Late October 2017

Weather started to cool, then got nice, then windy.  For a week or two, fishing was slower than it seemed like it should be.  And not that the fish weren't feeding....bass could be seen busting shad on the surface in a couple public ponds I fish.  They were moving so fast....by the time I could cast to where they hit the surface, the bass were already long gone.  I did manage to get a few.

Some on a shad fly:

This one on topwater:

I did catch a few Hybrid Sunfish:

The wind finally died down on Wednesday and the temperature was a reasonably low 60's.  It was the nicest day in the 10-day forecast.  I took the afternoon off from work and went fishing.

So glad I did!  It didn't start off very well, but turned into one of the best days of fishing I've had in awhile.

Pond #1:

Started at the upwind end of the pond and worked my way along the north shoreline.  My buddy Jay joined me, and he worked the south shoreline.  By the time we reached the opposite end of the pond, I'd caught maybe 4 bluegills and a tiny bass.  Not good.  Jay had to leave, but I stopped and flyfished a windblown shoreline on my way back to the car.  I stayed in that area for several more hours!  I started catching crappies and more bluegills.  Crappies ranged from 9"-12.5", with most being @ 11".  All were caught on a silver Springbrook Wunder microjig set about 18" under an indicator.  One of the best crappie days I've had in a LONG time.  When the wind died, the crappie action slowed as well.

Pond #2:

There was about 90 minutes of daylight left.  I had tied some new fly patterns I wanted to test out in the water.  The first one worked ok, but not quite what I had in mind...so it will need some tweaking.  The second one was a Gamechanger I tied....its about 3.5" long.  Articulated (jointed).  I fished it in 2' long "strip-pause.......strip-pause.....".  The one I used is the one in the bottom of this picture:

I'm ecstatic!   The bass loved it!  At one point, I caught 5 bass on 6 casts!  I don't know if it was the fly or the location, but it sure was fun!  I worked my way around the pond and caught 2 more as it got dark.  

May 20-22, 2017

Saturday:
Fished a pond I had been to before, but had not previously fished.  Picked the wrong day.  The ground was soft, muddy, and vegetation was sparse. So, I picked one spot and fished that area, then left.  The water was super muddy as well...visibility @ 6" maybe.  Had a couple soft bites, caught one tiny crappie.

At least I didn't get skunked!

Next, I visited a 2nd pond.  Here I tried for crappies...caught 2, lost a decent one...but I was catching a lot of small bass.  My buddy Chad texted me from another pond.  He often flyfishes, but prefers to keep all his options open with other gear.  He was hammering bass on spinning gear.  I switched to a topwater fly and worked it aggressively.  Bass were loving it....but they were all small (13" or less).  Eventually I went back to trying for panfish.  Along with some bluegills, I caught 3 Pumpkinseed Sunfish.

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Sunday:
Jay and I went out and fished a couple ponds together in the evening.
At the first pond, Jay noticed a big swirl as a bird flew close to the water near shore.  He cast into the area and got an immediate strike.  And promptly lost his fly.  He suspects a bad knot, because he said he never really even felt the fish.  Darn Grass Muskies! ;o)  He did catch a bass, and this really nice Hybrid Sunfish:

I was trying a new fly pattern I'd created, in an "electric chicken" color scheme.  It worked!

I caught a couple nice bass on it, and had a couple awesome strikes (fish trying to attack it from above!).

 I switched to topwater and caught another nice bass on the first cast.

At pond 2, I tried the electric chicken fly again, but the water was just super-muddy.  I switched to a popper and caught a good bass on the first cast.

I worked my way down the shoreline, catching a bass here and there, but the rest were all small ones (12" or less).  I switched to a microjig and caught a 14" bass on the first cast.  Then some bluegills.  And Pumpkinseeds....I measured one at almost right at 9".

