Prepping for my 2016 Bluegill Quest

I spent most of the day Tuesday on Walker County Lake trying to land some super size gills. The weather didn’t disappoint with sunny skies warm temps; the only downer was tremendous wind out of the south for the better part of the day. In fact, the wind was so strong I spent the majority of my time fishing up and down the levee where I could avoid the wind gust.

The levee had fish on it in the form of the native Red-Eyed Bass, and some nice bluegill that wouldn’t make the quest but provide some nice table fare.

I was not surprised that there was activity on top in the 62-degree water because last year I landed Red Eye Bass here in 58-degree water. They nailed the Bullet Boogle Bug popper often throughout the day; a lot of fun on the 4 weight.

This is a beautiful lake in the early spring, but it turns nasty and in fact, downright ugly when the fertilizing starts. I only have 4 or 5 weeks to fish it before it turns slim green like pea soup.

This was a colorful gill but it won’t make the cut for the quest. I landed numerous bluegills today but all were too small to count. I did bring home eight for a fish fry. The bluegill above produced four fillets. (A future post on how to get four fillets from a bluegill this size) Notice the rubber legs of the Bullet Boggle sticking out of its mouth. This was the only bluegill on top, all the rest were taken on the Black Gnat. Today was a good start for good things to come from this lake.

How to Fillet an Average Size Bluegill



The following video will explain how I fillet all the bluegills I keep for meals throughout the year. Sorry for the angle on the video, I forgot to check the lens rim before I started filming. It was turned slightly and caused the video to show up with an angle. You can hear the video much better if you use a headset or earplugs; aside from my technical problems, I think I got the message across.

This is the recipe my wife uses to prepare the fillets for a fantastic meal.

1. Mix fillets in yellow mustard. Roll in Zatarain Fish Seasoning mix.
2. Place fillets on a cooking sheet that is sprayed with PAM. Spray the top of fillets with PAM; bake on 450 for about 6-7 minutes. Turn fillets over and spray again with PAM, bake for another 6-7 minutes. Time will vary as to how brown or crispy you want the fish.

How to prepare French Fries
1. Cut up fries and place them on a cookie sheet that is sprayed with PAM. Spray the top of fries with PAM and sprinkle seasoning salt and lemon pepper seasoning. Bake 450 for about 20 minutes. Turn fries over half-way through the cooking and spray again with PAM.

How to prepare Slaw
1. Use a blender to chop the cabbage and carrots. Drain and add mayonnaise, salt, pepper, and a little honey mustard mix and chill before serving.

2. Slice fresh garden tomatoes and slice can elope or banana pepper—all of these items are optional, but they help add a zest to the meal. Of course all fillets can be touched with tartar sauce and fries with ketchup.

The bluegills or crappie fillets have no bones left in them. One thing I like to do with the fillets before they are either frozen or baked is to let them set in saltwater overnight. I have found that this will soak all the blood out of the meat and it gives the fillets a fresher taste. The fillets the next day are snow white. At this time you can either freeze the fillets in a ziplock bag with water or prepare for a meal. The water is added to the fillets to give them a fresh taste.

Fishing  for me would not be nearly as much fun if my wife and I didn’t enjoy eating some of the fish I catch. Give the fillets a try I think you will be surprised how well you will like the baked versus the fried. By the way for an added kick add a Coors Light to wash them down.

What's for supper Grandpa???

Landing Super Size Gills Using Tiny Poppers Fishing with Jason



My son Jason and I spent Friday afternoon fishing size 14 mini poppers on Walker County Lake. That was the norm all afternoon fishing tiny poppers in super clear water landing some nice size gills. All were worthy of keeping for table fare.

Even the Red Eye Bass were into the tiny poppers. I really enjoy landing these fish on a 3 weight. They never stop with the acrobatic stunts

Good size for the fillet knife; Jason’s 3 weight got quite a workout for the afternoon landing numbers in this size. He will be leaving Sunday morning flying back to Sacramento for work Monday. Tomorrow will be his trip to the Sipsey. He won’t make it back to Jasper again until Christmas. What a joy it is for me to get to fish with one of our children when they are home; brings back so many fond memories.

 

The little chartreuse popper was perfect in the clear water, because of its delicate landing on the water surface. We tried larger poppers, but they would scare the fish as soon as they landed on the surface. The fishing pressure on this lake is heavy, making the fish extremely weary.

Spring is here for sure as this pine tree can attest to!!!

Guys believe it or not but there is an Eagle in that mass of pine needles; we tried to get closer but as we did it when airborne.

What a thrill to see our first Eagle on Walker County Lake; a great way to end a successful bluegill outing.

Battling Gusting Winds on the Sipsey

I have fished in windy conditions a number of times on the Sipsey but this past Wednesday had to be the worst. I met Jay at the Pump Station parking lot around 10:30. I have followed his blog “The Naturalist’s Angle” for a number of years. It was good to see him again and get to fish with someone who loves fly fishing as much as I do. The water level on the Sipsey has been up and down for the past months, and today we knew we would be fishing high water. In fact, we waited for a half-hour to get to fish at a suitable level.

The wind was blowing so strong out of the south that it was difficult to get a good drift at times. We did see some limited midge action after lunch in some calm water closer to the banks that proved productive using smaller dries.

Jay landed the first rainbow dead drifting a size 18 beadhead midge pattern in somewhat calm water. All the trout taken today were in the stocker size, which was a lot of fun on our 3 weights. One can really diminish the excitement of landing smaller fish on the Sipsey if they are using anything above a 3 weight. Most of the trout caught here are 12” and under; one very seldom lands trout in the 15” range and above. 13” to 15” are considered special here.

