Took a Couple Days off Work

...and went fishing.

Day One:
Jay and I fished Saylorville Lake from shore/wading.  We flyfished for carp.  I got 4 (lost a 5th after a long fight),

Jay got one too!

Jay busted out the spinning gear for Largemouth Bass.  He got 6 good ones and lost another 3.  I brought my fly rod over with a popper...cast it right where Jay told me to (GREAT GUIDE!), and caught 4 good largemouth bass (only took a picture of the first one).

White bass started busting WAY OUT towards deeper water.  No chance of casting a fly THAT far!  Jay put on a slab spoon and started catching white bass and catfish.  I had no choice...I made the long walk back to my car to retrieve a spinning rod and some lures (first time using a spinning rod this year!).  I put on a slab spoon as well, and threw out just as far as I could.  If I didn't cast far enough, no strike.  If I cast far enough, a fish would often hit withing the first 20' of the retrieve.  The rest of the cast was wasted.  To give you an idea how far you can throw a slab spoon with spinning gear and 8lb Fireline...ITS A LONG FREAKING WAY...so far, many times we could only hear the faint splash, and not actually SEE it anymore!  I caught some nice white bass...measured one at 15", one may have been bigger.  And I caught a 22" channel cat on it as well.

Later that evening, I flyfished a local public pond and caught another bass or two, some bluegills, a pumpkinseed sunfish, and a hybrid sunfish.  7 species for the day!

Day 2:
Despite the river being low, with only a 2 CFS flow rate, I decided to wade it for Smallmouth Bass.  It did rain this morning, after all.  That is probably why the water was cloudier than I would have expected.  And there was...not a LOT of water in the river, but enough to allow the fish to move wherever they wanted, IF they wanted to cross some shallow water.
I usually prefer to fish a popper for Smallmouth, but today I went subsurface most of the time...with a small shad-imitating craft fur pattern, and a chartreuse weighted fly.  I did catch one on a Popper near the end of the section I waded.  The bass were mostly little ones this time, and I did catch a chunky largemouth too.

Next, I drove downstream to an old gravel pit adjacent to the river.  It is sometimes actually connected to the river.  Here, I caught a couple small Largemouth Bass, some bluegills (some where still guarding spawning beds!), and was surprised when a 15" beautifully colored Smallmouth hit...What a strong fighter!!