I caught a couple tiny crappies.  Fish were hitting the surface occasionally, from the outside weed edge to the middle of the pond.  I tried 3 different flies and caught fish on all of them....small bass, small crappies, bluegills, pumpkinseed.  As the light faded from the sky, I fished my way back towards my car.  In one stretch, there was more surface activity.  Some were those small crappies, some were bluegills.  Finally, I caught a "normal"-sized crappie....maybe 9".  Then a pretty nice one for this pond....one I didn't measure, but would guess to be in the 10"-11" range.  And then a REALLY nice one, measured 13"!  And then mostly bluegills after that, so I called it a night.
The 13-incher is on the right:

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Monday (lunch hour flyfishing):
Lunchtime flyfishing today was interesting.  At the first pond I went to, another angler had just arrived...so I went with the poor-quality Plan B pond.

Tried for crappies where they had been nesting a couple weeks ago.  Nothing.  Saw a bass chase something into the shallows.  Put on a popper.  Didn't see that bass again, but around the shoreline some distance away I did catch a smallish bass @ 12"+/-.  I saw some muddy spots further ahead and worked my way there.

I saw a carp.  I switched flies, and it was feeding still, nose down, but hadn't moved much.  2nd drag-n-drop into the area near its head (I couldn't see down in the water that far...but I could see the tail), my line twitched, and I set the hook.  NICE FISH.  What a fight! I saw a LOT of my backing.

I did eventually land it, but left my cell phone on my desk at work...so no picture.  Rookie mistake....rookie mistake!  But it was a beautiful golden 28" Common Carp with a nice red tail...and VERY healthy, but not obesely fat.   Probably 9- to 10-pound range.

Several minutes later at another spot, I briefly hooked another carp, but it came unbuttoned after just a couple seconds.

Late March 2017 Update

I've been out flyfishing a few times in the past week or two.
Weather has stayed cool, compared to February.  We've gotten rain, and its been cloudy quite a bit.  So, the waters haven't warmed appreciably since that 2nd round of iced-over lakes we had earlier in the month.  I would guess the local waters are currently sitting around the mid-40's F for temperature.

Compared to previously, the bass haven't been as active.  I haven't caught any more Hybrid Sunfish or Pumpkinseed Sunfish.  I've caught a few, smaller bass, a fair number of bluegills, and also a good number of crappies.  All on a chartreuse microjig about 18" beneath an indicator.

I saw a fellow angler catch a really BIG bass one day.  After getting some pictures, he released it back to the pond, which I was VERY happy to see.  After his group left, I fished my way over to where he had been fishing.  I discovered he had been using a Pumpkinseed Sunfish for bait. The bait was dead in the water next to shore with a huge hook hole through its back.  The angler may have been trying to target a big catfish?  At any rate, it was good to see a big bass getting released back to the pond.  I thought it looked substantially bigger than the 20-inch bass I'd caught earlier this year.  Hopefully I will have a chance to catch that fish this year and see just how long it is.  Maybe its the 22-incher I thought got harvested?  Or a new fish I haven't yet caught?  ;o)

This crappie was caught during my lunch hour...it wasn't very big, but I thought the perspective was interesting....showing how their eyes are set and why they like to strike upwards.

March-early April 2016

Well...I haven't posted in nearly a month!
I've been busy...took a Spring Break trip to Palm Springs and Los Angles with my wife and teenage kids.  Flew to Arizona and drove back to Iowa with my Mom and her dog.

But I've been fishing as well.  Our waters here aren't warming up much.  They are probably in the upper 40's.  Weather here has been variable.  One day the high temperature was 40 degrees, the next day it was 80 degrees, and then the third day was back in the low 50's.

I've been flyfishing the local public ponds.  Some days they are good, some days not so much.  I can usually manage to fool at least some fish.

My top producer has been a chartreuse 1/80th oz microjig under an indicator.  Other flies that have produces well are an unweighted black mohair leech, and an unweighted chartreuse mylar chenille bugger (no hackle).  I had a BIG bass take a large popper, but it shook free near shore.  I also caught a couple bass on a chartreuse craft fur baitfish pattern.  Each time it happens, I think its a fluke....and its happened 3 times already this season: I've caught 3 large bass on that little microjig!  The first (in a previous post here) was 18.75", the second was 18.5", and the third was 20"!
This is the 18.5-incher (it was sorta skinny):

And this is the 20-incher (nice deep-bodied fish):

Two guys I've flyfished with have caught 9"+ Pumpkinseeds so far.  My biggest has been 8.5".  Nice fish!

