Saturday 10-23-2010, Local Public Pond Fly-Fishing

Well, I hit that pond one more time on Saturday. It isn't often I get to fish during the day on Saturdays...but it worked out this time. I fished from about 9:30am to 2pm. I could have fished longer, the fish were still biting steady, but I was exhausted and hungry. So I went home.


I caught over 100 crappies, 2 small bass, 1 bluegill, and 7 green sunfish. The crappies probably averaged around 9". I measured one at 10", and another at 11", but didn't bother measuring any others.

I tried a variety of patterns, and the two top producers again were the microjig, and small Kraft Fur Clousers with beadchain eyes. White/red worked very well, but I can't really say I tried a color that DIDN'T work well. I caught a bunch on olive, too, as well as pink-n-white, and also chartreuse.

Oh, and at one point I could see a small school of crappies messing around near the surface, occasionally swirling.  I put on a foam topwater, and caught myself laughing out loud watching them actually leaping completely out of the water trying to hit this!  It was amazing seeing crappies being THIS aggressive!  I tried to get it on video, but I couldn't work the fly and hold the camera still, plus the fish seemed to have moved on by the time I got the camera ready.  I hooked a few of the fish, but all of them managed to throw the hook before I landed them.

Here's some fish pics.

I liked the stripes on this one:

This little guy was just too cute not to photograph:

I think this one was the one I measured at 11"

Lunch Fishing 10-21 and 10-22-2010

I fly-fished a local public pond during lunch....same place as in my previous blog entry.  The weather continues to be very bright sunny, mild, and breezy.
Tried some other fly patterns.  I tried hairwing streamers, Kraft Fur minnows, etc.  Just about everything caught fish, but some patterns made it much quicker and easier.
Microjigs and Kraft Fur Clousers were the top 2 patterns.  Unweighted patterns just didn't get down close to the fish quickly enough even though the crappies would eventually come up to take them.  I only tried a blue Clouser...not a color I use often, but it worked very well.  I tried a variety of colors of microjigs, and all caught fish very well.
On 10/21, I caught at least 12 Crappies and 3 Green Sunfish.
On 10/22, I caught 21 Crappies and 3 Green Sunfish.
On both of these trips, I caught some black crappies along with the white crappies.
Heres some pics from these 2 days:

Green Sunfish

Black Crappie

 Blue Kraft Fur Clouser

 Kraft Fur Minnow

 White Crappie

Lunchtime Fishing Report, 10-20-2010

I fly-fished a local public pond during lunch today. Its a pond I drive by almost daily, but rarely ever fish. My gar fly-fishing buddy, Ben, had visited the pond this past weekend with his son, and had caught some fish. I figured it was time I checked it out personally.

I started out with a 1/100th oz microjig tied with white marabou tail and pink chenille body. I rigged up a strike indicator FOR THE FIRST TIME EVER. I caught a couple fish with it, but it was kind of slow, and the way I rigged it up allowed it to slide up and down the line too easily. So, I removed the strike indicator. After that, I caught a fish on nearly ever cast. In the 30 minutes of fishing time, I landed 15 crappies and 4 chunky greeen sunfish. Most ponds in town that have crappies have Black Crappies. The pond I fished today is the oldest one in town, to my knowledge. All the crappies I caught today were White Crappies.
Here's some of the pics:

Very fun LUNCHTIME! I definitely plan to go back soon!

More Fly I've Tied Up Recently

Here's some fly-fishing fly patterns I've recently tied up.  I've included the names if I know them.

 Misc. microjigs (1/100th oz.)

Woolly Worm

Hardy Demon

 Blacknosed Dace Hairwing Streamer

Springbrook Wunder microjigs

Warmwater Fall Fly Fishing Starting to Improve?

I fly-fished a local public pond on Friday night after dark.  I caught 13 crappies (finally, decent numbers!), 3 bass (2 were nice ones, I measured one at 16.75”), and 7 bluegills.
All hit a #8 bead-chain eye chartreuse Kraft Fur Clouser.  Geez, that’s a pretty long title for a fly, right?

Here's the biggest bass of the night:

And here's one of the crappies:

 

Decent night for fishing. It wasn’t fast at all, but I found a couple spots where I caught several crappies each, and that helped. The bass were great fighters, and a nice surprise.

