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.
My sincere sympathy. I know exactly how you feel. A certain dummy, I know very well, didn’t change a 7X tippet which was not needed for the water conditions yesterday and lost a VERY nice first trout of the season. This dummy was also pretty sick at first. 8T
"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 "
Take heart!
One of the neat things about fishing is that the one the got away is often more memorable and makes a better story, as your post so nicely demonstrates. :tieone:
I know for a FACT that next time I go out, there will be a net on my back and a camera in my pocket! (The camera being there nullifies that I will catch any fish worth taking pictures of. That is a proven theory!)
If that fish would’ve been brought to hand, I would have checked for length, eggs, and if no eggs and legal length, it would have hit the hot grease this evening! A fish that size has some incredible fillets!
Also Betty: bluegills don’t live in ugly places, but carps do!
Okay Zac, since Betty and Diane are ganging up on you on this one, I’ll jump in. I can’t substantiate the fact of your particular fish but I can at least add an element of plausability. Here’s one I caught last fall:
Tim, nice picture! I’ve tied up my bead chain Clousers on those 3407DT’s for this year. That’s what this saugeye hit. First time I had fished them was last night, and they look really nice! Done any good with those DNA fiber shad you were tying at Bass Pro the night I was there? I know they looked awesome.
Also, I just told my grandpa my story and the first words out of his mouth were “no picture, no fish!” Dangit…
kid i know how you feel been their lost two big trout one i thought might break my pole snapped the x5 floro tippit i had took my fly with it. worked that fish for at least 15 or 20 min it was a beast of a rainbow.
another i never saw but it was big lost it to a bad knot. so i feel ya.
Went out again saturday night, sunday mid-morning, and sunday night. Saturday and sunday morning, I caught a few crappie. One went 12 or 13 inches!
Then sunday night, I got into a bunch of little green sunfish and BLUEGILLS! They were in their “summer spots” very close to shore. I watched one of the big gills swirl on my fly. There’s nothing like the tug tug tug of a gill turning sideways!
Try this fly out…
Mustad 3906, size 8, black bead chain eyes about a turn of chenille behind the eye, chartreuse rabbit fur tail, and chartreuse glitter chenille body to the hook eye. Steveks got me going on this fly. The gills slammed it! Simple, effective fly. It looks like a mini tube jig, but with more motion. I’m going to try a few more colors and have them along this summer!
Keep your stick on the ice. Remember: we’re all in this together.
When something like that happens to me (hooking a big or uncommon fish of some sort, and then losing it) the adrenaline rush hits, and the BRILLIANT FLASH OF INSIGHT that sounds something like “OMIGOSH, OMIGOSH, OMIGOSH” courses through my mind…and then I take a quick glance around to see if perchance there might be any witnesses to what just happened (usually there isn’t). And then comes the “Nobody is gonna believe this.”
So…I believe you! Its all part of the overall thrill and addiction of fishing.
3 years ago, I wanted to catch Peacock Bass and Oscars on flies. Did that.
2 years ago, I wanted to catch Carp on flies. I’ve done that.
Last year, I wanted to catch Grass Carp on flies. check.
It changes from time-to-time, but 3 local species still come to mind that I want to add to my fly-caught list:
-Walleye
-Gar
-Redear Sunfish
David–
I, too, am trying to add one new species a year to my list of fish caught on a fly. Two years ago it was gizzard shad, last year it was gar (I’d caught them accidently before, but it doesn’t count unless it’s intentional), I haven’t decided what this year’s species will be. I’ve still to catch an asian carp, maybe that should be it, hmmm…
Oooh, you could really start something if you can figure out how to get those Asian Bighead Carp and Asian Silver Carp to take a fly! HEAVY GEAR REQUIRED! :o)
I’ve heard it said,“If it eats, it will take a fly!”. But I haven’t heard of anyone catching an Asian Carp on fly gear…not even accidentally. I would guess their diet is similar to Buffalo (fish), and Buffalo have been taken on fly gear on occasion (but not by me…yet. Oops, another fish to add to the list!).
All I know is what I saw!