New Personal Best Flyrod Largemouth Bass

Just caught a 20.25” Largemouth Bass while flyfishing during my lunch hour today.  On a MICROJIG! 

First I went to one pond that I sometimes enjoy fishing, but there was a boat on the water spraying the shoreline with chemicals to kill algae.  So, I went to a second nearby pond, which I don’t really care for much.  Just goes to show…you never can tell!

The grass had been recently mowed there, the water was super-muddy (which is typical for this pond).  Common Carp were rolling/jumping out in the middle of the pond.  Some were pretty big, and THAT peaked my interest!  I cast to them for awhile, eventually gave up on them and started trying to catch some bluegills closer to shore. I went with a black microjig under an indicator.  Not much happening at first.  Something rolled right in front of me, and I saw a small pod of tiny fry.  I also glimpsed the fish turning away, twice.  It looked pretty nice.  I figured it was a bass, but HOPED it was a big Crappie!  In any cast, it was trying to feast on those TINY FRY!  They were hardly more than little black specs!   I worked the spot over for a minute or two with nothing going on.  I walked a few paces down the shoreline, made a cast or two, then plopped another cast back to where I’d seen the bass.  I was looking out at the rolling carp, checked back at the indictor, and saw it sinking beneath the water.  I set the hook, saw the bass as its headed lift from the impact, and then it took off for deeper water.  Fortunately, it only jumped once.

The fight lasted probably 5 minutes.  I was looking for a good place to land it.  Ideally I wanted a spot where the water shallowed up, so I could drag the bass up on it and let it lay on its side in the water while I reached down to grab it.  But there really wasn’t anywhere that was good.   In order to make the landing, I had to grab my leader and hold onto it (which I hate to do, because if the fish makes another run, it can break your line really easily).  I could tell the fish was wearing down, so I attempted it, and this time it worked!

I measured it and took some pictures, then released it and watched it swim away.

After that, I caught 3 crappies and 3 bluegills.  I also had a trio of crappies on that looked pretty nice, but they all shook free.

So… all that was pretty exciting.  Would have been nice to get one of those big CARP! I have a feeling they were rolling and jumping because they were feeding on those schools of fry too!