Last Week of June, 2015

Algae blooms are forming broad mats along the shorelines of many of the public ponds I flyfishing.  It makes fishing and landing fish difficult.  But not impossible.
I've tried unsuccessfully for more Grass Carp.  Largemouth Bass are becoming increasingly aggressive towards topwaters.  Bluegills and Hybrid Sunfish, too.  Some sunfish are still hanging out near nesting areas, but I think the main spawn is mostly over.  A much smaller percentage of the population may continue to spawn sporadically for the remainder of the summer.

Hybrid Sunfish:

A 10" Bluegill!! :

And Largemouth Bass up to 18":

Fly-Fishing: 9-22-2011 Evening and 9-23-2011 Lunchtime

I had 1 hour to fish on Thursday (9/22).  I visited the closest public pond, which was in a nearby 'burb, since that is where I was at the time.  Like the last visit here, there was still a LOT matted floating algae around the edges of this pond...and the water clarity is still rather poor.  I neglected to fish the spots where I've had the best success in the past, because it would have been too much of a hassle trying to get a hooked fish up and through that much algae and get it to shore.
I fished a couple spots where the algae mats were less obtrusive.  I tried a microjig & indicator.  I had some hits, and even caught a couple bluegills, but it was tough and slow.  I had a few good strikes at the indicator, so I tried a foam topwater pattern, the Chernobyl Ant/Hopper.  Got some good strikes on that as well, but couldn't hook up with the fish.  I switched to a yellow boa yarn leech and caught a couple more bluegills on that.  There were some healthy 8-inch bluegills! I switched one more time to a chartreuse Docaroo, and fished my way back to the car.  No more fish were caught, however.

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Today (9/23) during lunch, I fly-fished a local pond for 1/2 hour.  I had the chartreuse Docaroo still tied on, and I fully planned to change flies right away...until I walked down to the pond.  There is a large fountain in the pond, but it was not on this time.  The wind died down several times, and combined with the bright sun and clear water, I could see the tops of aquatic weeds almost everywhere.  Even out in the area I'm pretty sure is the deepest part of the pond!  The weeds came to within 12"-18" of the surface in most places, and even touched the surface in a few places.

I decided to go ahead and fish with the Docaroo.  I could see a few fish near shore, most were small.  Well, small is a relative term, I know.  There are Crappies in this pond that might touch 10", Bluegills might top out at 8" to 8.5" and the abundant Green Sunfish are all sizes from 1"-8".  I didn't see or catch any Crappies today.  I did catch 4 nice chunky Bluegills, and at least 10 Green Sunfish...mostly the larger ones, but I did catch 3 of the tiny ones too.  They're rather cute when they are that small!

I thought about taking some pictures of the fish I was catching, but in the end I didn't bother.

Unpredictable Fishing

You think you have one of your local waters figured out pretty well.  Its predictable.  Right?  Not always.  And this keeps fishing interesting.  Or frustrating.  And this is where we throw in the disclaimer:
"Its always nice just to get out."  It is.  At least we ALWAYS have that.

Here's an overview of my experiences at one particular local lake over the past week:
-Trip A.  Wind moderate, fish biting reasonably well.  Caught 14 fish.  This is GOOD (but not EXCELLENT).
-Trip B.  I get a call from a buddy who says the fish are hitting on every cast.  I go.  The wind had died and changed directions.  I'm told, "You should have been here 1/2 hour ago!"  Still caught some fish (like 10), and some decent ones.  This is still OK.
-Trip C.  Relatively high wind (@15-20mph all day), usually means excellent fishing at this lake.  My buddy calls, says he caught only 3 small fish, and it was difficult to cast into the wind.  I go anyway.  I catch 5 small fish in 40 minutes.  This is SLOW.
-Trip D.  Fished during my lunch hour.  Light wind.  Almost no visible fish activity on the surface.  I catch 1 fish.  This is POOR fishing.

I keep going back, knowing the "success meter" will eventually swing in the right direction for me, but it has been declining all week.  The fact is, it changes all the time, and I know I've just not hit it during a peak moment.  Just gotta keep trying.
At least today's fish was pretty.  Its a naturally occurring hybrid sunfish:

Took My Son Fishing

My daughter was busy, but my son was free last night.  My buddy Jay called from the lakeshore and said the words "...Every cast!".
We ate dinner and headed out the door.

As happens often...we missed it.  In the short time before we got to the lake, the wind died and changed directions, and the fish activity screeched almost to a complete halt.  I got to hear the stories of "You should have been here 1/2 hour ago!"

I wanted my son, Carson, to catch plenty of fish, knowing he would have fun doing that.  Instead, he was bored most of the time, but had fun during the exciting moments when he did catch a couple of hard-fighting White Bass.

