Caught a school of “something” sipping bugs off the surface tonight off the end of a jetty. I have been fishing streamers, and had just that box with me. On my fly patch happened to be a soft hackle and a bead chain hares ear… olive. Tied that baby on, second cast… WHAM! Woah, that’s not a crappie. Took a little bit of line from me. Catfish? Nope. White bass! Only fished from 8:15 to about 9:30, but I caught 25 or so crappie, whites, and gills. After losing that one hares ear to a white, I tied on a Slumpbuster and caught two gills that, when held in my hand, were taller than my fingers.
Fishing via moonlight on a glass calm lake, catching some solid fish… Can’t beat that with a stick!
it was a perfect evening to fish here too. i tore up the bass tonight!. sounds like you had a perfect evening! if i had been by myself i would have still been out there!
hope you have many more days/night such as these!
I was doing that exact same thing up here last night, only it was small schoolie wipers mixed with white bass. No crappies for me. All I had with me besides my minnow and shad patterns was a #8 prince nymph (the mayfly hatch they were working were only 14’s) but they didn’t seem to mind. Even picked off two drum. After full dark when the hatch slowed down I went back to the minnow patterns and continued to pick up fish. Never anything real big though. Last year we had the same thing happen. That night I had some royal wulffs along. Talk about fun!
Tim- COOL! It’s funny how you can tell the difference in species within about 3 seconds of a fight… I had bluegills, whites, and crappie all biting. VERY different! Tied up some more hares ears tonight. We’ll see how the fish like 'em as soon as this hurricane decides to let up.
You’ve got that breeze blowing too, huh? I know a pond with a pretty sheltered cove I might try anyway this morning, but it doesn’t look so good. Maybe I’ll get out the kites instead. I haven’t had them out yet this year.
Tied some bead chain hares ears, some sz 18 pheasant tails, and just got done wrapping a grill full of goose in bacon… Time to fire it up and get cookin’!
Hey Zac, I’m going to take a wild guess and say you were at HCE Lake…?? We stopped by there last Saturday evening on the way back from Marion County. We were going to fish a while, but it started raining on us, so we just called it a day.
Confirmed tonight that they also like sz 8 Slumpbusters.
ROR, yep. HCE. 12 minutes from my house to line in the water! Gimme a shout next time you’re up this way and we’ll go catch a crappie or gill.
Dave, I put mine behind. steveks puts his in front. It doesn’t matter a whole lot I don’t think. With it behind, I think it’s a fair damsel/dragon nymph immitation. I fished one again tonight and caught a gill bigger than my hand on the 3rd cast!
