My Bluegill quest officially kicked off two weeks ago on Walker County Lake. I was trying to fish the lake before it was fertilized, and I made the deadline by one day. I know that fertilization has its function of making a lake more suitable for landing quality fish. Still, once the water is fertilized, it takes weeks to regain its productive fishing. So, I will not make any more trips to the lake for at least a month. During June is when the second spawn takes place. I will be watching and waiting.
I hope to use this blog as an avenue to express my thoughts and adventures of all of my fishing expeditions and any other journeys I may undertake.
Wednesday, May 8, 2024
Some Attention for the Bluegill
Sunday, April 21, 2024
Catfish on the Flyrod
Friday, June 30, 2023
My New Fish Attractor
I've broken a promise I made at the beginning of this fishing season not to buy any more warm water poppers, and trout flies this year. I've got enough poppers and trout flies to last me years. One of the reasons I have so many poppers is me using them until they litterly come apart, meaning no hackle. Trout flies are much cheaper than poppers. I can buy trout flies for as little as .84 each. Compare that price to your cheapest popper starting at 3.00 to an expensive 8.00; then it causes me to make that popper last as long as it catches fish.
Now to the heart of this post; The Surface Seducer Double Barrel Popper. This popper is different from your ordinary surface popper. What makes the popper stand out from all the poppers I have used over the years is its unique body design. The Double Barrel has a soft foam epoxy body that will not chip or break loose from the hook. It also has all the hackle buried deep inside the body of the popper, keeping it in place. The hackle on cork poppers will usually come unraveled over time because of savage hits or removing the popper from the mouth of the fish. The Double Barrel will stand up to both the hits and hook removal.
Double Barrel poppers come in various colors, but the cream color is the best. The color imitates the shad that the bass feed on. It resembles another popper I've told you about over the years. Regarding design and durability, it is a step above all cork material poppers I have ever used fly fishing.
I didn't discover this popper. Jeff, one of my fly fishing buddies, started fishing this popper for the spotted bass with me on Smith Lake in April. He was landing bass working the popper with off-and-on aggressive jerks; bass was nailing it!! He couldn't remember where he purchased the popper, and as luck would have it, he had only one of the poppers. So I decided to fish something else that morning in the form of the closure minnow. I landed numerous bass using the closure, but the majority of the bass was taken on the Double Barrel by Jeff. After that trip, you would think I would order a few, but I decided the poppers I was fishing would land fish like his new popper. So I continued to fish my overstocked supply of cork poppers. It took a few more trips to convince me to purchase the Double Barrel for eight bucks each. I hate to pay that much for a popper, but I knew it was worth the price so promise broken. I ordered four before Jason returned home to fish with me for a few weeks this month. To make the rest of this post short; Jason made good use of the poppers I ordered, as you can see in the images below.
Thursday, April 6, 2023
A Challenge Landing a Carp
Guys, I had to share a catch of a lifetime regarding landing Carp. I was fishing for bluegill on Walker County Lake this morning using my 7 1/2 ft. two weiight flyrod rigged with a tiny Bream Bug. I was casting the small popper next to the weed beds when this Carp just sucked the fly under like all the bluegill had been hitting all morning. The minute I set the hook, I knew the fish was enormous from the feel of the headshakes. I thought it was a largemouth bass, but after noticing how it raced to deep water, I knew it was a giant catfish. I was wrong guessing on both accounts; it was the largest Carp I had ever landed on any lake.
What transpired next was the fish pulling my Pelican boat a hundred yards across the lake---which was actually in my favor. I knew if I could get the fish near shallow water, I would have a chance to land it. My little shorthanded bluegill net would never encompass the length of this fish. So I headed out with my little two weight in hand, bent to a U-shape for the entire ride across the lake, thinking my 6X tippet would pop any minute, but to my surprise, it completed the fight. So for the next 35 minutes, the Carp and I were having fond, at least I was, don't know about the Carp. Once we reached the launch, I knew I could get someone with a long handle net to net the fish. The caretaker's grandson was the help I needed. He was as excited as me when he finally laid it on the grass. He said he had never netted a fish. It was quite a thrill for the fly fishermen and grandson!
Moments like this morning make me thankful my Dad taught me how to use a fly rod all those years. The Carp weighed 8 1/2 lbs and was 27" long -----Tight-line guys!!
Sunday, August 7, 2022
The Redworm and the Fly Rod
Most fly fishermen will tell you they don't use live bait when fishing with a fly rod. I've never seen anyone using live bait fishing with the flyrod on the Sipsey. I have seen many individuals on the Sipsey using a spin cast fishing with redworms, corn, or crappie nibbles.
Live bait works when artificial flies and lures will not produce. Just ask my daughter about the success of live bait fishing when she would go with me years ago and fish the many nooks on Smith for bluegill, catfish, and bass. She was more into live bait fishing than my son.
