Jinxed

After posting about some success on the white bass/walleye fishery that I have been frequenting, I convinced RS to break free and join me for an evening on the water.

For whatever reason, perhaps wind or a cold front (although not much different than last night) the midges stayed down and the fish never showed.

We gave it all the hell we could muster and with only a couple fish landed we bagged the attempt at 10:30. 

I felt bad as I was hoping he would be able to land fish after fish and go home with a sore wrist.  

Thankfully (and to his credit) he left happy that he was able to air out some line and take a break from the hamster wheel, even for a couple of hours.

There is a lesson in here somewhere...

Trying to catch a train

Evening on the water

More

EB and I went back for more.
Overcast and cool but no wind. 
The fish were not interested in dries or gurglers tonight so we gave them the White Dart and Deceivers... and they accepted.
A decent number of whities and a couple small walleyes on the evening.

Again...with back-up.

With the bite as hot as it was last night I shot a few messages out to guys I know that like to catch fish.  I've tried and failed to share this local fishing bonanza with others in the past but I have always been cursed with a shift in the weather that leaves me scratching my head and my guest wondering if I'm nuts. 

Tonight, EB and TP made the drive wadered up and joined the stake out.  These two guys have never met, but with nothing more in common than the fact that the both had fly rods and were sharing the same water, they seemed to get along swimmingly.

The sun was going down fast and there were no fish showing.  The midges were hatching as scheduled but the rising fish of the prevoius night were absent.  The curse was happening again.  Luckily I teased one up with a white gurgler which made me feel a little better.  Fly lines sent flies out and fingers pulled flies back with only a few short strikes and half-hearted rises to show for it.

I was thinking about how things shut down last night at 10:00 pm and decided to wade a little further east thinking that maybe they were congregating at the outflow of the lake where the midges were more condensed and channeled.

And that's where they were.

Streamers and gurglers were eaten and it kept going well after 10.

At one point a boater and his wife in a 16' fishing boat trolled nearby and seemed to be heading into dangerous territory....without giving away landmarks and allowing anyone to deduce our location, let me just say that there was an audible "CRUNCH" when this guy pulled a really stupid move that could have easily cost the two their lives.  We hollered out to them to see if we could assist and got a muffled response.  We yelled that he might consider starting his outboard and gunning the motor in reverse before the current pinned, capsized and killed them.  He followed these obvious instructions and made it out of the jam safely and then proceeded to put his tail between his legs and motor slowly away.  It became obvious from his actions and the ensuing dialogue between him and his wife that drinking was involved.  (And that, children, is how people die in boats.)

We managed to pull a fish out until almost 11:00 pm.  On what was to be my last cast of the night, my Deceiver found it's way past the teeth and into the throat of an 18" walleye.  It was obviously not a white bass since it kept it's head down.  I landed it, threw it into the stripping basket and after a few pics...called it a night.

Success.

Midges

TP, in the thick of it.

Deceived

Never "Lip" a walleye...here's why.

And then...there they were.

Back to the local beat watching and waiting for the white bass and walleyes to converge on the incredible midge hatch that has been occurring the past few nights.  I came early and picked off a few small gills that were dimpling before wading back to the hot-zone.

It started, as all great hatches do, with a few here and there.  The early hatching midges typically have the benefit of escaping snapping fish jaws only to flutter into a snapping beak.  The rises started early as well...fish leaving the safety of the deep to venture into the shallows to intercept these bugs as they struggle to mature, grow wings and take flight.

The size 12 split wing elk hair caddis that I tied up today with the wing tied half length seemed like the right choice so I tied one on and sent it out.  A few small whities and a little small mouth bass inhaled it before too long.  The number of bugs was increasing and I felt my odds were going down trying to match the hatch so I switched over to a small (sz 10) white gurgler and pasted it into the dissipating rings of rising fish.

Twitch, twitch, POW!

When the topwater bite slowed down, I went to another new fly which is now named the "White Dart".  With a size 6 Mustad 9672 as the iron and the tail tied short, the normally short-striking white bass got a mouthful.

By 10:00 it was all over.   A pile of fish were hooked and landed in the short hour and a half window that seemed, in the darkness, like a half of a day.

I reeled up and went home.

Midge

It would be neat to call this picture "Sunfish" except it's a Bluegill.

