Pantastic Part II

Woke up this morning to quite the storm rolling through.. Waited it out and then headed to FleetFarm to pick up some size 8 Aberdeen hooks to tie up some more foam panfish flies.. Today's tie of choice was foam spiders..

Got down to the local lake with my 2wt in hand around 11am.. Temp was somewhere in the low-mid 60's... Not much wind and pretty overcast still from the storm system in the area.. But the sun was peaking out here and there.  Decided to check another spot on the lake today as I knew where they definitely were already from yesterday's outing.  Well needless to say.  The panfish are everywhere.. The one difference.. Size.  They were definitely bigger overall yesterday.  Lot more dinky guys today.  Which was kind of a surprise.. Since I'm use to catching pretty big panfish on this shore as well.  Bass were moving in too to start spawn and were making things rather annoying.  And then there were the carp cruising also... They definitely were not feeding.. Just dispersing the bluegills every time they all came through...

It was a nice day.. Caught plenty of bluegills and dinky bass.  Switched things up from the spider back to a black mini-bugger and back to the spider when the sun would come back out.. Seemed they were more willing to take the spider when the sun was beating down.. And when it was overcast.. They much preferred the bugger.  Even the spider trailed with a nymph took a couple bluegills.  Ended up forgetting the bucket. So I didn't take home any to fry up today.. But I'm sure I'll have no problem getting a meal in the days and weeks to come.

Pantastic

Woke up this morning and had a hunch the panfish would be moving in with this warm weather we're having... So I headed down to the local lake to see what's up... Fished for about 5 hours and couldn't keep the panfish off the fly!   I was right.. They moved in with no hesitation.. Were found anywhere from 1-4' of water along the weed beds.. Full of spawn and getting ready to move in and bed down.. So they are crazy aggressive.. Took them on buggers and on poppers.. The day was full of action and I imagine I would've been able to take my limit easily 3 times over..(which would be 60 fish).. A ton of bluegill in the 8-9" range.. Good eating size.. And one random black crappie.. I love this time of the year.. Panfish on the fly are a blast and the next couple weeks(weather permitting) should be full of top-notch panfish action..  Think I'll head back down there tomorrow with the bucket!

April 30th

So We'll start this blog with talks about a very heart breaking Sunday evening.. The 29th I decided to head on down to the Ol' Miss to see about getting into some crappie.. Unfortunately that would not be the case.. I get to my spot and as always.. There is another fisherman.. He asks me "What you gonna catch wit dat fly rod?"  "Hopefully some crappie"... 2 casts later and I'm on my first fish of the evening.. It's not a crappie.. It's much bigger than a crappie.. My rod is bent over...  But what could it be?  Within a second of that though rises from the water a massive pike.. Full body lunge from the water.. This pike may have been named Jordan because it got some serious air and I about shit myself.. I get him within about 20' of me and my rod looks like its within that range of snapping in half... Rod is definitely doubled over at this point.. So I let him run... And within seconds everything goes limp.. Clear cuts my 25# fluoro... Shortly after it starts to rain.. And I hold my ground... Even though I forgot my rain jacket.. And soon after it starts raining.. It starts pouring... And that ends my night.. 1 Fish Tale.. 0 Fish..

So today I headed back to the spot.. Holding on to a thread of hope.. I hoped to tie into another large pike.. Unfortunately that was not the case.. Fishing was slow but I took my first smallie of the year!

A little later my phone rings and it's my buddy Ted.. And he wants to head south and do some trout fishing.. Obviously I'm down.

So we head south.. It was supposed to be mid 60s and overcast.. Not 50* and looking like rain.. We decide to hit a gem of a stream.. Not an easy stream.. I'd say my batting average on this stream is somewhere around .200.. This year it was .000 as I have struck out both the times i've headed out there..

It had rained the night before but this stream was still gin clear and we knew it could go either way... First couple holes are a bust.. There's trout.. But they are not biting.. They aren't even spooking.. Running around our feet and being able to walk right over the holes without seeing a ton of trout scatter.. They know what's up.. And know there's nothing we can do about it as they sit there all smug.. Taunting us

The next hole.. Well well.. This is a dandy.. It's a great little hole.. Well.. It has been.. I've pulled a 14" brown out of this plunge.. Pretty big trout for a very small stream.. Was hoping we could tie into one here again.. First we have to over come the obstacles.. There's maybe a 2ft window to cast into.. Tree over hanging the hole with vines coming down on both sides.. And Tons of brush to the sides and behind us.. Nothing easy about it.. But hoping the reward would be worth it.. So I step up and make a cast or two and snag... Ted's turn.. couple casts and snag.. I go back in while he's retying.. Snag.. Ted steps back up.. Snag.. We probably spent at least an hour on this hole.. With trout rising 20' in front of us. We were very stubborn and not willing to give up defeat.. We probably lost about a dozen flies between us on this hole... Ted was able to pull two dinks.. And then we conceded and blew the hole to retrieve our lost flies...

