot more murky than it was when I fished there last week. I tried a topwater that worked very well last week, but it didn’t get a lot of action. I jut don’t think the fish could see it in the muddier water. So, I put on the “Rubberlegs” variant, unweighted #8. That worked pretty darn well.
The males were mostly closer to shore, we caught some nice females out further for the most part.
Here’s a 9-incher I measured:
I fly-fished a local public pond last night from around 8pm-9:30pm.
I fished a short section of shoreline I had never fished before, and a section where I had caught some decent male bluegills a few days ago. The section I had fished before produced only a few scattered fish.
The new section produced a variety of sizes of bluegills…from about 3" to a couple really nice fish that were probably in the 8"-8.5" range…males & females. Mostly is was small fish, though.
That area also produced a 10.5" crappie. Not a BIG crappie, but noticeably bigger than all the other ones I have caught from this particular pond this year.
I also caught a beautiful Hybrid Sunfish (unless somebody can tell me its a Pumpkinseed?). The picture of this fish just doesn’t do it justice.
I also caught a new “fly rod first” for me. I have to admit it put up a very interesting fight!..you may not be able to tell from the picture, but…its a BASEBALL!
I blogged a report about my fishing trip to Saylorville Spillway during my lunch hour today. Short version…the nymph / indicator rig works for those CARP feeding at the surface in the eddies or under the foam line! Fun stuff!
Here’s the link: http://fishndave.blogspot.com/2011/05/carp-on-fly-rod-5-25-2011.html
I can agree with that, Zac. Those are the only 2 pure-strain sunfish I’ve caught from these ponds (besides bass and crappies which are also technically “sunfish”).
After I got back from Diamond Lake last night, I got a tip that the BIG bluegills at a large local lake were spawning in 3’ of water. I checked it out. Tons of folks fishing from shore at all the popular access points. I checked at least 4 spots, and fished 2 of them. First spot produced a small bass and a FAT female bluegill on a Dragonfly Nymph fly pattern. Spot #2 (and adjacent areas) produced 7 bluegills, with 4 of them being in the 8"-9" range…which I kept for a late supper last night.
The 9-incher hit a #6 BH Fox Squirrel Nymph under an indicator, exploded on the surface and took line in a straight away run…I was absolutely positive I had a pretty nice bass on the line!
All the others hit the Dragonfly Nymph or Rubberlegs.
It was rather breezy last night, but I got out and fly-fished a local public pond. There were other folks fishing around the lake, so I had to cross the first 3 choice spots off my list. I tried a nondescript stretch of shoreline that wasn’t on my “list”, using a microjig under an indicator. I caught 3 small bluegills, but it was slow action. I worked my way to the 4th spot on the list, and found some nice bluegills there. I ended up with at least 17 bluegills, including some nice ones in the 8"-9"+ range.
Here’s a nice bull bluegill, caught on a wingless variation of a McGinty:
And here is a 9" chunky female bluegill, caught on a Gurgler (this pattern produced the most fish last night) :
This size of bluegill put up awesome fights on 5wt gear!
Lunch Report, 6/8/2011
I hadn’t REALLY fished since last Thursday (Sunday didn’t count…I was entertaining kids and letting THEM do most of the fishing). Fly-fishing during lunch is generally a crap shoot…you don’t know what you’re gonna get, and there’s not enough time to do much about it if things aren’t going your way.
I fished Prairie Ridge North. I would have preferred to hit the South pond today, but the Swimming Pool on a hot day is ONE BUSY PLACE! I avoid the crowds whenever possible.
Anyway, the water clarity was rather poor, even for PRN standards. Visibility was something like 8" maybe. There were some fish near shore in the shallows. I caught 4 Crappies right away on a chartreuse microjig, then moved down the shore a bit and caught a few Bluegills on a Rubberlegs. I switched to a Gurgler and caught some more Bluegills and a Green Sunfish.
