Through the Looking Glass

Fishing Warm water Forum
1

Hi Folks,

Lake Moultrie waters are clearer this
spring than I have ever seen them in over
30 seasons of fishing here. Perhaps at
least partially as a result of last years
big grass carp fish kill when about 75,000
of the big muck raking kritters went belly
up.

Yesterday, I was in a shallow bay that
contained large quantities of bluegills,
red eared sunfish and bass. I was able to
watch the fishes reaction to my casts as
well as how they reacted to various flies.
It was a most illuminating experience.

First, the largemouth bass were all
aggressive and did not hesitate in any
respect once the fly was sighted. I was
fishing black leeches that Rick Z had tied
for me. Once the bass sighted the fly, they
charged it without hesitation from distances
up to about 10 feet. It was exciting to
watch. I had sighted 5 bass of 1 1/2 to 2
pounds swimming in the bay and I hooked and
released each of them in a short period of
time. Killer bass fly Rick.G Now I know
Rick and others catch bluegills and redears
on the leach, but none of them approached
the fly and when I dropped it in thier
immediate area, they actually shied away
from it. I have no idea why but file it
away for future reference.

I switched to a soft hackle that McSteff had
sent me. He had added some very fine grey
fuzzy fur I had sent him to the body of the
fly. The bluegills could not seem to resist
the fly. They would charge it repeatedly,
mouthing the fly, and then spitting it out.
Yes, I could see them close thier mouth on
fly and hold it for a brief second and spit
it back out. But I could not see a line
twitch or feel them through the rod. For
giggles, I added a small foam indicator and
tried again with the same results. The
indicator would not twitch in spite of
numerous takes on each cast. None of the
red ears was approaching closer than about
a foot of the fly, but the bluegills were
charging as if they were going to smash it,
and at the last second would slow and mouth
it quickly before spitting it. There were
of course a few exceptions, mostly the
smaller fish that grabbed the fly and tried
to make a run for it. They were quickly
released.

I then tied on one of Leonards Roo scud
patterns in about a 16. This time, the
red eared sunfish joined in the mouthing
of the fly, but still, the takes were so
very subtle that if I had not been able to
see the fish, I would not have known the
fly had been mouthed and then released.

I returned today and continued to watch
thier reactions to my flies. Results were
pretty much a carbon copy of yesterdays,
only the bass were not in attendance. I
had however gone by the anglers shop and
picked up a spray can of Bang crawfish
flavor attractant. After seeing that they
were reacting the same as yesterday and
quickly spitting the fly after the take, I
applied a small spritz of the attractant to
a scud. Out of the next 15 casts, I hooked
and released 8 bluegills and 3 red eared
sunfish. For the entire experiment, I only
did a hookset when I could see the line or
indicator twitch from the take or feel it
through the rod. The take with the fish
attractant did not appear any more
aggressive but it appeared that the fish
simple held on a bit longer and gave me an
indication of a take other than visual.

Next I replaced the wet fly with one of my
Jelly Beans, a floating minnow pattern of
about an inch and a quarter in length with
a number 8 hook. I was not surprised that
the strikes were not as plentiful as water
temps were 54 degrees. They were however
very agressive. I was getting a strike on
it about every third cast, and hooking up
about half the time. The bluegills were
smashing the fly much as the bass had the
leech pattern.

I have gotten more wordy here than I
intended but I plan to return tomorrow to
allow these kritters an opportunity to
help educate me.G Tomorrow I plan to fish
nymphs and thread midges, two patterns that
have been effective for me here. I am not
trying to promote fish attractants by the
way. I am just offering my experiences in
this unusually clear setting as I experience
them. Not scientific but I find it very
interesting. Curious if anyone else has
experienced these fish in clear fishbowl
conditions and how your experiences might
compare to mine. Warm regards, Jim

2

Very enlightening…keep it coming!

3

Yes, please do…

4

Good stuff, Jim. I loved the visual you painted for us. By the way, I have a canoe, and will travel.

5

I don’t get lucky enough to ever see that kind of water down here with that kind of clear transparency. Its always either stained, silty, or murky so transparency “might” be three feet on a good day on a clean and “clear”, ridge lake or canal. Still too dark to see much below the surface unless the water is so shallow that I can see the dark figures of fish on a white sandy bottom for a light background (even then, it would be hard to determine what kind of fish).