Couple holes later I finally got my redemption.. Tied on a #18 Griffith's Gnat and It was game on.. 2nd cast.. Land my first trout... a couple casts later another.. And then another.. Ted too took one from this hole as well I believed.. And we headed further up stream

  

Ted took another small trout to hand further up stream but that was about it and we called it a day on the stream.. 

We decided maybe we should hit the Root for a little while.. But not much was going on.. Ted saw a couple fish rise... But that was about it.. As we were heading back to shore we saw a ton of shorthead redhorse cruising and rising.. So we gave them a shot.. unfortunately we could not tie into any of them.. But it sure was entertaining.. Two guys about 7' from each other trying to cast to the next riser before the other could.. "Battle Fly Fishing" I think is what Ted coined it...  

It was nice to see the redhorse schooled up and really gave me the itch.. Now I know what I'll be searching for the next couple weeks as it warms up!

April 20th...

Caught some fish.. Caught a buzz.. That's the 20th of April for ya!

April 17th

Yesterday my buddy Ted called me up to see if I wanted to do some trout fishing.. Pfft.. What kind of question is that.. Of course!  So we headed north to the Whitewater area to do some trout fishing and hopefully catch some trout..

It was a great day.. Temps were in the low 50s when we headed out and peaked in the low 60s as the day progressed.. At first things were frustrating.. Trying to find a pattern that was gonna work.. The past couple days it's been easy.. Fish rising to Caddis.. Tie on a EHC and you were money.. Today it just seemed that it wasn't working out for me.. BWOs were popping and there were a few risers.. But I started out with a nymph tandem.. No dice.. Ted stepped up with a EHC and took one or two.. I switched up to a BWO dry as few of them were coming off and nothing.. Switched to an EHC and nothing.. Just was not going my way.. Perfect casts.. Perfect drifts.. Nothing.. Tie on a bugger.. Nothing.. Ted on the other hand was catching them here and there on nymphs.. mainly copper johns of the red variety..

As we headed up stream and the day progressed.. The caddis were coming off a little more and we both switched back to EHCs and that was where it was at the rest of the day.. Each taking our turn to step up and land a fish.. First Ted.. Then myself.. and back and forth we'd go catching one and letting the other step up to the plate to land another.. Finally things were working out for me..

As the day got later the caddis dropped off in normal fashion of the past week.. Seems like the hatches have been starting around noon-ish to 1pm.. and dropping off by ~3pm.. Overall it was a great day as always... Any day catching fish is a good day..

Bonus Round!

Once I had gotten home, cleaned and grilled up my trout.. I was still yearning to get out and do some more fishing.. So I geared back up and headed down to the backwaters to do a little fishing and see what I could find...

To my surprise.. Wasn't a single fisherman at this spot.. Normally there is a minimum of 4 cars lined up.. With up to 8+ lined up down the road.. Maybe they were all streamside!  I tie on a simple white bugger.. Nothing fancy.. I attach 25# Vicious Elite Fluorocarbon to the end of my furled leader as pike love slamming all sorts of flies out here and better to be safe than sorry...  Within a couple casts I tie into my first fish.. It's something decent...  He starts jerking line out from my hand.. It's a biggger guy.. And takes off.. My reel clicking away as the fish runs and takes me to my reel.. Ok.. It's pretty big.. Or at least for my 5wt as it bends.. Almost doubling over.. I get a little edge on him and finally see.. It's a big pike.. He quickly jets back off and takes me for another short run.. Finally after about 10-15min of fighting I grab him behind the head and remove the bugger from his big toothy jaws.. 30" pike.. Biggest on the fly this year.. If not my biggest pike on the fly ever...

I continued fishing until I basically couldn't see where my fly was landing.. I caught a pair of crappies and that's all she wrote.. That pike sure was a blast though!