Throw Some Curves at the Fish

It had been very windy for several days.  I waited later into the evening before trying to flyfish for bass, hoping the wind would decrease.  I tried the single-jointed GameChanger-style flies that have been working well for me.  I may have had a bite or two, but no hook-ups with fish.

The fish are throwing me a curve ball here.  Well, I threw one right back.  Since the bigger fly didn't work, I went small and slow.  I put on a 1/48th oz microjig under an indicator.  I caught 5 small crappies, but did also get one bass.  And it was a beautiful 20-incher!

Last Week of February, 2017

Still seems crazy that we even have OPEN WATER right now.  It has cooled of a bit since our week of unseasonably warm weather....but we've still had some warm days and cooler days.

I flyfished on Monday during my lunch hour.  The previous week I was catching lots of crappies, but this cooler week, I didn't catch any crappies at all.  Just a couple bluegills and a 9.5" Hybrid Sunfish:

Then I flyfished again that evening, for about an hour before it got too dark.  Caught a few more bluegills from a different pond, and a Pumpkinseed Sunfish:

On Tuesday, temps hit @ 60 around noon, but then started cooling off into the low 50's a couple hours later after the wind shifted to out of the north.  I started fishing around 2:30pm.  My buddy Jay caught a couple crappies, but I couldn't get any decent strikes.  I put on a bass fly I call the Jerkbait Fly, because its foam underbody allows to nearly suspend high in the water column.  I've tied it in various colors.  Here's some I tied last night:

I ended up catching 3 bass and missing 3 others.  Biggest was a beautiful 20"!

Here's the smaller ones:

Topwater Bassin' Still Going Strong - September 7-8, 2014

Sunday evening, I flyfished for a bit before dark.  The bass on this trip averaged significantly smaller size than normal.  The last fish of the evening, as it got dark, was more like what I was expecting:

They all hit a yellow blockhead popper, as you can see WAY DOWN THERE:

During lunch today (Monday), I flyfished a local public pond.  I caught a couple Hybrid Sunfish on the blockhead popper:

Then a 16" (guesstimated) bass:

After losing a second decent bass, right before I headed back to work, I caught this hefty 19" bass!  This is the biggest bass I've caught from this pond, although I'm certain there are a couple of even bigger ones.

Both bass eventually dove into the thick algae beds on the bottom, and it was very difficult to drag them back into shore.  I felt lucky that my shredded line or rod didn't break!

Bass Going Strong on Topwater!

I flyfished last night for an hour at a public pond in a nearby town.  This pond has been getting POUNDED this year by bass anglers.

The water level is up from the recent rains, and off-colored.  There was a good current flowing in through the storm inlets into the pond.  The wind was down, though, which made topwaters a good option, fished parallel to the shorelines.

I only landed 2, but they were decent fish for public ponds around here.  Also lost/missed at least 3-4 others, including one DANDY that jumped several times before throwing the hook.  Maybe I was overestimating...but the thought that went through my mind when that fish was jumping was "6-pounder!".  In reality..probably somewhere in the 4-6lb range.

For the last few minutes of the fishing trip, I switched to one of Dale S's red & chartreuse microjigs, and caught 4-5 Bluegills and 1 Crappie.

Fun evening...those bass are STRONG!