The "Almost" Trophy Bass

As something of a surprise to me, a few bass still seem willing to hit topwater flies this late in the season.

After catching a 20-inch bass the previous week (see last blog entry), I caught a couple on a blockhead popper, then had a not-really-so-big bass break off (also on a blockhead popper) while flyfishing a local pond last week one evening last week.

And then last Friday I fished a pond during lunch and hooked THE BIG ONE on a blockhead popper.  I suspect this fish may be in the 6 lb range….21-22” long.  I caught bass of 18", 18.5", and 19" in this pond on topwater flies earlier this year, and this one really looked much bigger.  Plus, I've had some experiences that suggest there IS at least one even bigger bass in this pond.  I had talked to a couple guys there earlier in the Spring that said their friend had caught a 6 pound bass there (I assume it was released), and a winter or two previous while ice-fishing, I had a big bass on that I got a pretty good look at as it swam under the clear ice and right up to the hole before shaking loose.  At the time, I was thinking "6-pounder!".  In some states, that's not a huge fish.  In Iowa...it is.  My biggest Iowa Bass ever is a 24", 7lb 8oz fish I'd caught on spinning gear over 20 years ago.  It was a 1/2" longer than the State Record, but weighed less.  I don't think this one was THAT big...but if my estimate is correct, this would have been my biggest on flyfishing gear.

Anyway, I survived the battle through two spectacular jumps, then the behemoth dove into the weed/moss/algae crap on the bottom and got stuck.  I spent about 15 minutes working to free the fish from all that junk, straining my rod and my tippet to just shy of their maximum.  I wasn't gaining any ground at all for the longest time,,,but then I got the fish free!!  I managed then to pull it to within 6’ of shore, paused to take up some slack, then resumed pulling the rest of the way to shore.  It had some weeds still on it, which I felt was a GOOD thing, since it helped keep the fish calm and sedated.  But…unbelievingly (is that a word?)…that’s when my line decided to break!  The fish immediately darted out of the “weed jacket” it was wearing, and swam back to deeper water.  I don’t know if it left the popper in the weeds or if it was still in its mouth.

After all that…I was SO CLOSE TO LANDING IT!  During the battle I was making constant checks of the details…..where could I land the fish, did I have a camera, tape measure, etc….

Well, I’d accidentally left my cellphone (which is all I use for a camera these days) on my desk at work.  But I still could have measured the fish, had I landed it.  And OH, I REALLY wanted to land it!  SO DARNED CLOSE!!  J

I dreamt of that fish, that scene, as I was falling asleep that night.  I've caught a pretty good number of nice bass on flies this year.  Isn't it funny how the ones that get away demand so much airtime in our memories?

Well, what's a blog post without pictures?...the only recent good ones are of colorful Pumpkinseed Sunfish.  They have absolutely nothing to do with with the title of the blog entry....but here they are anyway:

Lunchtime Lunkers, 10-8-2014

I flyfished during my lunch hour today. Beautiful sunny day, very slight breeze, temperature was @ 63 degrees F.

I caught some Bluegills and a small bass on a Birds Nest nymph, and a really nice Hybrid Sunfish and an 18.5" Largemouth Bass on a blockhead popper.

Pumkinseed Sunfish & Hybrid Sunfish

My buddy Jay met me out flyfishing Sunday evening.  At long last, this particular pond is pretty much free of its wide band of algae that typically clogs the entire shoreline all summer.  The geese and ducks have the shallows pretty muddied up right now.  I tried a topwater for bass, but did not get any along the stretch of shore I tried.  We fished for panfish instead, and caught plenty.  Mostly we caught Bluegills, with a few naturally-occuring Hybrid Sunfish.  I hoped for crappies, but did not catch any.  We tried a variety of fly patterns.  As long as it was chartreuse, it seemed to catch fish well.

In Iowa, the "Master Angler" qualifying size for Pumpkinseed Sunfish is 9".  We did  not catch any quite that big, but each caught Pumpkinseeds that measured 8.5", which was new personal bests for each of us. Such beautiful fish!!

I did catch one bass while fishing for the sunfish.  Most of the Hybrid Sunfish were moderate size, the 8.5-incher below was the largest, and also appears to have had a Pumpkinseed as one of the parents.

We left before it was completely dark, which unfortunately is only @ 7:15pm right now.  Too early!!!!  :)

Bass on Topwater - October 2, 2014

I went flyfishing after work last night.  Weather was cloudy and windy.  The public pond I visited had a horrible 20' wide solid band of matted algae around the entire perimeter.

I really only fished one shoreline, and worked it one way with a chartreuse mylar bugger, hoping for crappies on the outside edge of the algae.  No crappies, but I did catch a couple bass a a few bluegills.

Still hoping for crappies, I worked the shoreline back to my starting point with a microjig under an indicator.  Not much action on that.

By this time, it was pretty dark, but I switched to a blockhead-style popper to try for bass.  It took me forever to actually get it on my line, because of the poor light conditions.  Within a couple casts, I caught a small bass on it.  Then I moved back down the shoreline to the next spot, and made a cast or two.  After a great strike, I had a nice fish on, and somehow managed to land it despite all the algae I had to bring it through.