I caught around 10 fish or so, and there were some nice 14"+ White Bass in the bunch.

I also tried my fly rod for a bit, and managed 1 small Largemouth Bass on a modified Clouser.

Took My Daughter Fishing

I've been wanting to get my kids in on some good fish-catching action with White Bass at Saylorville this month.


So far, it hadn't happened.  We had tried on a couple of occasions, but never hit the right spot at the right time.

I had an opportunity to take my daughter fishing last night. She's 14. She REALLY didn't want to go. I badgered her relentlessly until she caved. :)

We went. We got to the parking lot, and I spotted my buddy Jay, and two other guys (Dan and Don) already there. Jay and Dan were walking back to the parking lot...without fishing rods! First aid was needed on Jay's finger. No embedded hook, but the tip of his finger and fingernail had been nicely sliced by a gill plate of a thrashing fish.

Jay got quickly wrapped up, and we all got down to the business of fishing. Dan was catching fish nearly every cast. Kennedy and I tried some areas adjacent to where Jay and Dan (and Don) were fishing, but I only managed one fat Smallmouth Bass on a topwater:

I had Kennedy elbow her way between Dan and Jay (they didn't mind), and she started catching some decent fish!  In fact, for probably 1/2 hour, she was catching more than ANYBODY ELSE!

Dan and Jay both helped her removed hooks from fish when she had trouble with it. She's been fishing before.  Usually she did fine unhooking the fish all on her own.

It wasn't super-fast fishing, but we caught some. Kennedy had fun.

When we got back to the parking lot to head home, she THANKED ME for making her go. :)

We got home and she went upstairs to take a shower. She called down, "Uh Dad? You've GOT to come here!" She was in the bathroom (still clothed). She held up her hair (its pretty long, as you can see in the picture), and there was a puked-up shad stuck in her hair! OMG, TOO FUNNY!!

I took the shad out of her hair, and my wife said, "Oh, we should have gotten a picture of that!" Yep...bummer. :o)))

OBN - Up Close & Personal (Macro Shots)

I saw this first on John Montana's blog "Carp on the Fly" (http://carponthefly.blogspot.com/), and thought I would join in.  I admire his ability to narrow his choices down to just two!
Outdoor Blogger Network (www.outdoorbloggernetwork.com) posted a prompt to encourage their supporters to post "Up Close & Personal" nature shots on their blogs, such as photos shot in Macro mode.

Well, not all of these are shot in macro mode, but they are "Up Close & Personal". :o)  My previous blog post contains some backyard bug pictures, and another recent one contains some flower pictures, so I'll try not to duplicate those here....but chances are good many of these pics are located in my blogs SOMEWHERE.  I decided to stick with FISH close-ups for this post.

Lets go:



Corlorful  NE Iowa Brown Trout caught on Fly Rod.

Colorful naturally-occurring Hybrid Sunfish.

Largemouth Bass on a fly-rod nymph.

Stream Smallmouth Bass on a fly rod popper.

NE Iowa Rainbow Trout caught on Fly Rod.

Stocker Rainbow Trout from Iowa lake on Fly Rod.

Another stocker Rainbow Trout from a different Iowa lake during mid-summer.

Male Black Crappie in breeding colors.

Beautiful male Green Sunfish in spawning colors.

Big maw of a 31.5" Channel Catfish.

Male Bluegill in spawning coloration.

Healthy reservior Smallmouth Bass.

Small Wiper (Hybrid).

Good-lookin' Channel Catfish caught on Fly Rod.

Under-appreciated Freshwater Drum...this was a nice 26" fish!

Mouth of the 26" Freshwater Drum, hit a Reef Runner Cicada.

Head of a Common Carp, caught on a Fly Rod under a mulberry tree.



Found this nice Arrowhead while fishing!

Toothy jaws of a Shortnose Gar.

Shortnose Gar caught on a Rope Fly.  I liked this shot because you can see the skull joints beneath the skin.

  

"Two Eyes"....Crappie on a streamer pattern.

Crappie on a fly rod microjig.

Largemouth Bass caught on a Lefty's Deceiver.

White Bass caught on a Lefty's Deceiver.

White Bass double on topwater plug!

Yellow Bass.

The red pigmentation in the Shortnose Gar's tail area has something to do with spawning, I've heard.  Looks like blood, but isn't.

Speaking of getting "Up Close & Personal"...this Brown Pelican flew in and landed on our motor while we were heading back to the marina in Cabo San Lucas, Mexico.

Roosterfish from Cabo San Lucas, Mexico.

These ducks weren't scared of me!

Yellow Perch.

Walleye teeth!

Northern Pike teeth!

Pucker up!

 

Grass Carp, caught on Fly Rod.

Close-up of Common Carp scales.