06-16-2005, 06:43 PM
Went out yesterday (Wednesday) to Twin Lakes. I arrived at about noon and fished until 6:30. The bluegill were difficult to find so I put on a small popper that would work for both large bluegill and bass and proceeded to hit every little hole in the south end of the lake. There were a couple of holes with plenty of bluegill in them they just seemed to be a little more spooked then they usually are. I probably could have caught many more then I did if I would have switched to a nymph but I like seeing them suck the popper down so I stuck with it. I ended up with 30 bluegill in the 7-8" range and the six bass that I caught were just a bonus.
Bass are hard creatures to figure out. I cast that popper into the jungle for 4 hours before I could get a bass to even pay attention. They just swam by or looked up at the popper and then went on their way until all of a sudden I threw up into a little hole and all heck broke loose. 6 bass came charging out from under the logs and were racing each other to get to my popper. The biggest one won and he quickly ripped me into the bushes. My 5 weight was just not enough to pull him out fast. I spent the next 20 minutes trying to untangle him. He turned out to be 16" my biggest largemouth this year. I know 16" is not really big but I do not really target bass so it was nice to land him. I threw back up in the same hole and gave my popper two strips. A 10" bass came racing at the popper then a very large bass came from the deep, racing with his mouth open to beat the little one. I got so excited that I set the hook like Hank Parker except the bass had not closed his mouth yet so my popper went into a tree, the bass took off for the deep and I swore like a sailor. I ended up pulling two more 11" bass out of that hole before moving on. I have never caught more then one bass from the same hole so it was a pretty cool day.
There were many flyfishermen there yesterday and I noticed that most of them were not successful. I think that most people do not realize that you have to go into the "jungle" to catch the fish. Most people were fishing on the outside of the willows in 10-15 feet of water. Both the bass and bluegill were in 3-8 feet of water. On a high water year like this one that means that you have to cast deep into the trees, logs, brush etc... half of the fun is trying to cast in between stumps without catching your backcast etc...
The fishing is much harder then it was two weeks ago because the underwater plants have grown about a foot and are therefore not underwater anymore. This makes nymphing really hard, but dryfly fishing is more fun anyway. Just cast a sponge spider or a popper in every little piece of open water. Twitch the fly with your rod tip for bluegill and pop the fly for bass. Ok I've said enough. Sorry [crazy]
If any of you have read this far then you must like fishing. I hope to hear reports from everyone. The more we share information the better we can all become.
Windriver
[signature]
Bass are hard creatures to figure out. I cast that popper into the jungle for 4 hours before I could get a bass to even pay attention. They just swam by or looked up at the popper and then went on their way until all of a sudden I threw up into a little hole and all heck broke loose. 6 bass came charging out from under the logs and were racing each other to get to my popper. The biggest one won and he quickly ripped me into the bushes. My 5 weight was just not enough to pull him out fast. I spent the next 20 minutes trying to untangle him. He turned out to be 16" my biggest largemouth this year. I know 16" is not really big but I do not really target bass so it was nice to land him. I threw back up in the same hole and gave my popper two strips. A 10" bass came racing at the popper then a very large bass came from the deep, racing with his mouth open to beat the little one. I got so excited that I set the hook like Hank Parker except the bass had not closed his mouth yet so my popper went into a tree, the bass took off for the deep and I swore like a sailor. I ended up pulling two more 11" bass out of that hole before moving on. I have never caught more then one bass from the same hole so it was a pretty cool day.
There were many flyfishermen there yesterday and I noticed that most of them were not successful. I think that most people do not realize that you have to go into the "jungle" to catch the fish. Most people were fishing on the outside of the willows in 10-15 feet of water. Both the bass and bluegill were in 3-8 feet of water. On a high water year like this one that means that you have to cast deep into the trees, logs, brush etc... half of the fun is trying to cast in between stumps without catching your backcast etc...
The fishing is much harder then it was two weeks ago because the underwater plants have grown about a foot and are therefore not underwater anymore. This makes nymphing really hard, but dryfly fishing is more fun anyway. Just cast a sponge spider or a popper in every little piece of open water. Twitch the fly with your rod tip for bluegill and pop the fly for bass. Ok I've said enough. Sorry [crazy]
If any of you have read this far then you must like fishing. I hope to hear reports from everyone. The more we share information the better we can all become.
Windriver
[signature]
]