It was a 20" Largemouth Bass, and one look verified that it was the same fish I had caught twice before this year on flies.  I was so happy to have caught it again....after releasing the fish, I just went home.

Mixed Bag Flyfishing, 9-14-2014

I visited a local public pond on Sunday evening.  I flyfished from 5pm-8pm.  Hard to believe it is pretty much completely dark by 8pm!

There were hundreds of wild geese and ducks scattered all around the pond, and they had the shallow areas pretty well muddied up.  Deeper areas were reasonably clear, and most of the algae mats around the shoreline were gone.

I switched back and forth between a blockhead popper (trying for bass), and a chartreuse mylar bugger (unweighted, trying for everything).  I caught one decent Largemouth Bass and a 9.25" beastly Hybrid Sunfish on the blockhead popper, along with a smaller Hybrid or two, and some aggressive Bluegills.  A large bass broke my line and stole one of the blockhead poppers!

9.25" Hybrid Sunfish...inhaled the blockhead popper!

On the mylar bugger, I caught 4 Crappies, 1 nice Largemouth Bass and some smaller ones, a couple Hybrid Sunfish, and 3 beautiful Pumpkinseed Sunfish.

While I was fighting one of the Pumpkinseeds, a BIG bass attacked it right in front of me!  I tossed some flies around for it, be never saw it again....although I had some really good strikes on a blockhead popper that never got hooked up.

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!

Quick Smallmouth Bass Trip, 9-4-2014

I decided to try flyfishing for Smallmouth Bass after dinner.  By the time I drove north to the river, it was @ 6:20pm before I finally waded out into the stream.  The river was only slightly higher than my previous trip earlier this year, but seemed a bit dirtier as well, from a recent rain.  Overall, conditions were decent, though.

I knew there wasn't much time to fish.  I fished the same section I hit before, but this time I finished it in about 1.33 hours, compared to @ 4 hours when I was here a month ago.  Run-and-Gun wading!

I didn't work any area thoroughly, just hit good spots briefly, and quickly plowed through the barren stretches.

I started out with a yellow Blockhead Popper, and caught one Smallmouth Bass on it, plus missed a second, and had a 3rd shake free after a few seconds.  I switched to a large-ish chartreuse Cactus Chenille Bugger with lead eyes, and caught three Smallmouth Bass and one Hybrid Sunfish.  I was looking forward to fishing some large boulders in the last section of stream before finishing, but there was another angler there...so I just cut up the bank and walked back to my car and left.  I did stop and ask how he'd done, and he'd caught a half dozen Smallies with spinning gear, and lost a very nice one right at his feet.  He was there when I arrived...I don't know how long he'd been fishing, but he was working that last section pretty slow and methodically.

Anyway, no big fish for me, just 2 "medium-sized" bass in the 11"-13" range, and a couple smaller ones.

Blockhead Bass - September 2, 2014

The Fall White Bass fishing extravaganza is going on here, so I've been focusing on them lately.  It had been 3 full weeks since I'd tried flyfishing for bass on the local ponds.  Last night I had a short timeframe for fishing...not enough time to chase the White Bass, so I hit a local pond with a fly rod and a Blockhead Popper.

I was happy to discover the fish are still very willing to strike topwaters.  I flyfished for just over an hour, and caught 7 Largemouth Bass, 3 Bluegills, 1 Crappie, and 1 Hybrid Sunfish.  The biggest bass measured 18", and was the biggest one I've landed from this pond so far:

Senyo's Mini Baitfish

Encouraged largely by Jeff's (from High Plains Fly Fisher blog) post of a fly pattern he's been using for Smallmouth Bass ( http://highplainsflyfisher.blogspot.com/2014/08/bugs-from-benchsimple-baitfish-streamer.html ), I purchased 4 colors of Senyo's Laser Dubbing.  I may have to purchase some more colors.

I'm a little disappointed that their isn't more color difference between the white, gray, and silver minnow belly colors, but I'll get over it.  The white can be used for everything....and the silver minnow belly has some super-thin silver holographic tinsel mixed in it, which looks really good. The chartreuse lights up great under UV light!  I guess my only gripe is I just wish the gray was darker.

I tied up a few different baitfish patterns with it, and its really great stuff to work with.  I'd pull out a very small bunch of fibers, grab it by the ends, and then separate and re-stack the fibers a few times to get a bundle that I felt would stay put when tied down in the middle.  I don't know if anyone else bothers to do this, but in my mind, it results in less waste once the baitfish is completed and brushed out to blend and shape the fibers.

In searching for other baitfish fly patterns that use this material, I encountered one called Senyo's Mini Baitfish.  I was really wanting some streamers for White Bass fishing, and determined I needed something smaller than 2" in length in order to reduce the number of missed strikes I was experiencing on other baitfish streamers.

Well, I haven't been back out to test these on White Bass yet.  But I really DO like they way these look, and how they act in the water.  Other than a few extra strands of flash material and the eyes, they are tied with 100% Senyo's Laser Dub.  Maybe I'm my own worst critic, but I don't feel mine don't look as good as some I'd seen pictures of when I did a Google search....but I do think they will catch fish.  I'm generally trying to imitate a small Gizzard Shad, which is the main forage of the local White Bass.  I tied mine on a #6 saltwater hook (Allen's SW002).