I started the topwater action midafternoon after seeing a small hatch in some calm water just off the opposite bank from me. This rainbow nailed the size 20 dry in fast action. We both lost numerous trout during the afternoon because of a slow hook set; these trout were fast!!! We continued to land trout on top right up to the horn sounding telling us it was time to leave. This was the first time Jay has had the opportunity to fish the Sipsey up close and have success. Do you think he might be coming back???

    

Using Your Chest Pack as a Rod Holder

Every time I’m on the tailrace I keep reminding myself I need to share my latest find with you guys. I know some of you may already know about using your chest pack as a rod holder; when you are standing in waist or knee-deep water trying to change flies or even changing out tippets. I have been fishing in knee-deep water many times wanting to change flies but didn’t want to move and disturb the water I was fishing. I discovered last year the chest pack I was using was much more than an accessory pack.

The fly rod will rest in a perfect horizontal position when it is positioned behind the neck strap connected to the pack and pushed down behind the pack touching your chest. 

I changed from the fly fishing vest to the chest pack a few years ago. I found that I really didn’t need to carry the store in the vest with me to fish for three or four hours. I wanted something lighter and compact so the chest pack became my go-to storage bag.

One can fork out quite a bit of money for chest packs and vests. The pack I am using is the White River brand on sale now for 18.00 bucks for the large size and 15.00 bucks for the small size.

Big rains here today will continue to keep me off the tailrace for weeks.  

Ledasink Leader Sinkant

Rain, rain and more rain for the past couple of days has pushed the water level on Smith Lake up 5 feet. Trout fishing will be put on whole and crappie fishing will have to take its place if the weather cooperators for next week. In the meantime I will continue to do a few yard chores, gym time, blogging with you guys and watching fly fishing videos.

Some time ago I did a post that featured one of Jonathan Barnes videos, at that time I told you guys that I had become a huge fan of his fly fishing videos. I don’ want you all to think I am getting free fly fishing merchandise from his website for plugging his video's I am not. I just want to share his expertise in fly fishing with you, mainly because he conveys a lot of information in each segment. If you are interested in hearing background music in his videos you will probably have to look elsewhere. Nature and water sounds along with him adding his take about the segment his wife is what you will get.

I’m going to give the Ledasink leader sinkant a try that Jonathan was using in this segment to sink his tippet tip while fishing the CDC pattern; anything to improve one’s catch ratio is worth trying. Hope you enjoy In The Ring of The Fire

This video below shows how to fish pocket water where fish whole behind small boulders. The Sipsey and the Canery have this same cover as many of the waters you guys fish.

For much stronger video sound use earplugs  



First Trout For 2016

Finally, I get to fish the Sipsey again; December the 15^th.  2015 was my last trip. We had 2” of rain in Jasper Monday and I figured that the generators would be running full blast all week. Wow, was I surprised when I checked the generating schedule Wednesday. Thursday and Friday would be free of generation. I picked Friday, 70 degrees a little overcast and a slight wind would hopefully trigger some activity for me.
Apparently everyone else thought Friday was the day too; didn’t make me no never mind, I was going to fish!!

I was anxious to try out my new Prestige Plus fly line from Cabelas. I also want to see how effective the furled leader works fishing it on a downstream retrieve. I’ve never fished this type of leader, and understand from information I’ve read it really enhances a dry flies drift. I was ready to accept the fact that I would be changing leaders to fish the nymph and dry throughout the afternoon. I won’t complain if it improves my catch ratio.

Nymphs are my go-to pattern on the Sip, so the nymph was tied on and I was off to access 5. All the heavy rains had changed the color of the water to aqua green.

Numerous stockers were brought to hand this afternoon using my 9 ft. 3 weight StreamFlex which made me think at times I was landing 12” trout. I talk to one guy who was landing the stockers using a 6 weight----way OVERKILL!!

A guide trip in progress right below me, four fly fishermen above me and more on up the gorge; plenty of company.

This fatty put up quite a fight before I finally netted it. I thought I was going to lose this fish, because I kept thinking my 6X was going to break with each hard run it would make. 

Unusual markings on this little guy---I am wondering if this is a rainbow, what do you guys think??

The only downer for this trip were the coils I kept experiencing all afternoon forming at my feet; I am going to assume I spooled the line on wrong. I kept hoping I would get a chance to try out my new furled leader but no surface activity was present the entire afternoon. I was told by one guy that the hatch occurred early morning, so guess when I will be back? --------as if I needed a reason to come back!!!

Revisiting my Big Bluegill Site

I know many of you save your favorite sites especially those that deal with fishing. I have numerous fishing sites that I have saved over the years. Every so often usually once a year I update the sites and discard the ones I don’t visit anymore and revisit a few that catches my attention. While organizing yesterday, I found my old bluegill site that I created back in 2010 on Big Bluegill Website. I noticed while visiting the site they had given it a new look but still keep the same format. The site now shows the number of individuals who are visiting while you are logged in which I like.

I decided I would reacquaint myself with the group so I did a short post on my Pelican Boat I purchased in 2014. I also updated all of my images. The website is similar to a fishing forum and the closest I will ever get to a Face book type page. One can just post an image with a comment similar to Face book and get a quick comment.

I hope to post a few of my bluegill outings there this season which begins in a few weeks.