All Weekend Fishing!

This weekend was a great one as are all weekends in which all three days are fishing days. Friday We took some beers and stogies out to the pits to see how they were hitting. Unfortunately they are still slow. 

I did manage a decent bass on a small crankbait and also another small bass and a panfish. The panfish was interesting because it was the first panfish I have ever caught out there. In all still a great day. The pits aren’t hitting the same way they did in the past but it is slowly but surely getting better out there.

Total: 2 Largemouth bass + 1 green sunfish = 3 Fish

Saturday I went river fishing with Ol Pops and my nephew. My nephew doesn’t have the patience for fishing which really stinks because he has a hot hand and he doesn’t even know it! First blood was him with a 10 inch striper. Second was me with another little striper and pops ended up catching one as well. Biggest was a 16 incher that my nephew ended up catching on my rod while I went to net one up for pops…. And Pops’ fish ended up getting away! So none of us got skunked and my nephew caught the most and biggest fish.

Total: 1 Striper

On Sunday night we decided to hit Walter Pond with IPAs and Stogies in hand. It was hot and fishing was slow. We barely got into 3 fish and that was with a lot of effort on our part. I expected there to be a good topwater bite but that didn’t happen either. Even though the moon was almost full we still didn’t get many bites in general… 

Total: 2 bass

Well, that’s pretty much it for now. Hope summer is going well for my fellow bloggers. 

Grand Total: 6 fish

 

Nebraska Road Trip

 At the beginning of May we got some bad news. My wifes Great grandmother passed away at the age of 94. It was sad but she lived to be a very good age. She lived in Nebraska.My wife could have flown to Nebraska but we decided to take the road trip out there since it was a MUCH cheaper option. Plus, there is nothing like a road trip with your wife deep into the heartland! 

Now I thought it might be a little insensitive to bring fishing gear so I opted not to make a move for it even though my wife’s uncle and her cousin live right next to a lake. But this is how I know my wife was created by God specifically for me… before leaving, she asks, “are you sure you don’t want to take your fishing stuff? We’re going to be staying at my cousins place, next to the lake.” I love that woman! 

So I grabbed a fly rod and we began the trip. 18 hours of nothing upon nothing! There were some occasional mountains and a cool thing or two but for the most part it was dead. The good thing was visiting different states I had never seen. We drove through Utah, Wyoming and then Nebraska so I got to add those three to the list of states I had yet to visit. 

When we arrived, we ate some lunch and then went for a walk around the lake and of course I brought my fly rod. I tossed it around the main lake to no avail but went to a side pond and quickly hooked into 3 blue gills. Every one made a big deal about the fact that I got into fish, but what they didn’t know is that I’m a pro; I break the bank! 

 

We drove around Nebraska and saw some cool stuff. I got to see chimney rock and a part of the Oregon trail. I saw tons of pronghorns which were amazing to me but everyone else was used to seeing them.

The funeral was sad but I’m glad my wife got to spend time with her family and heal. 

After the funeral, a bunch of us went to visit “Car henge” which is what mid west folk do for a good time; stack cars!  It was very cool to see and while checking out a fish display, I spotted this fly sticker which looked familiar…  In fact I have a couple of can koozies with this logo on it. Cameron, was this you? 

The next day I woke up early and went for a walk around the lake by myself to check out some spots that I had scouted. A bit later Cousin Alex stopped by and fished with me. For whatever reason, the light cahill wasn’t doing as well as the previous day so I switched to a royal humpy. There were some wild little fish with forked tails swimming and splashing around but they wanted nothing to do with my flies. In fact most fish wanted nothing to do with the fly until one fatty bluegill bit into my RH. 

A bit later I went to the same spot I first fished the day before and got into 2 baby gills. Around then my wifes uncle stopped by and recommended I use something purple. All I had was a purple Wooley Bugger so I went to work and a few casts in; I caught my first Nebraska Bass! I was pretty excited! 

Even though we came for sad reasons I was glad my wife was able to come out and spend time with her family and we had a lot of time to talk and process her feelings. Our second to last stop was in Green River, Wyoming where two huge rock formations behind the hotel really impressed me. The best part was that we spent the night in a room with a perfect view of the rock formations. We were also able to stop by the Bonneville Salt Flats which was also striking!   Aside from that it was another boring horrific drive back to Cali, but I enjoyed it because of the company. 

Total Fish: 6 panfish + 1 Largemouth bass = 7 Fish

 

Stevies Fish!