I did see a Bluegill take my fly by biting a part of it (not the whole fly) and run off with it below the surface once, before any of his buddies could get it. Only because I could see the light yellow color of the fly as it moved beneath the surface.

Robert B. McCorquodale
Sebring, FL

“Flip a fly”

6

Jim - I’ve noted the same thing when the water is still cool. That’s why I generally use a small cork popper early in the spring. I’m usually fishing in shallow water and they often just suck the popper down without any fuss. With a bit of wind on the water you can miss it but I still have a better “hit/strike ratio” than with wet flies until the water gets a little warmer.

I found water just at 60/61d yesterday and managed 21 with a #10 chart cork popper.

It’s goooooooooood that spring is here!!!

donald

7

Donald, It’s not fair that your water is 60
already and mine is still in the lower 50’s.
60 degrees is killer fishing here.G Warm
regards, Jim

8

Hi Jim - Great post, and of real interest to me in that much of my fishing is sight fishing in the very clear kettle-hole ponds here on Cape Cod. I was out today with the Fenglass 4 weight and started off with a size 10 humbug. I was sight casting to yellow perch, pumpkinseeds and largemouths. The bass showed zero interest (water temps are low 50’s)the pumpkinseed’s behaved as you described, quick take and reject, and the yellow perch were pushing each other out of the way to get at it. They do like that humbug!
I changed to a small picketpin in order to try to entice the sunfish and immediately hooked up. Their tepid interest in the humbug was replaced with a much more committed interest to the darker more elongate picketpin. Almost every cast had a sunnnie following and many of the casts resulted in committed hits. And oh yes, the perch loved it too.
Finally a small largemouth appeared on the scene and I cast the picketpin to him. He showed little interest, only a brief follow and a “sniff”, when suddenly another largemouth rushed in from the deeper water beyond the drop-off and slammed the picketpin. I didn’t really have a problem with his aggresive behavior… G
After several more perch and sunnies I tied on a Rat-Faced MacDougal and tried 'em on top. No such luck. The floating dry inspired only a passing glance from any of them, but when I pulled it under and retrieved in short quick strips in order to keep it sunk, guess who hit it?
God bless the yellow perch.
Tight lines to all and a happy Easter too! Alec

[This message has been edited by flytackle (edited 14 April 2006).]

9

I see the same thing many times. I will put on a fly that I can see and set the hook when the color dissapears.

I think that alot of fish mouth the fly that we are never aware of.

Rick

10

This is a great string of posts it is always beneficial to be able observe the the behavior of fish whether in person,or as described by others.
Thankyou

11

Hi Gents,

It’s a totally new experience for me as
I havn’t experienced such clear waters since
fishing mountain lakes in Germany many years
ago.

I would have never thought that so many
fish could/would take the fly in mouth with
absolutely no inication through line
twitch/or feel. I was amazed. Had I not
had the ability to actually see the takes
due to clear water, I would have been
totally convinced that the fish just were
not biting at all.G I hope as a couple
have alluded to it is more of a cool waters
trait and will change as the waters continue
to rise in temps.

Well, I’m off to tempt the fish with
nymphs and midges today. Hopefully the
increased winds have not resulted in loss
of water clarity. Warm regards, Jim

12

Jim - that 60d water was in some channels I found 3 years ago; 2-4’ deep, black bottoms and they twist and turn enough 'til there is almost always somewhere that has some wind protection. They warm us quickly with some sunshine. The main lakes are still in the mid 50’s.

Some years back you could buy the foam spider bodies in open cell foam that would soak up water and sink. I used a white one and watched the colour when it was sinking. When the “light went out - ie. the white disappeared” I set the hook. There would be no indication at all of a strike but would hook a fish every time. I’m expermenting with closed cell foam and weight trying to find a balance point to give me the slooooooooow sink of the old open cell so I can again have a slow sinking white spider. The fly was only useful in the spring because it sank too slowly to use in the summer. I guess it might get to depth ultimately but you’d need to pack a lunch to have while waiting on it! I’ve been working on it a couple of years now but so far they have been sinking too fast - then I kinda forget about until the next spring.

