Cathey's Largert Bass and Bluegill Fishing Ryan Creek

I've been fishing a lot since March and most of it was alone on Walker Lake and the rest of the time was on Smith Lake with some of my buddies. A few trips to the tailrace were worked in when the generators were not running. Hopefully, most of the rains are gone and the tailrace will start to fish well in the coming months. 
One of my fishing buddies couldn't make the fishing trip we had planned for this past Tuesday so I started looking for a replacement. To my surprise my wife said she wanted to go, so we headed to Smith Lake for four or five hours of fishing. It turned out to be a special trip for both of us because it had been 25 years since she had been in the boat with me. She wanted to fish for the bluegill using live bait in the form of crickets. The only rule I had to follow was; she wasn't going to bait her hook, touch the fish or touch a crappie nibblet. In other words, I was her guide which was fine with. I was just glad to have her on board!

This largemouth put up quite a fight. I was really proud of how well Cathey handled this fish. She finally landed the fish using a 7 1/2 ft. Microlight with 4 lb. test line. We released the fish to fight another day. 

Hopefully, I can get her into fly fishing in the coming months. She has agreed to give fly fishing a try---really a special day for both of us, one that I will remember!! 

Fishing the Micro Light Spinning Rod



The blooming of the Dogwood Trees are always the sign that the crappie has begun to spawn here in the Deep South. I’ve been noticing the Dogwood buds but no bloom yet. That didn’t keep me from joining one of my fishing buddies the other day to test the waters for some slab crappie.

My 7 ½ ft. microlight spinning rod paired with the Pflueger President XT spinning reel is perfect to handle big crappie. I’m using 4 lb. test vanish line with a small curly tail shad jig to duplicate small minnows. The balance of this rod makes it effortless to cast for distance and accuracy. Using the micro light combo parallels the light 7 ½ to 8 ft. fly rods.

The dark male crappie is one beautiful fish in the early spring.  All the crappie today was landed using the micro. I had the 4 wt. fly rod with me but the wind was too strong to get a dissent case in place; in other words, my patience has worn thin dealing with the gust coming from all directions.

The in results, using my new fish cleaning table from Bass Pro Shops; these ten beauties yielded 40 mouth-watering fillets.