Tried a new stream today. First cast resulted in a hookup (though a lost fish). Good sign though. It just got better from there.
I had started off throwing a small wiggle minnow, but quickly changed to a baby bass colored Clouser. That’s what brought the first fish to hand, a nice 12" (or so) smallie.
Then a beautiful longear right after that.
Caught a few more small fish on the Clouser before I decided to tie on a small crawdad imitation I came up with. Bingo! First cast on that resulted in the biggest fish of the day.
In all I caught two species of bass, 4 species of sunfish and a chub. Probably 30-40 fish in total. Also had a massive carp follow my fly, but never took it.
Oh, and I’ll leave you with this guy, who darted out from under a tree to absolutely NAIL a crawdad… When you can see a fish coming for you fly, full steam ahead, from 10 feet away from it… There’s nothing better. (The only thing that comes close is the bend he puts in a 3 wt.)
Upon further review, I believe that the bass in the 3rd pic is actually a Meanmouth Bass, a hybrid of a spotted bass and a smallmouth. I thought it looked a little odd for a Kentucky (spotted) bass (which are common in this stream), and the characteristic tongue patch was smaller and not as rough as you would normally find on a Kentucky bass. So I’m going to go with it being a meanmouth, which would make it the first of that “species” I’ve ever caught.
