I'm Not Here to Get Skunked...!

There was something that Mel over at the Pondstalker said that on my previous post that really sank in:

So even though it was a windy day, I figured it wasn't too warm and I grabbed Excalibur (My sage reel on a Redington Rod) and headed back to cache creek to explore the pond I found downstream.

Now I tied on a few different flies including two sizes of popper and  two different streamers but there were two different flies that produced for me: the Light cahill and of course, the royal humpy. 

The royal humpy is a fly that I have come to love because it appears that panfish love them! It has become one of my go to flies and this trip only solidified that. Second cast of the day produced my first fish, a green sunfish. The pond has tons of these guys and they are fun little fighters! 

Nothing could have prepared me for my second catch of the day. I tossed my RH in a deeper looking direction and something nailed it! It was a much harder fight than the sunfish and as it jumped out of the water, I realized, it was a smallmouth bass! I reeled on in and sure enough I caught my first Smallie on the fly! It wasn't the biggest smallie in that creek but it's enough to meet half of my 2014 goal of catching a Smallie and a largemouth on the fly. I even ended up catching a second smallie a few casts later!   I must tip my hat to Jay over at The Naturalist's Angle who has been giving me pointers on catching my first smallmouth bass on the fly. 

The green sunfish were really killing the Royal humpy, especially after it got too wet to float and sank. I was slaying them with the RH so I decided to tie on some poppers and go after bigger smallies. Even though I could see some looking at them and even bumping them, they wouldn't commit. 

As it was getting darker and the mosquitoes came out I tied on a light cahill because I figured it looked a lot like a mosquito (and didn't have an mosquito patterns on me). I ended up catching a bunch of panfish off of the cahill. At one point my wife called and I continued to slay the Green sunfish while on the phone with her.

A skunk even came next to the creek to hang out (or possibly die?) I guess he didn't get the memo... I wasn't there to get skunked, I was there to catch fish!

 I had to snap a couple of pictures of the sunset and also the mandatory panoramic shot of my fishing holes, kind of a tradition I have this year. I was glad I did some recon and found a new honey hole.

These 14 green sunfish put me at 50 panfish for the year and it's only May. That buys me a little time to try and pursue some other species and try to meet other goals. I wasn't sure if I was going to be able to meet my 70 panfish goals this year but now I'm only a couple of good panfish days away from exceeding that goal and I haven't even caught any at the bee hive yet, so when that heats up (probably already has) it will be crazy! I need to try to get into some stripes and trout soon. Summer will belong to the kitties and the buckets!

Break that bank, folks!

Total Fish: 2 Smallmouth bass + 14 green sunfish = 16 fish