Meal Time

 The weather was picture perfect yesterday morning on Smith Lake if you were fly fishing. Those individuals fishing for striped bass, and largemouth bass were doing a lot of motoring. Which tells me they were searching for active fish. Jeff and I were the only ones fishing the rock walls. In fact, I've never seen anyone fishing the rock walls the way I fish these structures. 

The weather was perfect with a cool 68 degrees, overcast skies, smooth surface film, and "NO HUMIDITY" This type of weather in the deep south is unusual in August. One would think they were fishing in the Spring or early Fall. If you fly fish with poppers you want a silky-smooth surface for your surface flies or poppers to land on; most of the morning that was the case. Around 9:30 AM the boat traffic started and the bite slowed. One needs to make the most of the 3 to 4 hours you're given at daylight and beyond to land fish this time of year on Smith Lake!

 One of many bluegills taken off the walls using the 3 and 4 wt fly rods. Don't think you know what the fish will be hitting from one trip to the next. Last week the red poppers were working, this week the blue poppers were getting their attention. 

I am blessed as are all the guys that fished with me to have areas such as this to land the bluegill and spotted bass found lurking on these walls. This rock wall towers up at least 75 ft. which is a sight to see if you enjoy fishing this type of structure. The crystal clear water near its base is between 20 to 30 ft. deep this time of year. When the lake is full pool you can add another 5 to 10 ft. to that depth.  This one wall produced at least a half dozen meal size bluegill. Don't think one run on this wall has produced all the fish that is feeding there. On the sixth run, it was still producing fish. The only thing that stopped me from making a seventh run was the heavy boat traffic that sent us to the boat launch.

The results of Thursday's trip ending in me dressing 10 meal size gills that made the trip even more rewarding! Baked or deep-fried these fillets are special. 

Left-over fillets are delicious in a fish sandwich. Lettuce, tomatoes, pepper relish, Deion muster, two or three fillets and you have a hardy meal. The rewards of a fishing trip can always be topped off by enjoying the fresh catch of the day!!

 

Testing the Waters

There's been one day in the last two weeks here in Jasper that was suitable enough to fish and that was last Monday. The rest of the time it has been raining with flooding. Ivan and I boarded my Pelican boat and fished Monday afternoon on beautiful Walker Lake. We wanted to see if the bluegill and red-eye bass had moved into the shallow water next to the banks. We spent a good three hours casting small poppers and nymphs in some areas we both had fished before. 

I had to change poppers quite a few times before I got this bluegill to sniff hit it. Sniff hit meaning an extremely light hit, making me believe that the fish was annoyed with popper. This fish and the other small ones we landed were at least 6 to 7 ft. away from the banks; in other words no bank action at all. 

A slight breeze all afternoon kept the water surface laced with ripples. The only place we got any surface action at times was when found a smooth surface area.  Some small lakes take on a drab look in the winter months, but not Walker it retains its beauty throughout the year with large pine and oak trees lining its banks. 

Ivan landed this bluegill using a small Betts white popper. He spent a good hour fishing various colored popper patterns before this fish hit. Letting the popper sit motionless for a short period produced the strike. I was surprised that no fish was landed using the nymph. I told Ivan before we launched the boat that landing fish would be secondary for me this afternoon because I was just glad to get on the water. 

The levee was one area to avoid the wind. Poppers don't produce well when fishing choppy water surfaces. There was no red-eyed bass landed on this day. The red-eyed bass is native to the creek that feeds Walker Lake. The largest I've ever landed here was in the 12" size. 

The size 10 Betts popper is one of my favorites when fishing for finicky fish. The white and red Betts poppers were the winners today that got the bluegill's attention. Color does make a difference when fishing for bluegill. Most fishermen will tell you that bluegill is stupid and will hit anything cast their way; not the case when fishing out of season for this fish. Catching this size bluegill on a 2 and 3 weight fly rod is a blast. All of the small nooks in this lake doesn't require one to fish with a long fly rod. A 7 1/2 foot fly rod is a great choice to cover the banks making a short cast. 

As I get older I've come to realize that one doesn't have to land the largest and the most fish. Today's trip was a great example of that statement!!

Popper Color Makes a Difference

This past week has been hectic, with no fishing, blogging, or gym time. The movers worked Monday and Tuesday moving us into our new home. The rest of the week was spent unpacking boxes and trying to get the house in order. We had furniture in the rent house where we were living, Jason's storage unit and our storage unit. I hope my wife and I never make another move ever!
Jason and I did had a few hours yesterday to fish Walker Lake before he flies back to Sacramento Monday. I can't think of a better way to spend an afternoon.

The white Betts Popper was the hot fly on this outing; Jason had only one of the poppers and was not about to share with Dad! He landed two to my one for the afternoon. 

Flexing the 2 wt. 

Could it be the top and bottom of the red dot and the white color that got the bluegills' attention??

The finished house to the point where we could move in. No landscaping until we get more dry weather; we're just glad to be in the house and life getting close to normal. 

The Treehouse

The grandkids have been after me since we moved into our house to build them a treehouse. So being the devoted Pops; I started the project last week with the layout for a 5 ft. X 8ft. treehouse which needed to be this big for all three children to have room to play. One of the hardest parts of building the house was climbing up the 7 ½ ft. ladder steps to get to the floor to add floorboards, and sides. Another good workout constructing this project was digging the 2 ft. deep holes the 4 X 4 post was set in; thank goodness for gym time.



I finally worked a trip in today to the Caney Fork between all the generations at the tailrace. The schedule on the website showed no generation from 8 AM to 1 PM. Surprise, surprise generators turned on at 11:30 disappointing a lot of fishermen. Lots of trout could be seen at every logical place I fished, telling me the tailrace had recently been stocked.

This stocker brown trout was one of many I brought to the net in the 2 hours I had to fish before high fast-moving water caused me to leave. When the horn sounds at this place indicating generation, you need to leave the water. Don’t wait to make that last cast. The midge was the hot fly the trout were taking during the short stay. I don’t like to fish tiny flies, but the size 20 and 22 got their attention.