Volga River, 8-14-2017

After fairly unsuccessful, but interesting, stops at two spots along the Shell Rock River, Jay and I made our way to the Volga River.
Gin-clear water, mostly rocky bottom with some sandy patches...heavily wooded high limestone bluffs...its a beautiful place.

We wet-waded and flyfished our way downstream.  We tried lots of flies, because the fish would like one thing, then 10 minutes later they would ignore it.  Change fly and catch more, repeat.
My most successful flies were beadhead Woolly Buggers, in chartreuse or yellow.
Jay was catching as many...if not MORE...bass on a dark brown (almost black) #6 DDH Leech.
Jay doing battle with a fish:

We caught a lot of Smallmouth Bass, quite a few Rock Bass, a Bluegill, a Rainbow Trout, Creek Chubs, a Striped Shiner...excellent variety!
Jay with probably the biggest bass of the day, which surprisingly attacked a pink foam grasshopper:

Here's a chunky one I caught:

And some others:

Rock Bass:

Gotta love those red eyes!

This was the biggest one I measured, 8.25", and it hit a blockhead popper:

Creek Chubs:

Striped Shiner:

Fantastic trip!