I also got into some really nice STRONG Bluegills one day...They were chunky 8"+ fish....which (sadly) is pretty nice for around here.

I've also caught some crappies...nothing over 11", however.

Caught some Hybrid Sunfish:

And reached down into some shallow water to introduce this Crayfish to my camera-phone:

The better fishing is still to come!

Fishing Report- November 14, 2015

This is a late report...this outing occurred over a month ago.  It turned out good enough that I wanted to include it here in the blog.

Daytime high temperatures had been in the low 50's (F).  Wind was @ 11 mph from the SSE.  I flyfished for 4.75 hours.

Hoping fish might be in the north end of the pond (which should have been the warmest area based on sunlight hitting that shoreline), and the fact that geese had taken over the shoreline around the rest of the pond, I spent my time working and reworking this portion of the pond.

I'm not going to lie.  I struggled for the first several hours.  I used a microjig under an indicator, and could hardly get any strikes.  In the NE corner of this pond, at least 3 culverts direct water into the pond, and at least one of these culverts was flowing pretty good.  I had fished here earlier in the trip with very little success, but on the second try here, I finally found some fish.  Crappies seemed stacked just out from where the one culvert was dumping water in.  They were shallow, I had to adjust my indicator to about 12"-14" above the microjig to keep it from dragging bottom.

I ended up catching 15 Crappies, which is really good for this pond.  I also caught 47 Bluegills!
I flyfished for bass for awhile, but didn't catch any.  A BIG bass did try to grab a nice bluegill I was fighting, but she missed it and didn't reappear.

Despite the really slow start to the day, the 62 fish turned into one of the top 10 best outings of the year!

Also watched a mink foraging around the shoreline and in the water.  At one point it was swimming right towards me and was maybe a dozen feet away, but it dove underwater and swam away when it noticed me digging my cell phone out of my pocket to take its picture.  I snapped a picture of it crawling back onto shore, though.

Flyfishing Report, 10-31-2015

Saturday was cloudy, cold (40'sF), breezy, and damp (it had rained earlier in the morning or overnight).

I flyfished a local public pond.  I had fished it earlier in the year and caught some decent crappies, but in the half-dozen trips since April, I had only caught a grand total of 6 more crappies.  I was worried about the population, and also concerned about all the algae and weeds that had rimmed the pond all summer.

The algae and weeds have mostly died off now, but may decompose over the winter, robbing the water of precious oxygen and possibly causing a winterkill.  I hope my fears do not come to fruition.

The migratory geese and ducks have stirred up the sediment in the pond, reducing the water clarity significantly.

The rest of the story is good news.  I found plenty of crappies and bluegills, and they are in GREAT SHAPE right now....all very chunky and healthy!  I caught one 13" bass, and my "pet" bass...the 20-incher I caught 3 times last year...showed up.  She hung out right in front of me for quite awhile.  Because of the mud stirred up by the waterfowl, I could only see her when she was very shallow, right in front of me.  She gave chase to a nice bluegill I had hooked, but she didn't catch it.  I released a crappie back into the water, and as it swam towards deeper water, she appeared and gulped in the front 1/2 of the crappie, then turned and swam off with it still in her mouth.  Pretty cool!

Pretty much all the fish hit a chartreuse 1/80th oz microjig suspended @ 18" beneath a Fish Pimp strike indicator.

And the pictures:

Late May, 2015

Guys I know are catching Gar, Common Carp, Smallmouth Bass, and even White Bass on flies in my area.  I'm really wanting to catch some of these other species, but I haven't been able to get away to the right waters for long enough.  Or that's what I keep telling myself.

My daughter (oldest child) just graduated from High School with Honors.  She's very smart, we're very proud of her.  So we've been busy with all the activities associated with that and with throwing her a big party for her extended family and school friends.

I've been spending time trying to get the darn Grass Carp to hit some flies, and when that fails (100% of the time so far this year), I flyfish for bass, bluegills and crappies.  At least those last 3 have been cooperating somewhat, although many (especially the larger bass) seem to be preoccupied with spawning rather than eating, and the crappies are finishing their spawn and moving away from shore.