And Then There Was Success!

We ventured into my buddy Russell’s “secret pond”  a couple of days ago at around 11am. He had fed me stories about huge bluegill and Bass and so I decided I had to try it.

 

This year has been a slow one for me and largemouth bass. Last year I feel I did fairly well on the buckets, this year being different with only one substantial bass and the rest being dinks. My main desires were two fold: To catch a bass and also to catch a bass on the fly rod!

We arrived at the pond at around 11am. I had a pole rigged up for panfish from the previous trip so I tossed it in and I saw a takedown right away! Always a positive sign. Russell drew first blood with a nice little green sunfish. I was next with a decent sized little bluegill. Panfish are always a good time! I decided to try with the fly rod but no matter what I threw at them (san juan worm, pmd, wooleybuggers, panfish poppers, etc), they were not interested. At one point I got one bite on a white wooleybugger but that was basically it.

Russell loves catfish so much that on the Fish Sniffer his screen name is “Katfish.” He decided that he was going to fish for some kitties and within a few moments he had this nice catfish. Notice it’s dorsal fin.  We wondered if there was something BIG chewing on its fin?

I decided that I would try for catfish as well but all I had on was a small treble hook. I have caught catfish with these hooks in the past but the first cast was unfruitful.  At this point I decided to change my hook. I had a basic slip sinker rig with a ½ oz egg weight on it and about a foot and a half leader. I was able to get it out pretty far. I went back to my fly rod but right away I noticed there was some tension on the line. I picked up my rod, felt tension (not bites, but tension) so I set my hook and sure enough there was a fish on! I tried to power him in but he started to run. That’s when I saw it jump out and I knew it was a largemouth. He took off to the left of us and was gunning it with my line. The darn thing put up a CRAZY fight! I finally got him in and he was smaller than I thought but the fight still made him worth it.He was a nice little 2 lb Largemouth!

We wondered out loud why the bass had fed on a bottom feeding rig and rationalized that it must have caught the worm on the fall. But before the afternoon ended Russell ended up catching two more smaller bass on a bottom feeding rig as well. We started throwing soft plastics, lipless cranks and many topwater lures as well to no avail. For whatever reason, it seemed that they were bottom feeding that day. 

Well, It seemed that Russell had the good spot because he was getting into all the catfish. At one point I ventured out with my fly rod to try and catch me a bass on the fly but they weren’t even checking out my popper. While I was doing that Russell told me I had a cat on so I ran back and got into my first and last kittie of the day. We ended up catching a couple more panfish and russell got into a couple more cats as well. Total fish caught and released  – 3 Bass, 5 Catfish,8 panfish. In all, not a bad day. I guess the season isn’t quite over yet, you just have to adjust with the times! 

Well, that wraps up my summer fishing. I don't feel I did too great this summer but a lot of the time was spent learning about fly fishing. That's my excuse and I'm sticking to it. Oh well, Time to bring on that fall fishing!!