First Open Water Fish of 2016!!

Hooray!  Its come about 2-3 weeks earlier than expected, which is great!  And it came on FAST!  Just 2 weekends ago, I was icefishing the local ponds, sitting on 11.5" of ice!  And now that ice is gone!

We had a warm week with temperatures that climbed into the 60's, plus some good winds.  As an example of how quickly the ice disappeared, I drove by a few ponds on Friday evening after work.  Most were ~95% ice-covered.  One pond I fish often was 100% ice-covered.  Then by noon on Sunday, every pond I drove by was 100% open water!  I wouldn't have believed it could all have disappeared so quickly!

Anyway...Saturday morning I visited a local lake that just had maybe 50' of open water along the edges on 3 sides of the lake.  Fishing was difficult, but I managed to catch my first pair of open-water fish of the year while flyfishing.

Flyfishing Personal Bests, as of February 2016

Well, it appears we've hit that annual time of year when the ice becomes unsafe for icefishing, but the local waters haven't melted enough yet to allow for open-water fishing.  Its a bummer for us anglers, but it is what it is, and there's nothing I can do to change it.  I've already started tying up more flies for the coming season of flyfishing.

So, as I assess where I've been and where I want to go, as it pertains to fishing, I've decided to update my Personal Best Flyfishing List here on my blog.  I see I published at least a partial list with my post on the results from my 10-year electronic Fishing Log...but I didn't post any of the associated pictures.  I will post the biggest one (or two, in the case of a tie) of each species of fish that I've caught on flies.

1.  Largemouth Bass:
21.75"...a fish I caught twice.

2.  Smallmouth Bass:
17"...I caught two this size...on the same day.

3.  Bluegill:
10"

4. White Crappie:
14.5"

5.  Black Crappie:
13" (tied numerous times)

6.  Green Sunfish:
9.5" (I may not have taken a picture of that fish that I caught in 2013....so here's a 9-incher as a substitute):

7.  Hybrid Sunfish:
10"

8.  Pumpkinseed Sunfish:
9"

9.  Redear Sunfish:
9.5"

10.  Rock Bass:
7"

11.  White Bass:
16"

12.  Wiper:
18.5"

13.  Yellow Bass:
7"

14.  Channel Catfish:
31"

15.  Yellow Bullhead:
13"

16.  Walleye:
19" (I can't find a picture of that particular fish, caught in Canada in 2011...so here's another fish from that trip as a substitute).

As well as another from there I caught on a Clouser:

17.  Yellow Perch:
10.75"

18.  Northern Pike:
24"

19.  Shortnose Gar:
26"

20.   Freshwater Drum:
11"

21.  Bigmouth Buffalo:
28"

22.  Smallmouth Buffalo:
24.5" (only took a head shot of this one)

so, here's a picture of a couple smaller ones for reference:

23.  White Sucker:
13.5"

24.  Golden Redhorse Sucker:
15"

25.  Grass Carp:
41.5"

26.  Common Carp:
32"

(this one was 30"):

27.  Goldfish:
6"

28.  Creek Chub:
9.5"

29.  Striped Shiner:
7"

30.  Gizzard Shad:
11"

31.  Brook Trout:
12"

32.  Brown Trout:
17.25"

33.  Rainbow Trout:
14.5"

34.  Peacock Bass:
17.5"

35.  Oscar:
13" (tie?)

36.  Spotted Tilapia:
11"

37.  Mayan Cichlid:
12"

38.  Redfish:
27"

39.  Spotted Seatrout:
12"

40.  Hardhead Catfish:
13.5"