Nothing outstanding, just really nice to finally have a brief moment to FLY-FISH!
Fish are biting…get after 'em! ;o)
This post isn’t about Central Iowa…but about a trip I just took to Nungesser Lake in Ontario, Canada last week. Most of the trip was spent using spinning gear, but I did take 2 fly rods, and managed to catch some walleyes, perch, and a pike while using them.
And a video of one of about 20+ bats that were living under the eaves of our cabin: http://youtu.be/PRgpPKfiU0I
Anda video one of a bizarre creature called a Horsehair Worm…they swim elegantly through the water, but curl up grotesquely when removed from the water. They apparently are parasites of insects, and they enter water when they leave their host. They are harmless to humans (not sure I believe that!): http://youtu.be/vmTtuLk6LqA
I finally got out to do a bit of fishing late last night. I fly-fished a local public pond from 9:20pm to 10pm.
Started out with a white boa yarn leech, but changed after a few casts to a foam Gurgler…bluegill-sized. Caught one bluegill on that, missed a half-dozen good hits. Switched to a bass-sized foam popper, caught a good bass near shore. I didn’t measure it, I would guess it was somewhere in the 14"-16" range:
I fly-fished a local Ankeny public pond from 8:30pm-10:00pm last night. It was the first time I’d fished in over a week. Conditions were excellent…warm with very little wind.
I started with a bass-sized foam popper. I got some hits by fish that were too small to actually eat it. I switched to a #10 Chernobyl Ant/Hopper. I caught mostly bluegills along with a few crappies on it. Lots of missed hits, but it was fun to watch how aggressive the fish get over something floating on the surface.
As the sky darkened, I switched to an abomination I had thrown together that has a chartreuse rabbit-fur tail, chartreuse yarn body, and chartreuse grizzly softhackle behind a small beadhead. Caught about an equal number of crappies and bluegills on this. Near the end of the night, I switched to an unweighted yellow boa yarn leech and caught a few more crappies and bluegills. Then I was getting more bug bites than fish bites, so I called it a day.
The fish seemed to be really active, with lots of surface feeding going on. It appeared as though there were some bigger fish (bass, catfish, or grass carp) around, but I didn’t target them once I took the bass popper off the line.
Fish totals were approximately 20 bluegills and 10 crappies. I left the camera at home.
I invited muy buddy Jay to fish a local public pond last night. I was shocked, amazed and delighted that he ACCEPTED the invite!
We fished from about 8:20pm-9:30pm.
I had plenty of fly rods in the car, but Jay decided to chuck a Zara Spook Jr. with his spinning rod. He did well. He landed 3 bass, the largest was 18.5" and SUPER FAT. I was way across the pond, but I tried to snap some pictures of him anyway…which doesn’t work out too well in low light conditions. Nevertheless, Jay drew a quite a bit of attention when he was fighting that big bass.
I fly-fished. I started out with a foam topwater (Chernobyl Ant/Hopper) and caught a dozen bluegills and 2 bass on that. Then I put on a yellow boa yarn leech and caught a couple more bluegills and 3 crappies before we decided to leave.
With the heat wave most of the U.S. has been experiencing, I hadn’t been fishing at all. Its a bad excuse, and can’t believe I just said it!
I did finally go fly-fishing last night around dusk. I fished a local public pond from about 8:30pm-9:30pm.
It started off very slow. I tried a number of subsurface patterns, with only one small bass to show for it. I switched to a foam Gurgler and started catching bluegills near the deeper outside edge of the algae mats. When it got darker, I switched to a boa yarn leech and caught crappies and some more bluegills. I ended up with about 10 crappies, 20 bluegills, and one bass for the evening. It was pretty nice out!
Here’s the view I had of a nice cloudbank. There’s a small speck in front of the cloud…which is a bi-plane that flew over.
Those are the only 2 pure-strain sunfish I’ve caught from these ponds (besides bass and crappies which are also technically “sunfish”).