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I hit the same pond again with the same fly on Saturday night after dark, but it was slower again. 3 Crappies, 11 bluegills, and 2 bass (both 11”).

The good news is, it looks like the algae mats are diminishing on all the local public ponds.

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In other news, I tied up some fly patterns I hadn't tried before, or hadn't tried for a long time, anyway.

Here's a variant (in both tying method and materials) of a Berry's Super Stone Skwala, size 8:

And below is a Matuka that I thought turned out acceptable:

Ocotber 9 & 10, 2010 Fly-Fishing Outings

The algae blooms on the local public ponds have been horrific for at least the past 3 weeks.  Most places, the algae mats extend 15feet or MORE from shore, with random floating and submergent algae beyond that.  Its as bad as I've ever seen it.  I'm sure it can be attributed to the deluge of rain that was our Spring and Summer this year, which would have brought a lot of lawn nutrients (and shoreline waterfowl droppings) into the pond.  The nutrients are pretty much locked in the system now, unless cleaner water flushes it out.  The algae, unless removed (not likely), will die off, sink, decay over the winter (hopefully not causing a winterkill...keep your fingers crossed), and the nutrients will remain in the pond in some form or another.

The algae has made fishing from shore difficult, but as long as you don't mind cleaning junk off your hook after each retrieve, its do-able.  The algae is only one issue lately.  The other issue is the bluegills (and crappies) have been ultra-finicky.  Willing to hit almost everything, but not wanting to hang on to anything long enough to get HOOKED.  So, I've been tying up a variety of patterns I normally don't use, in order to try and pinpoint something the fish will take and hold onto longer.

First was a variation of John Scott's CFC October Caddis.  I left the rubber legs/antenna off this example:

A nighttime crappie picked it off the surface near shore:

And here's a bluegill that took a blue version of the same fly:

The most successful pattern last night was this woolly-bugger type pattern, tied with a ginger/brown rabbit fur tail, dubbing of cat hair salvaged from our pet's brush, and some black hackle.

 Here's a couple of the bluegills that liked this:

Here's a parachute pattern with an extended body.

A largemouth bass hit that, and then the thing wouldn't float very well, so I had to change flies again.

And finally...I was staring at some Chamois material while sitting at my fly-tying desk...and it occurred to me to tie up some of these.  I'm not sure if anything like these have been done before (I've seen San Juan Worm patterns tied with double hooks similar to this), so for now I'm just calling it a Chamois Bluegill Worm.

I was excited to try them out on the bluegills.  It needs more experimentation, but it DID catch fish!

Testing new Pentax Optio W90 Camera

I LOVED my Nikon Coolpix S640!  Unfortunately, it didn't survive a recent fishing trip, even though it never got wet or anything.  I don't know why it quit, actually, but quit it did.

Figuring I need a sturdier camera for fishing trips, but one that takes good enough pics & video since I really use it for EVERYTHING, I decided to go with the Pentax Optio W90.  It is rated as waterproof to 20' deep for up to 2 hours continuous submersion, shockproof from a 4' drop onto plywood (interesting rating), dustproof, and cold-proof to 14 degrees Fahrenheit (can you say ICE FISHING?).

It will take underwater pics and video.  As pleased as I was with the Nikon, I'm expecting SOME trade-off between picture quality and ruggedness with this Pentax.  But so far the pictures I've taken seem reasonably good.  Here's some examples of what I've taken so far:

White Bass from fishing today during lunch:

White Bass head: close-up (remember, click any picture to see the original size picture):

Here's a variety of colors of Uni Yarn on my fly-tying desk:

 And some flies I've tied recently...an Elk Hair Caddis:

 A Foxee Red Clouser (size 12):

 A Parachute-style dry fly pattern:

 And here's some backyard foliage, flower, and bug pics:

Pink Smoke Tree in fall colors:

 A couple of hot peppers on the vine:

 A Ladybug on the trampoline safety-surround net:

 Butterfly Bush:

 Phlox:

 I can't remember what these are.  Some sort of poisonous plant berries:

 Rose-of-Sharon:

 Weigala leaf:

 "Jumpy-Jumpy Grasshopper":