Today was a trip with my son Jason, who seldom gets to fish with me. He is in school at the University of Alabama and most of his time is taken up with classes and studying. He is between summer and fall break and we had the opportunity to hit the lake this morning at daylight. We got to one of my favorite spots on the rock walls around daybreak. Today's trip was to go after the Spotted Bass with the bass popper. I haven't really fished for the Spotted Bass this year with a large popper, because I have been into landing the bluegills. Jason told me before we planned the trip that the Spotted Bass was what he wanted to go after, mainly because of the tremendous fight one gets when landing one of these fish. They are in the class with the smallmouth when it comes to giving the angler a great tussle on the fly rod. The best approach with landing a quality spot or any large fish with the fly rod is to get the fish on the reel as soon as possible if, you can manage it. I know at times one doesn’t have that luxury to do that. Everything was working for the most part until the sun came up and it was like someone turned the lights out and all the bass developed lockjaw. I knew we could go deep with a Wooly Bugger or Bouface Leach, but this would take time and that was something we didn't have a lot of especially when the temps were going to reach triple digits after lunch. So with a couple of hours to fish before the humidity and heat set in I maneuvered the boat in a position to start down the rock wall presenting the number 6 turquoise Boogle Bug Popper. With daylight just breaking and on his second cast a nice bull gill plugged the popper smack into the opening of his mouth.
After numbers of side run and pretending to be ready to be netted the spot finally ease to the edge of the boat and was lipped. Jason had just landed a 16" spot, which ended a great trip with a quality fish. Quality Spotted Bass on Smith Lake are hard to come by, during the hot summer months, and a 16" is a quality Spotted bass any day.
Very detailed post. Appreciate how you described each fishing situation and why you chose each fly/lure. I don't go out after 'gills often, but I feel I learned something today.
ReplyDeleteAlso, good to see you getting out with your son. Definitely could tell it was time well spent.
Thanks Troutrageous
ReplyDeleteI hava found that I like to read post about fishing trips that describe the fly the situation, and any other factors that might effect the trip. Fishing for the spots on this particular lake is awesome especially if you land one over 12". They seem to never give up on the fly rod.