Wednesday, May 18, 2016

Mixed Bag in Early May 2016

Weeds and algae are already starting to become problematic in a number of the ponds I fish.
I'm pretty excited to have gotten my first flyrod carp of the year.  I was fishing for them.  I spotted one in the shallows near me.  I got into position so that I could toss a Whitlock's Near 'Nuff Crayfish beyond it, then swam it closer and dropped it near the front edge of its "dinner plate" zone.  It swam over and sucked it up!  Great fighter.
I was hoping to show the fly in the carp's mouth, but the fly is hard to see, since it collected some algae during the fight.
Male Largemouth Bass are guarding nests and refuse to eat.  But I've still come up with some on blockhead poppers and black mohair leeches, mostly.
This male measured 17.5":
This one hit a yellow boa yarn leech:
This one took a purple zonker leech:

Crappies are still hitting, when I can find them.  I've taken them on a number of different fly patterns, from hackleless mylar chenille Buggers, boa yarn leeches, and mohair leeches to microjigs.



I've had some decent action from some pretty nice Bluegills:

And its pretty obvious the female Bluegills haven't spawned yet:

Hybrid Sunfish have been active. They seem to especially like foam floating bugs and black leeches.
The picture just doesn't do it justice...this jumbo 9.5-incher was super-strong!

I thought this was interesting.  I caught these two Hybrid Sunfish from the same pond, same evening.
I think the one on the left is a Bluegill x Green Sunfish hybrid, whereas the one on the right appears to be a Bluegill x Pumpkinseed Sunfish hybrid.  Both very beautiful fish, too bad it was overcast:


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