Evening Fly Fishing Report, 5-24-2012

I had 2 separate fishing outings this evening.  The first was at a public pond in a nearby town, while my son was at one of his activities.  Tough conditions with a front that moved through around mid-afternoon.  Fish weren't very active.  Weeds were also pretty thick along shore.

I decided to try the Bass Gurgler on this pond, just to see what I could come up with.  It is extremely rare for me to catch ANY bass at this pond.  I ended up catching at least two bass (nothing big), and had several others on that managed to not get hooked or quickly freed themselves.  About the time I had to leave, I found a spot that had probably 100 bluegills in a small area.  I'm sure I could have switched flies and caught a bunch in short order, but decided to let them be...this time.

The second fly-fishing outing of the evening was after we got home.  It was a little after 8pm, and the sun was still above the horizon.  I went a public pond not far from my house.

I still had the Bass Gurgler on my line, so I stuck with it pretty much the entire night.  I ended up landing 8 Largemouth Bass on it, had about a 1/2 dozen decent fish (bass) that managed to shake free before I landed them.  I also landed 2 bluegills on the Bass Gurgler.  The biggest fish of the evening was this 16.5-inch bass.  It looks recently "spawned out".

I also watched a "tail" waving on the surface right near shore.  I slowly fished my way towards it, and it was still there.  I was hoping it was a grass carp, but as best I could tell in the fading light, it was a channel catfish that was VERY intently feeding on the bottom.  I can't know for sure, but I suspect it may have been feeding on fish eggs?  I spooked it away several times, and it returned to the same spot several times, but eventually seemed to disappear.  Then again, it was VERY dark by this time.

The foam on this Bass Gurgler is getting "chewed up" by bass teeth.  "Badge of Honor" and all that...Its still working very well.  I need to tie up a few more spares, because this pattern is WAY outperforming the foam bass poppers I was previously using.

The Bass Gurgler

The bass spawn may be about over.  I didn't see the amount of big fish activity in the shallows last night as I had last weekend.  Then again, it was pretty windy.  I tossed one of the Bass Gurlgers I talked about in some recent posts.  It is not MY original design.  I gave the credit where it was due in one of the previous posts.  It worked well again, and scored 3 bass (all under 14" this time) and a NICE bluegill.

I tied up a few more last night, and thought I'd post the pictures.  I tied one for bass on a #2 Streamer hooks in black-and-yellow.  I tied up 2 on #4 Streamer hooks that I think might work for white bass/wipers when they are feeding on shad near the surface or in the shallows.  Catfish might even go for 'em when they are feeding on shad.  I tied 2 different colors for these, one a sparkly white foam with white boa yarn body and a red tail, and one a sparkly silver/gray foam with a light gray boa yarn body and white tail.  After I took the picture below, I decided to shorten the marabou a bit on the 2 smaller ones.

I may do some in colors that smallies might enjoy, and maybe in slightly smaller sizes.

Here's some closer shots of the pattern...

Top:

Bottom:

And here is a close-up of the "mouth"...when tied tightly, the bottom lip and top lip both will naturally curve, forming a nice "popper" face.

I trim the corners off the foam lips, but this may not be necessary for an effective Gurgler.  Doing so seems to spread the lips apart better in this particular design, and since some of the foam sheets I use have adhesive on one side, this seems to help prevent the "lips" from sticking together.

Bass Gurgler Test,Evening of 5-9-2012

I didn't get out fly-fishing in the evening until fairly late.  I got to the pond around 8pm, and stayed until about 9:20pm.  The weather was good.  Very light breeze, temps were cool (~60 degrees F), and the water clarity was excellent.

I had read James Smith's (of Conyers, Georgia) post about how he ties his Bass Gurglers on the Fly Anglers Online forums.  (third post in this thread: http://www.flyanglersonline.com/bb/showthread.php?46069-Gurglers-for-LMB ).  I had tied one up with a marabou tail.  I tied it on my line right away.  In my first 4 casts, I had 3 bass on, and landed one.  I occasionally catch a bass or two while fly-fishing this pond, but I can go many trips here and never catch one.  My assessment is that the population of bass in this pond is LOW because of high harvest.  So...having that kind of action on a fly was, to me, ASTOUNDING!  I was thrilled!  So, I took a picture of it (after the first fish was landed):

See those "big lips"?  They really make a lot of disturbance on the surface, and the bass (and other fish) were just going NUTS for it!  I ended up landing 6 bass on this pattern, and lost probably 5 others (including a "biggie").

This wasn't the biggest bass I caught last night, but I didn't bother taking pictures of the larger bass, since it was getting dark and the pictures probably wouldn't have turned out very well.

On that fly, I also caught some NICE bluegills, some decent crappies, and even this FAT green sunfish.  I don't catch many greenies at this pond, but I know there are a few in it.

As it got darker, the action seemed to slow on this topwater pattern, so I switched to a white Boa Yarn Leech, and caught one more bass, and quite a few crappies and bluegills.

So...7 bass from this pond in such a short time, mostly on that Bass Gurgler.  I don't think I've EVER done that well at this pond on the foam bass popper I typically use for bass. Was it the fly?  Was it the weather, time of year, or some other factor?  I'll keep fishing with this fly and see how it goes.