This trip took place last tuesday. This time I did not forget my cahills I was ready to slay the pans and bass. I had a larger green frog popper that I tied on and went to work. The first few pops got strikes but after a while, the fish stopped strking so I changed up to a black wooley bugger, no takers.

Jeremy had brought along his girlfriends brother Stevie. Stevie had never caught a fish before so our goal was to get him into some fish. The problem was that from one day to another, the slime on top of the water covered more of the surface of the pond including the area against the cattails that we usually fish.  After every cast we had to clean off our cahills because they would get covered with slime. 

The fishing in general was slower but on top of that, the gills refused to eat our cahills. Normally the fishing hole seems to be easier to fish with a spinning rod but not even Jeremy was having any luck on the spinning rod. 

I kept trying on the fly rod and caught a few strikes but no solid takes. I looked at the water which was about 75% covered in moss in the place that we usually fish and tied to figure out what was wrong. Then it dawned on me, what if I dropped the cahill right in the clear spots with no moss, and this proved to be the ticket.  I caught my first and second panfish and then called Stevie over to give it a try. Sure enough after about 5 tries he got into his first fish ever on the fly rod. He ended up loving the fly rod and ended up using Jeremys fly rod the rest of the time he was out there. 

 

At the end of the night I used one of Jeremys spinning rods to see if I could gent into a quick bass and on my third cast I got into a bass! That was a great way to end to a great day. Learning a bit more about panfish behavior and how to fish for them, getting Stevie into his first fish on the fly and a little bass to cap off the night… good times! 

This was also the last winter fishing trip which means that a seasonal totals report is on its way!

Total fish: 6 panfish + 1 Largemouth Bass = 7 fish

Fly fishing Grand Children!

As winter winds down, one thing we noticed at Davis pond was more slime on the water. Even though it was only a week earlier that I had simply slayed the bluegills, that week made a huge difference.

These his trip took place last Monday.  

Jeremy brought both his spinning rod and fly rod and I, of course, only brought along Excalibur. When I arrived Jeremy had just caught his first bass. He was eager to fish with his fly rod so I quickly hooked him up with a light cahill. I had stopped by big 5 earlier that day and purchased some more light cahills so I didn’t think anything of it. Then it happened… I realized that I forgot the 2 packs of cahills I bought earlier that day! And unfortunately I only had the one cahill that I tied on for Jeremy. No worries though, I figured I would just look for something similar. Unfortunately I didn’t have anything that looked like a cahill so instead I went with a green popper with black spots that looked like a frog. 

On my first few pops I got my first strikes so it was very promising. On about my tenth pop, A bass came up and devoured my popper and the fight was on. It was a nice little 2 lb bass which I was able to reel in but broke my tippet when I got it to shore.  It fell on the ground and when I went to pick it up it flopped back into the water with my only green popper in its mouth. Since I didn’t get it to hand, I don’t count it as on official catch. I did manage to catch a smaller bass on a yellow popper but that popper didn’t get nearly as much attention as the green one did. 

Jeremy, fished with the cahill and brought many panfish to hand and at one point taught his buddies Jeff and Roger  how to pick panfish out of the pond with the fly rod. So even though his instructions on fly casting were poor, they were able to catch their first fish on the fly rod. And wouldn’t you know it, they loved it so much, they were both fighting over the fly rod! I ended up adding to  Jeremys instructions in order to show Roger how to catch panfish better. While doing that, I caught a couple more panfish but didn't get any pictures of them. He caught a couple more after that as well. 

I was just happy because my protégé was teaching others about fly fishing… fly fishing grand children! Lol 

Total fish:  1 Largemouth bass + 2 Panfish = 3 fish

Slaying the Gills!

I am pretty much caught up with my backed up fishing trips. The trip I will be discussing took place on March 11^th. 

Jeremy and I decided to give Davis pond a try last wedenesday. As usual I loaded up Excalibur, a box of flies and took the drive out to Davis. I arrived around 4pm, tied on a light cahill which is what I had luck on the week before. 

Sure enough, I hammered those blue gills right away. Some were tiny, others were a nice hand size. Every other cast was a bite or a fish.  Now I am from the camp that calls all panfish blue gills but I think there are only bluegills and perch in that pond and I caught both of them. 

 

A little later, my fly protégé Jeremy came around and I taught him exactly how to catch the bluegills. After a few casts, Jeremy caught his first bluegill on the fly rod! And after that a second and a third. He was ecstatic and I couldn’t be more proud!

I continued to fish and ended the day with 14 panfish. What a great day of fishing at this new fishing hole. 

Total fish: 14 Bluegills