Early October 2018

Cooler than normal temps and LOTS of rain defined this period.

Howitzer Poppers have caught some smaller bass recently, the water temps seems to be discouraging the bigger bass from hitting on topwater?  I've had some good success on a Feathered Gamechanger like the one in the picture below.

During one cold and rainy afternoon, I really had some fun with that Gamechanger:
17" Bass:

27" Channel Catfish!  (2 online sources suggested a weight of 9.4 lbs):

18" Bass:

21.5" Bass!

Although I had fished this pond pretty hard all year, I had not caught the bass above since November 15, 2017...almost a  year ago!  It gained 1/4" in length.

Another day was warmer and fairly calm.  Found some Common Carp willing to hit flies.  This one was 29":

This one measured 25":

Caught a few crappies:

Some bluegills....a few Pumpkinseed Sunfish:

As well as some other feisty bass in the 15"-16.5" range:

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.  

Early October

The weather was warm for the first week, but plummeted the following week.  Wind picked up.
Largemouth Bass have been hitting good, on anything from topwaters to subsurface streamers  and shad imitations, and even on smaller panfish- and crappie-sized fly patterns like microjigs and small woolly buggers.

I had one particularly good morning at a local pond where I caught @ 25 bass, including four that measured 17", and another 4-5 that were in the 15"-16" range.  Amongst other patterns that caught fish, dark olive #6 DDH Leeches performed exceptionally well that day.

I've also been picking up a few crappies here and there, on the shad flies, microjigs, and #8 mylar buggers.

I've caught a couple green sunfish.

And a couple Pumpkinseed Sunfish and Hybrid Sunfish.

I've caught some bluegills, but nearly as many as I feel I should be.  This is kind of odd.

Crazy Good Bass Evening 7/12/2017

There had been "heat advisories" all day.  @ 5pm some rainstorms moved in.  Nothing heavy or long, just got everything wet.  The rain stopped after dinner, it was really nice out (cooler) and calm.  It was a later start than I'd prefer, but I really wanted to go fishing.

Drove past a few ponds, and my steering wheel turned me to where I needed to go.  Started fishing @ 7pm.  It turned out to be one of those precious few crazy-good evenings of fishing.  Like you could do no wrong.  I flyfished topwater for bass.  At one point I caught bass on 3 consecutive casts into the same small area.

Biggest 3 bass of the evening measured 19", 19", and 17".  Several more were in the 16"-16.5" range.  I also lost a big one that spit the fly after a couple minutes fight, and had 2 fish break my tippet during the hookset.

I could see pods of tiny shad (guessing...but I do know there are shad in here) scattered many places, and fish would occasionally blow up on them.  In several instances, bass were going hi-speed horizontally airborn, attacking and chasing baitfish.  A couple had to have cleared 6' horizontally.

Nice Hybrid Sunfish were attacking the baitfish as well.

Crazy good evening!  Oh, and I did pick up tick #7 from around this pond.  Fortunately none have attached.