A 3 in 1 Punch for Today's Post--Nearing the GOAL!!

Today’s post is a 3 in 1 punch, with three different topics all in one package. I did a post about a week ago on the tiny Tippet Ring. I was looking for an easy way to attach your tippet to your leader, well I found it. Yesterday’s trip involved testing this little bugger and it proved to be a winner. I really like the fact that you don’t have to tie a blood knot when attaching your tippet to the leader when using this little ring. It is so handy you merely tie the tippet into the ring and you are good to go. I broke off a couple of times yesterday in a few trees and had to replace my tippet both times and was back to fishing in a matter of seconds thanks to this little ring. I hope it performs as well with dries and nymphs as it did with the poppers and buggers. I did notice I didn’t get one line twist when using the ring. Now on to the next bit of news—

 From time to time I am going to be featuring new blogs that I have found and joined up with. Today’s feature blog is Spare Time for Fish by Anthony Gardner. This blog has some great information on Warm Water Fishing. The blog covers everything from fly fishing accessories, fishing for crappie, crap, bass and yes bluegill. In fact, food is covered in this blog as well. If you haven’t checked out Spare Time for Fishing it is worth the look.
 Now for my quest or goal; for those of you who have been keeping up with my goal I am trying to land 100 super bull bluegill during the spawning period. Well, yesterday it just got easier. I started the morning at 5 AM in heavy fog and it didn’t let up until 7 AM. It was so thick I couldn’t see to navigate my boat after I launched so I just started fishing down the bank from the launch. Nothing was happening as far as the bass was concerned, mainly because of the fishing pressure all week from the Military Tournament. In fact, I didn’t land any bluegill until the fog let up and I moved up through Butler Creek which I had not fished since last year. I was using my 4 wt St. Croix 9 ft. with a Muddler Minnow. It produced early until the sun came up and then I tie on a Chartreuse Black-legged size 10 Betts Popper which worked better in areas where the sun hadn’t touched the bank. I lost two of these poppers in trees where the fish are never found, and manage to leave with one in tack. I was a little disappointed with the bass. I will take the bluegill any day when the big bulls are cooperating.

 One lone bass which was a largemouth that had been caught in the tournament. It had hook marks inside it's upper lip--this one came on the Olive Boogle Bug with the 5 wt. no more bass action after this guy

This one was really fat and put up some kind of fight on the 4 wt. I think next time I will bring along my 3 wt.

These count toward the goal, a couple here were near a pound. These 10 put me 38 away. I ended the trip with 16 brought to hand. I fished an area today where there was less boat traffic. The boat traffic is a killer when one is trying to fish on top with the fly.