Saturday, June 25, 2022
The Versatile Caddis Fly
When one thinks of the Caddis Fly they relate it to fly fishing for trout. I have fished this fly numerous times on the Sipsey mainly using it as an indicator fly. There were times when I would get a trout to inhale the Caddis while slow drifting a nymph under it. Which was a plus because I was trying to get the trout to take a smaller nymph drifting below. I use the traditional dry-dropper combo more now on the Sipsey because of the fishing pressure. I remember previous years fishing the Sipsey I never used the dry-dropper combo. I only fished a nymph using the various strike indicator on the market.
On my last trip to the Sipsey, which was a bust for me, no trout touched; started me thinking of using this fly to fish for the giant bluegill on Smith Lake. So two weeks ago, I gave the fly a try casting it near the rock walls in Ryan Creek.
Tuesday, April 5, 2022
Weather Past and Present
Weather conditions have changed drastically since I was a boy growing up in Mississippi years ago. We are seeing many more tornados and hurricanes today compared to what my brother and I used to call the good old days. The good old days are for another post. With tornadoes and hurricanes come heavy rains, wind, and flooding. It seems we have four or five days of great weather then all hell breaks loose for a couple of days with tornadoes in fact, as I type this post we may be under a tornado watch tomorrow. We are in this cycle through all of Spring.
So, what does a weary fly fisherman do when he can't trout fish------the images above show the answer! I fillet 14 of these pre-spawn beauties and threw back a bunch of future bull gills fishing Walker Lake yesterday.
I have started wearing Orvis fishing gloves. I had two sunspots removed from the top of my hands in the winter months and one sun growth from the top of my head. My Dermatologist told me I needed to start protecting myself much more from the sunray when I'm on the water.
Monday, October 18, 2021
The Bluegill, Start to Finish
The bluegill is probably the most common warm water fish caught throughout the United States. A lot of us started fishing as youngsters fishing for the bluegill. These fish will hit almost anything that moves in the water. I remember catching this fish as a boy fishing from the bank in our pond near our house. The first fish my grandchildren landed when they started fishing was the bluegill. Any size bluegill will produce a bend in the light fishing rod. The excitement on the face of a small child landing bluegill is priceless. I know I have witnessed that excitement.
Bluegill and Crappie are the only fish I keep to dress for table fare. Both these fish are excellent to eat if they are dressed and prepared right. I'm not a fan of the so-called tried and true method of cleaning these fish. Scraping the scales off their sides and cutting their heads off is how we prepared them for the skillet years ago. My family and I thought they were delicious to eat at the time.
It took years for me to discover that a filleted fish has a much better taste than a fish fried whole with the skin and bones. You eliminate the fishy taste when the skin and bones are removed from the fish. I filleted my first bluegill 45 years ago one afternoon on the back porch of my school Principals house, dressing bluegill we had landed that afternoon. The first fish I filleted on my own wasn't perfect but over time I mastered the process.
The Receipt for delicious bluegill and crappie
Take all fillets and place in a pan with water and add 3 to 4 tablespoons of salt and stir until all the salt is dissolved into the fillets---let sit overnight in the frig--the salt removes all the blood from the fillets
Remove the fillets the next day and wash all the salt off the fillets
Spray a cookie sheet with pam and coat all the fillets with cornmeal mixed with lemon pepper, salt, and black pepper
Bake all the fillets on 450 in the oven and turn the fillets over in about ten minutes and continue to bake until done. The process of baking the fillets takes about 20 minutes or less. You want the fillets to be tender and not overly baked which will make them tuff.
For those of you who like the fillets fried use a fry daddy adding Crisco, or Coconut oil to fry the fillets until they are golden brown--remove the fillets and let set on a paper towel to drain the oil
French fries, coleslaw, and hushpuppies are all sides dishes that are delicious to eat with the fillets. Don't forget the tartar sauce and catsup---almost forgot a cold beer to top the meal off!!
Enjoy the meal!
Wednesday, January 6, 2021
Laelyn and Bryson Learning How to use the Fly Rod
Cathey and I spent a few days this past week visiting B.T. Jenny and the grandchildren in Springhill, Tennessee. I've been carrying a couple of my fly rods along on some of the trips to teach Laelyn and Bryson how to use the fly rod. Both are making progress with their casting and placement of the fly, starting with a short cast and adding distance as they get accustomed to the feel of the reel and rod. I am hoping they will be ready by late Spring to land a few bluegills in a park pond located near our home. We're going to use the pond to learn how to play a fish and land it. Hopefully, by the time they visit in the Summer, they will be ready to fish Smith from the boat. We are looking forward to seeing them land some of the Spotted Bass that roam the waters of Smith, which should merit their fly fishing diploma. I thought I would share some of their progress this past week. Their younger brother, Cash is still a work in progress??
Friday, October 30, 2020
Big Bluegills Scarce Until Next Spring
The time for landing supersize bluegill is over for this season if you are a fly fisherman. I proved that statement to be true Wednesday when I made an afternoon trip to Walker Lake. I was using my Pelcian boat which is ideal for fishing this particular lake. No one on the water but a few individuals fishing for catfish and me. In other words, I had the place to myself. This time of year one can expect to land lots of hand-size gills and smaller which was exactly what eat my tiny poppers.