Donald

13

Ain’t sight fishing a hoot!?
We have watched small BG’s shake the tail of a woolybugger, like a shark, without any indication on the line. Eventually we had wolly worms instead of woolybuggers.
…lee s.
PS - Grand read Jim.

[This message has been edited by lee s (edited 15 April 2006).]

14

Can’t wait to hear the results of the nymphs and midges. Great info you posted.

I’ve watched trout take a small (size 9) clouser while fishing a crystal clear river last year from a dock. I had to change colors from a dark to a very light combination to get a hit. The dark one only got followed but the light one was followed then taken after I gave it as much life as possible (not the normal retrieve for a clouser but it worked twice).

I’ve also watched young largemouth bass study small poppers near shore. I usually had 2, once in a while 3 of them checking out the popper shortly after it landed.

If I let the popper sit motionless, they’d eventually give up and wander off.

If I gave it a tiny twitch while they were studying it, one of them would always lunge for it. They were small but it was a lot of fun to watch them and experiment.

The water closest to work is finally in the upper 50’s. It’s as murky as the bayous I fished as a teenager eons ago so sight fishing won’t be possible until the rains let up for more than a few hours at a time around here.

15

Jim, I’ve always fished in very clear waters, and have often had opportunity to watch a fish’s reaction to a fly. It has always been my contention that we only see one out of ten strikes that we have, whatever we are fishing for, whether it be bass, carp, trout, bluegill, or whatever. There are, of course, exceptions, but they are exactly that, exceptions. Fish eat often, and they are adept at spitting out inedible objects.

16

Cool stuff, guys. Keep it coming. I’ve never had a chance to see what you’ve seen, water’s never that clear here.

[url=http://www.native-waters.com:47faf]http://www.native-waters.com[/url:47faf]

17

Jim - I’m with Thwack; don’t leave us hanging about the nymphs, etc!!

Donald

18

Hey RG,

Everything I’ve seen thus far coincides
with your comments. The clear waters are a
definite eye opener and the very subtle
strikes are far more numerous than I would
have thought. While I expect to get the
odd strike without detecting it, I was on
some casts getting a dozen strikes or more
without the slightest twitch of line, leader, or indicator.

Thwack,

I did in fact arm myself with a box of
midges and another of nymphs. I arrived at
the same bay that had been crystal clear the
last two days to find 30mph winds sweeping
the bay and 3 foot waves rolling in.G I
drove all the way around the 117 miles of
shoreline and found no waters that were not
stirred up and murky from the winds. The
same conditions exist today and are predicted for tomorrow. I will be
monitoring the conditions closely and
if/when the clear conditions return, I will
be there. I am extremely anxious to
experience more of these “fishbowl”
conditions and monitor the reactions of the
fish to various flies. One thing I’m doing
is making some very small indicators that
should be more sensitive to the takes.
I will post more when I get to try them.
I’m not overly confident of it making much
of a difference however. These fish are so
danged subtle it’s unreal.G I also want
to try some green weenies on them as my
experiences with that pattern last year was
that they were normally more aggressive
when hitting it.G Warm regards, Jim

19

Jim,

Sorry to hear the wind and weather put a hold on this thread. I hope it clears up soon. Looking forward to hear the results and about the new goodies you came up with.

Do you happen to have a picture or pattern for the green weenie? I google a bit and found vague descriptions, but the closest to a recipe I found was the statement, “Tied with only chartreuse green chenille on a size 10 long-shanked hook…”

Another page mentioned fishing it with weight and that lead was taken out of the pattern (local regs).

Is it essentially a tailless, unhackled wooly bugger? Or more like a green version of the San Jaun Worm?

Another page said it’s an Atlantic tradition which might be why I’m not having much luck here on the west coast finding info. :slight_smile:

Thanks.

[This message has been edited by Thwack (edited 16 April 2006).]

20

Hey Thwack,

Here is the pattern I used. [url=http://www.buckeyeflyfishers.com/fly_tying/green_weenie/green_weenie.htm:8bf53]http://www.buckeyeflyfishers.com/fly_tying/green_weenie/green_weenie.htm[/url:8bf53]
Warm regards, Jim

[This message has been edited by Jim Hatch (edited 16 April 2006).]