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!

Mmmm Meaty..

John Barr and his absolutely amazing Meat Whistle.. Well now I know why it's called that.. Because the Largemouth Bass were loving it today!  Was a little rough trying to cast it with my 5wt.. But by the end of this week I should have my 9wt.. And chucking them socks will seem much much easier..

Overall was a great day.. Sunny.. Slight breeze but definitely not enough to effect my casting too much... Got water side around noon and from there it was Bass central.. All were in great health and a couple went beyond 16".. And to top it all off.. My first 'Eye on the fly!


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Another day on the backwaters...

Decided to go and hit another backwater spot today with some crawlers and take the fly rod along for shits and giggles... Was an absolutely wonderful day to be out and fishing... Days like these make me wish I had a boat.. Not for better fishing opportunities.. I like 2 blocks for the 'Sippi.. I'd say that's almost as good as it gets for some.. But mostly to just be out on the water and enjoying the day instead of tucked in between trees smelling like OFF!... But none the less it was another semi-productive day.. Plenty of fish cruising the backwaters.. tiny panfish that would rip off parts of my crawler.. could see some small largemouth bass cruising around as well.. and then there were a couple nice sized smallmouth cruising right along the rocks.. I could see them clearly as they ran off bluegills and other small bass... Fishing was slow... but was able to get both of the smallies I saw cruising the rocks on crawlers that were about a 12" below my bobber.. Pound for pound.. This fish puts up a hell of a fight.. I tried to see if I could get one on my fly but no such luck.. they'd look at it and then continue on their way...

Ol' Miss

Decided to head out and fish the spillway today with Sarah.  Fishing was slow at first but it started to get a little more excited as the day progressed.  Caught a couple gills on the fly... Caught a nice smallmouth bass off of the dock.. just let it fall to the bottom and I watched him slurp it up... Also caught a northern.. Seemed to have almost been big bird food.. but had gotten away... All and all in was a good day out...