Night Fly-Fishing, April 12, 2010

I fly-fished last night (4-12-2010) from 9pm until 10:45pm. I landed 21 crappies, biggest was 10.5”. Also landed 2 rather small bluegills, and a 15.5” bass. The bass was STRONG! Once again, I was REALLY hoping it was a catfish…but at the same time, I was wondering if I’d snagged the darn muskrat that swims around the pond every night.


It hit near a drop-off, and then made a bee-line for deep water. Then about a 2 second pause, and then another stronger burst of strength that took all the line I had stripped in, and then started taking more off the reel! That was exciting, because I don’t often get fish strong enough to do that. I did have some crappies last night that took line from my hand, but not much.

Anyway, so I actually got to “fight the fish on the reel”, which I almost never get to do. I reeled in as fast as I could (the fish seemed to be coming back right at me at that point), and then once the bass got up into the shallow water and started running again, I worked it in with the line for the last 10’-15’.

All fish were caught on a yellow boa yarn leech.

No camera! So I used my cell-phone camera, which is HORRIBLE. Still, one with a somewhat skewed perspective might call these pictures “artsy”, in a dark and unfocused sort of way.

15.5" Largemouth Bass

10.5" Crappie

Night Fly-Fishing 11-13-09

We had an unseasonably nice evening on Friday night, so after supper and a bit of time with the family, I headed to a local pond to do some fly-fishing.
It was slow, as it has been for several weeks now. But, I did manage to catch a few fish. I stuck with the #8 yellow boa yarn leech pattern, and landed 3 crappies, 3 bluegills, and this 19" channel catfish. The catfish was a nice surprise this late in the year, and put up an excellent fight on my 5wt fly gear.

Night Fly-Fishing 11-01-2009

I fly-fished last night after dark. Once again it was slow?but I found a few fish scattered in the shallows. Ended up with 12 crappies, 5 bluegills. BEAUTIFUL night to be out! It was calm... comfortable @ 52 degrees?I did get sprinkled on a couple times, but it never lasted very long before clearing up again. The almost-full moon kept popping in and out of the clouds, which was pretty cool.You can see the yellow boa yarn leech I used in the picture below:

October 16, 2009

Wasn't sure if the weather was gonna get any better, so I went fly-fishing after dark on Friday. Air temp was around 43 degrees. Fishing was slow at the local public pond I elected to fish. I managed 6 crappies, 6 bluegills, and a 16.5" largemouth bass that provided a heckuva good fight! Also lost another good fish, that was probably either another bass, or possibly a catfish.


The fly I used was one that has worked really well for me on this particular pond all year. It is a #8 yellow boa yarn leech, which you can see in the bass's mouth below: