New Fly Rod Personal Best White Bass

My buddy Jay called me before noon today to tell me the fish were biting.  I met up with him during my lunch hour.
Fish were picking the 17-Year Cicadas off the surface of the water, but they hit so fast, we never actually figured out WHAT was eating them!  There was also an abundance of sub-fingerling size young-of-the-year fish schooling around near the surface, and fish would crash them as well.  Pretty exciting to watch all the action!

I used my 12' 5wt Allen Olympic Switch Rod again.  I started out with the beat-up shad-imitating streamer I'd caught those catfish on last week, with no hits.  I switched to a Chartreuse-Over-White Clouser Deep Minnow, with no hits.  I switched to a variant (90-degree jig hook and lead eyes) of the F-C Pearl Shiner, and started catching fish by letting it free-fall into the water, then giving some short quick strips and letting it fall again.

I caught 3 small 10" Wipers, and one 16" White Bass, which was a new flyrod personal best for me.
I wish I could have fished longer!  :)

Saylorville Lake, Evening Fishing 9-4-2013

I fished Saylorville Lake last night from around 6:20pm-8:10pm.

There were many boaters up on the flats...in water less than 3' deep, and within 30' of shore.  This is extremely unusual...but it was a good sign that the fish weren't out in deeper water.  I avoided the stretch of shoreline the boaters were working.  I walked around "the long way", checking the shoreline for signs of carp in the shallows.  I didn't really see any until I got to the point, but they were spooking before I could get near.

So, I tossed a surface plug with my spinning gear.  It was slow going, but within a few casts I caught a decent white bass, and then a couple more.  The biggest was this 15-incher:

I moved around the point a little further.  Saw some more carp, and decided to try flyfishing for them.  Once again, I couldn't get near the fish that were visible in the shallows near shore, but there was some swirling going on just beyond them, so I tried blind casting for awhile with a beadhead mylar chenille bugger.  Jackpot!

I could have kept fishing for carp, and probably caught a few more, but it would have been slow and tedious since I couldn't really sight-fish for them.
So, I resumed chucking a topwater plug for White Bass with a spinning rod.  I found 'em, and caught one on nearly every cast for the next hour or so.  I also caught a largemouth bass.  As the sky started to get dark, the action slowed, but I was still catching them when I decided to leave.

Evening Fishing, 8-21-2013

I fished Saylorville last night from @ 5pm-8:30pm.  

I spent the first hour trying to fool some carp with my fly rod.  I missed the hookset on the few strikes I got.

Then I walked up to the tip of the point, and tossed a Pop-R around it for the rest of the time.  I caught 8 Largemouth Bass up to 17.5”,  and at least 25 White Bass up to 14.5”.  Most White Bass were in the 12”+ range…best average size I’ve experienced so far this year.  About 8:15pm, the action shut off abruptly.

Family Fishin', 7-2-2012

My son was hanging out with a friend's family, my wife suggested we take my daughter fishing.  It was pretty late in the evening already, but we could squeeze a bit of fishing in.  Kennedy is 15 and enjoys catching White Bass, so we headed to Saylorville Lake to fish from shore.

I erroneously assumed my wife would just sit and watch us fish, so I had only brought 2 spinning rods.  Fortunately, I had a couple fly rods in the car, and that is what I fished with most of the time.  I didn't catch anything on the fly gear, however.

My wife and daughter both used Mepps spinners.  Kennedy caught the most fish in the short time we were there...6 White Bass.  They were all smaller fish, around 10".

 My wife's first catch (which I had to help reel in) of the evening was a ROCK.

She did eventually catch at least one White Bass, which she said made fishing SO much more fun.

 No pictures of me, but I did briefly get to cast with one of the spinning rods, and caught 3 white bass, and foul-hooked a decent largemouth bass in the side.  Weird.  And speaking of foul-hooking, most of the white bass were hooked under the chin rather than in the mouth.  They were obviously going for the head and attacking the blade when they got hooked...but it really isn't that common to catch so many of these outside the mouth.  It did make unhooking much easier, though.

Ok...POSE ladies!

Saylorville Before the Storm, 6-20-2012

A big storm had been forecast and was well on its way.   Jay and I decided to squeeze whatever fishing time we could out of the evening.  We went to Saylorville Lake, fished from shore.

As I've mentioned before, I bring flyfishing gear AND spinning gear when I fish this lake.  Sometimes the spinning gear is just the better tool for the white bass.

I spent much of the time flyfishing for some carp.  I knew where they were.  But the water was extremely muddy...visibility maybe 6".  I tried a number of flies and a couple techniques I thought might do the trick...but no takers.  Frustrating!  So then I put on some streamers to try for some other species, like catfish or white bass or wipers.  I had one nice fish on, got it near shore, and BROKE my tippet.  DANG IT!  It was not going well for me.

Meanwhile, Jay had caught a couple white bass, a nice catfish, a good-size freshwater drum, and some nice largemouth bass...all on spinning gear/lures.

I tried a couple other streamers, and managed to spend a good deal of my time trying to rip my flies out of the tall weeds that were behind me.  More frustration.

I tied on a Murdich Minnow, and finally got a nice 14" White Bass to hammer it.

I made some more casts, but didn't get any more fish on the fly gear.  I switched to the spinning gear and caught about a dozen more really nice white bass, mostly in the 13"-15" range, using a Mepps spinner.
This is one of the 15-inchers:

Excellent fighters!

I had my back to the approaching storm, while Jay was fishing looking towards the storm.  The second time he said, "There's lightning!", we took off for the car...FAST!  We had just finished putting our gear in the car and were closing the tailgate when the first drops started to fall.  By the time we left the parking lot, it was coming down pretty good!  Talk about perfect timing!!

5 Species Suprise! 4-7-2012

Our incredibly warm weather in March has given way to more seasonally normal (cooler) weather in April.  I woke up Saturday morning, looked outside to see a good breeze, clouds, intermittent drizzle.  Dreary conditions.  I asked myself, "If I were going to go fishing today, WHERE would I go?"

That really warm March weather warmed local water temperatures FAST.  A nearby lake, Lake Petocka, that had been stocked with trout during the winter offered up some good trout-fishing immediately after ice-out, but the fast-warming shallows caused the fish to drop to waters further from shore...difficult to reach with fly gear.  I thought maybe this cooler weather might encourage some trout to come back in near shore again.  So...Lake Petocka is where I thought I would try.  I mentioned this to my wife, and she said, "Go."  I had to be home around Noon.  I arrived at the lake a little before 10am.  Total time fished was 2.25 hours.

Wind was from the South.  I fished from the North shoreline.  I started at a spot that produced a fair number of trout when I last fished the lake.  I didn't get any strikes there.  I moved down the shoreline a bit further, and got something on my line!  It wasn't a good sign that the first thing I happened to catch was...a clam shell!

 I worked my way down the shoreline.  While at one spot, I noticed a large area just a bit further down the shore that looked like a bunch of fish or baitfish just crashed the surface.  So I moved down to that spot.

I saw a silvery fish slash across the surface.  I started casting.  I was using a beadhead woolly bugger.  After a few casts and a few missed strikes, I got a solid hookset.  A fantastic battle ensued on my 5wt.  I was surprised when the fish came in that it was a nice White Bass!  I shouldn't have been so surprised...My friend Dale G. reported that had caught some on his last trip to the lake a few weeks back.

Let me take a step back here and explain that in all the times I've fished this lake, I have caught MOSTLY Trout (Rainbows and some Brookies), maybe a half-dozen or so Bluegills, a couple small Green Sunfish, and a few small Largemouth Bass.  Without the trout, there really aren't enough fish in this lake to make me want to pick this lake over the dozens of other choices I have closer to home.

Back to the fishing.  I measured this White Bass at 14", and it was a nice healthy fish.

I decided to switch to a Clouser.  I selected a gray-over-white one from my fly box.  I was so excited to get back to fishing, I dropped the fly and started casting.  I quickly realized I hadn't actually ATTACHED the fly to my line!  Total Rookie mistake!  :)

I thought I had chucked the fly into the water, so I didn't look for it, I just dug another one out of my fly box.  The next one I selected was a chartreuse-over-yellow version that was sort of large...in the 3"-4" range.

I caught another white bass.

 I love catching White Bass, so I was pretty excited already (obviously).

Next, I hooked into a different fish.  It looked like about the size and shape of a trout, but the flash was yellow.  Couldn't be a brown trout, they've never been stocked here.  I got it closer to shore.  Yellow Perch!  No way, this couldn't be happening!  It measured 10.75"

That Clouser was a big bite for this fish!

This spot died...so I continued on down the shoreline.  Next fish was the species I had come here targeting, a Rainbow Trout!  I measured this one at 12.5".  

The Clouser was a pretty big bite for this fish too, even though trout DO have large mouths.  Nevertheless, I was still sort of surprised.

I continued moving along the shoreline.  At one spot I got a couple missed strikes, had a nice fish on briefly, and then lost the Clouser to another good strike.  I switched to an unweighted deer hair streamer in a similar color scheme to the Clouser I had just lost.

 Next fish was a Largemouth Bass.  Nothing big, but it fought well.

Next fish was another White Bass.  I didn't measure the last two, they probably weren't quite as big as the first one, but they were nice fish, probably more like 13"+/-.

I quickly fished my way back to the spot I first caught fish.  On the way, I caught another Largemouth Bass.  It wasn't much different than the first bass.  No picture.

I got to that first spot again, and it seemed pretty dead.  I did get a couple small strikes, and then caught a little Smallmouth Bass!

It was time to head home.  I was really excited to have caught 5 Species from this lake in one trip...3 of them were species I had never caught from this lake before, and the White Bass and Yellow Perch especially were nice fish.  I had some excellent battles with fish today.

I had the lake to myself the entire time, with the exception of the last 20 minutes, when another angler with spinning gear arrived, but was fishing a good distance away from me.

I have to wonder if this combination of species has ever been caught before on a fly rod from one lake on one trip?

Saylorville Lake Fishing Report, 10-25-2011

Because of the wind at the lake where I was fly-fishing for trout, I didn't hear/feel the cell phone in my pocket when my buddy Jay called.  Once I noticed it, I returned his call.  He answered and said, "I'll have to call you right back, I'm fighting a big fish right now!"

Ok, he had my attention!  He did call back a couple of minutes later and said he'd caught a really nice Wiper, and that he was catching White Bass and Wipers at Saylorville Lake on nearly every cast.  I told him how the trout-fishing action had long since slowed down, so I would meet him there after I stopped by my house to pick up some appropriate gear.

I was about 10 minutes away from meeting up with him when he called back.  I answered and said, "Let me guess, the hot action is over."  Yep.  The wind had died, changed directions, and the clouds covered the sun...and the fish activity had slowed immediately.  He was still catching some small ones, however.  Well, I was almost there, so I decided to meet up with him anyway.

I got there, he showed me where the fish HAD been hitting earlier. The wind had picked back up again.  I had a fly rod and a spinning rod with me.  I made one cast with the spinning rod, and caught a decent White Bass.  Then I set that rod down.  I tied a white Lefty's Deceiver streamer pattern on the fly rod, and cast it into the wind.  I was into a good White Bass almost immediately.  How fun!  I caught a couple more decent White Bass and a small but FAT Largemouth Bass, but it was work trying to cast into that wind!  So, I soon switched back to the spinning rod with the in-line spinner on it.

The wind came and went, and came again.  Fishing was very good!  I caught at least 30 White Bass up to 16.75", and at least 10 small Wipers (biggest was maybe 12").  The wind picked up even more, and the fishing slowed considerably, so we decided to call it quits for the day.

16 3/4" White Bass

Even little Wipers go absolutely BERSERK when hooked!!

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.

August 26, 2010, Evening Shore-Fishing

My buddy Jay called me last night. He was out at the lake again to go fishing...he had just left his car and was walking towards the fishing spot. He's on the phone talking to me, and he pauses, and I hear this dog barking, and then all sorts of commotion, yelling, screaming, cussing, etc. in the background. I say "Are you alright???" Jay says,"A dog just attacked me and bit me!" Jay never made any of the noises or cussing, that was the dogs owners. Jay just kept walking. Jay showed me the tooth-hole in just below the ass off his jeans when I got out there. I saw the dog, it was good-sized! Anyway...it was funny to be hearing all that through the phone!


So, we fished again. We didn't catch much for numbers, but they almost all fair-sized fish.

Four species tonight...Wiper, White Bass, Largemouth Bass, and Smallmouth Bass. Pop-R's did a good job again, and we also caugth a few on Mepps spinners.

We both forgot our cameras, so I took these pics with my cell phone.

15" Wiper:

Smallmouth Bass (chunky!):

Largemouth Bass (chunky!):

White Bass (chunky!):

Sunday White Bass/Wipers 9-27-09

My buddy Phil calle to invite me fishing with him at Saylorville on Sunday. We trolled along a good drop-off area...that went from about 9' to 16' deep, and also a little bit of trolling on top of the 9' flat. I used a white Bomber crankbait. I had something big on…felt like a wiper…it just peeled drag going straight away from us…until the hook pulled out. Awhile later, Phill got a 19.5” wiper.

He also got a “double” white bass and wiper on his “hillbilly rig”.

I generally only keep fish to eat maybe once/year, except when fishing in Canada or out-of-state for walleyes. I kept some white bass in the 13”-15” range and cleaned them, cooked them up last night. Still have some leftover, but my daughter Kennedy and I were LOVING IT! Good stuff!!

September 6, 2008 - White Bass

Went to Saylorville Lake one afternoon during the Labor Day weekend. Waded the Sandpiper area first...two different spots. Used spinning gear, hoping to find some White Bass action.

Nothing going on at those spots. Tried a 3rd spot, which we just fished from shore.

Success! The fish were very active in this area, and there was some good-sized whites around. Biggest I caught were 15".