As most of you have noticed summer is upon us and is producing some unusual hot temps. Fishing takes a hit this time of year if you're on the water during the hottest time of the day. Daylight or late evenings are the preferred time to wet a hook or fly. During this time of the year, I'm on the water from daylight to 10 AM. The water temps warm to a point where the better fish go deep to find cool temps more to their liking. In order to get a reaction from a Spotted Bass or a quality size bluegill on Smith during the heat days, you need to fish a popper that makes noise. Enter the size 4, 6, and 8 size Boogle Bug popper.
The Electric Blue Boogle is a go-to popper when fishing at daylight on Smith
This area is one of my favorite walls to fish on Smith. I can still see a Spotted Bass blowing up on my popper here. Getting the popper as close as possible to the rocks is a must. A 9ft. fly rod in a 5 or 6 weight will place the popper within striking distance of the wall.
As the sun comes up it is important to look for shady banks. The shade will produce a few hits but daylight is the optimum time to land a really quality spot fishing the popper. This male spot was a challenge for my 6 wt.
I film this beauty as he swims off to fight another day!
Guys, it's hard to beat landing these awesome fighters using a 5 or 6 weight fly rod. This female was taken inches off the rock wall in the background. The huge bull gills go deep this time of the year, leaving the hand-size gills to keep things interesting using the 3 wt. but the prizes are the spots.
My first trip to SmithLake this morning had a slow start; no bite for an hour. The Boggle Poppers
were not working at daylight near the banks; so Ivan and I decided to move into
the nooks. I had to use my trolling motor to get us in a position to fish the
nooks because the starter on my Mercury motor went out right after we launched
the boat, bummer. Once we made it to the first nook the action started with
some nice bluegills landed and the prize of the morning for me. I managed to
get some footage of Ivan’s fish of the morning so we both left the lake, happy
fishermen.
When larger poppers are not producing, go to tiny poppers; you will get a reaction!
You guys have read some of
my posts concerning the Red-eyed Bass; well this bass is the best example I’ve
ever caught. This bass was a native to the tributaries flowing into the Sipsey before the dam was placed for Smith Lake.
This spot was supposed to be
caught using my 6 weight fast action, but no bass would touch the big poppers
throughout the morning. So Ivan and I decided to go after the bluegills with our
3 weights using our tiny poppers; little did we know that the bass was turned
on to size 12 poppers as well. This is the largest spot I’ve ever landed using
my 3 weight fly. I had quite a fight on my hands trying to keep this fish from
breaking my 5X tippet. This fish is why I love fly fishing so much because it's
you against a fish that is superior to your gear, in this case, my 3 weight.
Sometimes the fish wins and rightly so and sometimes the fisherman wins, today I
won. Ivan didn't notice the sun rays crossing my face when he took the picture.
Ivan landed this nice spot
somewhat quicker than me using his 4 weight. I thought I would get some of the
action on video for you guys. Ivan did a great job handling this spot,
especially after it made numerous runs to break off. We were both pleased with
the trip even if I did have to spend 225.00 bucks on a new starter for my
motor.