It's been a cold week, and the Daylight Savings Time day was no different. High of 43 F. Cloudy, except for a 20-minute stretch in the late afternoon.
I went back to a place I fished 3 times already this year, and had only caught a grand total of 1 bluegill!
I've been really hoping to get my first Bowfin of the year, and I was able to finally make it happen. AND I caught 6 Bowfin on a new (Gary Loomis) Edge Archetype 7wt fly rod!
I used 2 flies (one at a time, but I lost the first to a snag after catching a few fish). Both were very similar... basically size 1 black woolly buggers, one with a sculpin helmet head, and one with conehead. I feel I preferred the sculpin helmet version, as it seemed to sink faster and keep the hook point up better. The hook also seemed better quality than the other fly. Both were bought flies, not tied by me.
Although I often used scent on the flies for bowfin last year because of the very muddy water I was fishing in, I did not use any scent today, and it didn't seem to matter. In addition to the 6 bowfin caught, I had 3 others on that shook free before I could land them.
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| The Sculpin Helmet fly, after catching a fish or two.... |
Wow! who knew they would even bite this early.
ReplyDeleteThis may be as early as it gets for them here. My previous 3 trips to this spot didn't result in ANY bowfin. If you don't go, you never know. I'm trying to learn more about them... when they do what. :)
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