1 of many - White Bass

The eyes have it

I spent the afternoon slipping the boat down my local river, pitching big uglies on wire to bankside structure, weed beds and open water.  The temps were in the 50's and the clouds were so thick and low that rain was perpetually a concern.  I pounded the water hard for a few hours hoping to drum up a musky or even a pike.  That didn't happen.  I ended up anchoring off some wood and caught a few gills and crappies but it seems like most of them have either moved on or are sulking in this depressing weather. 

I drove home, pulled the boat into the garage and had dinner as well as two slices of the delicious banana cream pie that my wife made. 

My kids went off to bed and my wife dug into her work.  
Soooo, I put my waders on, grabbed my 6 wt and hit the door (again).

The lake was calm on the side I was wading.  Nothing moved.  No fishy splashes, ducks swimming, turtles looking around.  No insects either.  The low clouds looked even lower in the failing light.  I opted for a little clouser type bonefish fly that was about the same size and color as the proven Deceivers I like to fish here.  I landed 1 small white bass in the dark before a boat pulled in a little too close and neighborhooded me...  I thought about double-hauling a lead-eye against the hull of his aluminum Lund just as a warning shot, but I chickened out on the last forward haul, dropped the fly short and then on the 3rd or 4th strip back, drilled another small white bass.

Eventually the Lund left the scene leaving me belt deep in the inky water which had very little contrast to the thick darkness of the night sky.  Alone with my thoughts and my imagination...the "creep factor" deserves a post of it's own.  Luckily the desire to fish, has led me to conquer many of my fears and so I stayed put...reasoning that the chance to hook another fish was well worth the risk of being attacked and eaten by this lake's first documented rogue (fill in the blank) beaver / musky / submerged serial killer with a goalie mask.

But nothing else happened, 

until I turned on my headlamp and waded to shore.

I spotted the walleye in 6 inches of water when the beam of my lamp made its eyes glow like a marble with an LED inside.  It moved about 8' to slightly deeper (15") water.  I quickly took the beam off the glowing eye, popped the fly free, stripped of 15' of line and with my lamp aimed high enough not to spotlight the fish, I pitched.  Cast 1 and 2 didn't interest the fish.  On the 3rd cast, the little glowing marble charged forward and then my rod bent.  It was really cool to see.  I was so wrapped up in watching it's eye chasing my fly that I had a little bit of a disconnect when the eye became a fish on my line.  The fish moved a good 4 feet to intercept the fly which gives me a lot more confidence in covering water at night.  These fish can sense/see a fly VERY well.  Despite it being a small 12" fish, it was certainly a highlight of my angling day.

Permission to Board

I had a guest in the boat today.  TP has been around the fly fishing scene in this part of the world for a long time, and yet, we've never spent any time on the water together until today.  We only had a few hours to fish so it was natural, given his like for carp, that we try our hand on the mud flats that have recently been on my radar.  The problem came in the way of wind and clouds.  Visibility sucked.  We posted out on a few spots and saw fish, but they were either too close and spooked before we could take a shot, or they were in spawning clusters and NOT thinking about food.  After a couple of hours of fruitless carp'n we opted for the sweet pluck and tug of gills.  Not a bad way to spend a Saturday.

Post carp'n Gill

Grip and Grin

Fresh Fish

Slab

I've always wanted to try that... (fly fishing)

"You flyfish?  I've always wanted to try that..." 
I've heard it a hundred times.  I recently heard it again from the father of one of my daughter's friends.   The difference is this:

1. 1 week after I heard him say the words "I've always wanted to try that" (or at least some variation on the theme) he enrolled in a free intro to fly fishing class from the local Orvis store.

2. Prior to enrolling he ordered himself a rod, a reel and a line.

3. 4 days after the class he met me for some evening fishing...where we worked in some very basic intro casting stuff for 10 minutes and then he spent the next 3 hours giving it hell (2 of those hours were after dark)

4. Last night he sent me a text (this is now 5 days after the class) after taking his family up north to a place on a lake.  I think it's OK to print the text here because it isn't really private information and it's awesome.  The text said, "Got the monkey off my back.  Was fishing before we had even unloaded the car had landed 6 bass in 15 min". 
The best part of this text ISN'T that he caught his first fly rod fish...it's the enthusiasm.  My favorite line: "...before we had even unloaded the car."

5: Text from later that night: "Total for today: Scored on 7 lmb, 1 northern, 1 walley, 1 bgill. none of these were of any size.  [He names his wife here] now believes in flyfishing!"

6: I texted him back: "All on the fly?"

7: His response? - "All on the fly.  I didn't bring my other fishing gear."

I just love this.