…and either spawning or getting ready to do the do! Landed 17 this afternoon 9"+ on the 2 wt. And this was the last day for 7-10 days that I can get on the lake I’ve been fishing because the DNR is closing the ramp for “repairs”!!! What timing.
donald
I cleaned 36 last night, 12 of them over over 10 inches long. Also caught a bunch more big copper nose bream and bluegills.
9+"? Wow, that must have bent the rod in half. Really good fights in that size. Over the weekend here in SE PA, the rockbass are on the beds in my little creek. I found a real nice stretch and annoyed them with a popper. The takes were really fun, and these were some of the biggest RB that the stream offers. However, I wish they had been panfish like yours, because I would probably still be out there fishing them. Glad to hear of the action.
Good Fishing,
Bob
Hey Donald,
Sounds like a wonderful time with the
long rod and hungry red eared sunfish. It
just doesn’t get much better than that for
me.
James Smith is coming up from Atlanta
tomorrow and join me for several days of
red ear fishing. The mini fish in has been
in the planning for several months and thus
far the conditions are looking very
promising. It looks as if our red ears here
on the Santee Cooper lakes started moving
into the bedding areas on Thursday and
Friday. There were some good catches
Saturday and Sunday prior to severe weather
moving in. One tornado reported near the
lake as well as heavy rain, lightning and
hail. Yuck. Anyway, we’ll probably hit
them for the first time tomorrow evening
before dark and then commence a concentrated
effort on the feisty fish for the next three
days. We hopefully will have some catches
to report later in the week. I’m as
excited as a kid on Christmas Eve.G Keep
those reports coming. Warm regards, Jim
It always surprizes me how strong the redears are. I also caught several chunky bluegills but the first redear that hit I knew what it was!! I’ve been fishing this lake since April 7th and have only had a few redears in the boat b4 this. 30+ bluegills one day but only 2 or 3 RE. The wind was really light [or none at all] which made using the 2 wt very comfortable.
Jim - sounds like you’re setting up for some very enjoyable fishing.
BobC - I took all the RE’s on a small popper also. Our creeks are pretty well unfishable right now. Too much rain.
donald
Hey Gents,
A tip that has provided me with some of
my larger spring time red ears. A white
8 legged spider pattern, I call mine the
White Widow, cast into the proximity of
the red ears and ignored will produce the
biggest fish.G Many of the bigger red
ears want even approach the fly until it
has been “dead” for upwards of a full
minute. Not always easy to do though. It’s
danged hard not to give it a little twitch.
Warm regards, Jim
Jim - My “go to” for the last 2 or 3 years has been a #10 cork popper with long wiggly legs in either white or a yellowish chart. Likewise a “dead” retreive has usually been best. I haven’t had nearly as much action on the foam spiders as the poppers. Actually I’ve tried several varaitions of the spiders as they are easier to cast with a bit of wind with the 2wt. Today, for example, we’ve got about 15mph gusty wind and I’ll probably use the 3wt. Not that they aren’t a blast on the 3 also!! <G> Will be fishing a different lake that warms up slower - no channels. I don’t know if it’s ready to go or not. Guess I’ll find out in an hour or so!
Tite lines.
donald
Different lake. Air 70d; water 66-68d; 39 fish, mostly redears. 8-10"!! GREAT DAY!!
donald