Flyfishing for White Bass, 8-23-2014

Odd place, Saylorville Lake.  A lightning-heavy rainstorm passed over in the morning.  I got out to the lake around 9:30am as the last few drops were still falling, and the lightning had long since moved on.

I fished for an hour-and-a-half with no fish activity sighted, and not fish caught.  I did see one or two carp, and made some poor casts in their general direction.

My buddy Jay showed up around 10:30am, and he found fish almost right away, although the action wasn't fast.  I was up and around the shoreline a ways from him...out of sight...and he kept calling me on my phone to come over.  I finally did.  I caught one white bass while he caught 4, plus a drum and a walleye.  Sheesh!

An experienced angler knows that sometimes you just gotta move on.  So, I headed back down the shoreline to an area I'd already covered that morning.  But, fishing activity did pick up, and by 12 noon, it was rocking really good, and stayed that way right up until we left around 3:30pm.

I used spinning gear much of the time, but once the fish got really active and were within casting distance of a fly rod ( I brought a 9' 6wt this day), I grabbed my fly rod.  Personally, its just more fun!

I put on a craft fur baitfish fly,

and the fish were really having fun attacking it, but I wasn't hooking up as often as I wanted...as in, lots of MISSED strikes.  I also had fish (catfish?) break my 8.2 lb tippet 3 times!!!  I switched to 10 lb tippet and didn't break off any more fish.  I also eventually switched to a #8 Marabou Clouser, chartreuse over white, and started catching a much higher percentage of the fish that were striking.

FUN!
Here's a 12" Wiper:

And here's a 14" White Bass (FAT):

Flyfishing for White Bass, 8-17-2014

Following my previous blog post, I tied up a couple more shad-imitating flies.  I had seen a picture of a fly pattern called "Bill's Articulated Baitfish".  I only had a picture to go by....no recipe or instructions.  I thought they turned out reasonably well:

The first one I tied (the bottom one with the chartreuse eyes) I used a superline or backing line as the articulation connection.  I may have tied it down too tightly or something...when I sink-tested the fly, it was dead....no action in the water.  So, the 2nd one (the top one with the red eyes), I used a bent-wire connection, and I really liked the action during the sink-test!  In case fish were small and/or striking short, I left the rear hook in place, where I had clipped it off in the first (bottom) one.  I'm glad I did!

Another fly that caught fish well was this one:

Another fly that did well was the bottom one in the picture below.  You may not be able to see it in the picture, there is a metal bead on the hookshank about 1/3 hook shank length back from the hook eye.  The tail materials tangled some, but I could still fix it and fish it.

I missed at least 2 strikes for every fish caught on the above patterns, probably because of the size and hook placement.

I had a tip from a fellow flyfishing white bass angler...   Small #8 Clousers tied with marabou instead of bucktail.  I had tied up a couple of these:

I fished the bottom two, while my buddy Jay fished the top one.  They all caught fish VERY well, with much fewer missed strikes than the bigger patterns.

In fact, I had the biggest White Bass/Wiper of the day  on the middle fly above.  The strike and fight were amazing....after 10-15 seconds, I decided I must have hooked a channel catfish, THAT's how hard this fish was bulldogging and fighting!  I finally dragged it up onto the sand in the shallows, but it flipped a few times, threw the fly, and swam away.  It was probably about a 15" fish.  Not huge, but REALLY NICE, especially after battling with the fun medium-sized fish (11-12") all day.

Jay took my picture against the fog on the lake in the morning.

White Bass Flies

I'm STILL enjoying trying to find some good & easy shad/baitfish-imitating fly patterns I can use for White Bass & Wipers.
Here's some stuff I've tied in the past week or so:
In the photo below, the top fly is a Silver Baitfish, and the bottom fly is a Bowen's Baitfish.

And in the photo below....the the top fly is very similar to a number of craft fur baitfish flies, but not exactly like any of them...so I can't give an exact name for it.  The head was created by putting the craft fur in a dubbing loop, however.  The middle fly is my attempt at Casey Smartt's Glass Minnow.  And the bottom fly is also not named.  Congo Hair tail, craft fur body/head covered with a few wraps of Wapsi Palmer Chenille.

Overall lengths of these are generally 2.5" - 3".  I hope the fish love 'em!  :)

Color Preference of Catfish

Blue.

Here's the article/study. Read all the way to the end...its interesting to learn that the fish preferred an unscented blue lure over a scented pink lure...even though the fish otherwise preferred scented lures over unscented ones of the same color.

http://www.in-fisherman.com/midwest-finesse/the-color-preference-of-catfish-according-to-caitlin-young-including-her-notes-on-scent/

I know...there's no statistical evaluation of the raw data.  Statistically speaking, there may be no significant difference in fish preference between certain colors.  And any experiment needs to be repeated and corroborated before being accepted as true.  But blue DID seem the overwhelming favorite.  Enough said.  :)