Still Landing a Few Fish on Smith Lake---PATIENCE!!!

 The extreme heat is a killer during the summer months, not only for the fish you are pursuing on Smith Lake, but it takes a toll on the person doing the fishing. The only way to enjoy fishing this time of year is to be on the water before dawn, fish for three hours, and leave before the sun takes over and the humidity gets unbearable. Cathey and I followed that plan to the letter this past Tuesday when we left the house at 4:30 and started fishing at 5:15. No hot sun and no humidity to cause your clothes to get wet. In the deep South, roughly six months are considered prime fishing months: March, April, May, June, October, and most of November. Early Spring, starting in March through June, is exceptional. The water temps are warming up, and the spawn is on for the bass and bluegill during these months. The fish are hungry after a long winter of eating very little and will eat almost anything thrown their way. October is another month that is an excellent time to toss topwater lures and poppers. The fish are stocking up for the winter months. Some of my best topwater action is in October, not for the bluegill, but the spotted and largemouth bass are very active during October. 

The dog days of summer cause me to look forward to all these months every year. The only negative aspect of Spring and Fall every year is that I get a year only when these months come around. The positive aspect is landing many fish during these months, so the positive outweighs the negative when considering the fishing part. 

This was one greedy bass; it not only wanted to inhale the Bea's Popper I was fishing, but once I landed the fish, I noticed a small bluegill in its throat with only the tail of the bluegill showing. It put up quite a fight on my 3 wt. This would be my only bass for the three-hour trip.

My 3 wt. was really put to the test when landing this nice bull gill. The fight was equal to the spotted bass I landed earlier that morning. This would be my only keeper. I did land a few small gills, but they were not worth keeping

Cathey, fishing with crickets and her 8-foot ultra-light spinning rod combo, won the bluegill total. I am still trying to teach her to use the fly rod. Hopefully, she will be using it before next year's spawn. 

My Other Social Media Outlet

As most of you know winter is not a season I look forward to. Why, because trout fishing is practically none existence on the Sipsey because generators run constantly. You guys that fish the native trout streams are so lucky. No generators to contend with, only a heavy rain that might cause the stream to rise some, but is back to normal flow in a day or two. How I wish I had that type of stream to fish here. So to satisfy my lack of trout fishing I watch Utube fly fishing videos. I have established quite a few contacts interacting with guys who post some great fly fishing videos. Not only are their videos entertaining but educational as well. The following videos are some of my favorites:

Drew Looknfishy---- Drew has a blog by the same name but never publishes posts anymore on his blog because he has quite a following on Utube now. His videos feature small stream fishing out west during the late spring and summer months. 

Hardman Fishing Adventures ------This is a young guy that makes all of us seniors wish we were young again and could balance walking logs across streams and hiking miles on some of the most beautiful trout streams in the northeast.

Jensenflyfishing -----Dave and Amelia are husband and wife who fish for huge trout in Canada and Ontario -----amazing how well they get along and work together to land some colorful brook, browns, and rainbow trout!

George Daniel ---- this guy knows more about Euro Nymphing than anyone I've watched on Utube. I hope I can get to use some of his Euro techniques on the Sipsey if I ever get to fish it again.  George does most of his fly fishing in Pennysaliva's native streams.

Old Dominion Trout Bum------Cory, lives in Virginia and fishes small streams and tailraces in six different states north of him all the way to Maine. He only fishes the Euro technique and is very good at it!

And last----Scotty's Gone Walkabout----This guy takes overnight camping to another level all over Australia. He is in the process of learning how to fly fish as he hikes through the mountain terrain of Australia. 

Most of these guys post a video at least once every two weeks.  

The Color "Orange"

Orange, red, green, chartreuse, and white are all colors that are used when fishing poppers for bluegill and bass. One would think brown or black would be dominant colors fishing for warm water species, but not the case when trying to get a hit from weary bluegill or bass. The primary color of almost all insects that touch the water surface on Smith is black and brown, but I get many more hits using bright colors as opposed to the insect colors. 

The fish were hitting orange on Tuesday morning. I tried other colors which resulted in no hits. As soon as I tied on the Orange popper the bass jumped on it. This Spotted Bass came out of the water to inhale the orange popper. This fish was the second landed on the popper off the wall in the background. The first bass on this same wall was larger and broke me off while I was trying to get it on the drag. Never let your fly line get tangled up at your feet while you are trying to land a fish. How I wish I could have touched that fish I lost!!

The following are some more orange lovers. The bluegill sucked the popper into its gills; it would be my only good bluegill of the morning. The depths on most all the walls now are 10 to 20 ft. as the drawdown continues getting ready for the fall season. The lake is well below full pool during the fall and winter.  I kept wondering what bug the fish thought this popper was? All the Spotted Bass today were respectable giving my 3 wt. a workout!

Who needs a ruler when one can simply have it tattooed on your leg. I think I will pass on this tattoo. Tuesday was another fun day on beautiful Smith Lake!!

Fall Bass Fishing

 

Fall is a great time of the year to fish for bass on your favorite lake. The species could be Largemouth, Smallmouth, or Spotted Bass. Jeff and I spent the morning casting surface poppers fishing for the Largemouth and Spotted Bass in areas around Duncan Bridge launch on Smith Lake. The weather was a little cool to start the morning but landing those first fish took the chill out. 

Nice spotted bass early fishing a wall near docks--Jeffs five weight got quite a workout landing this bass!

Always fish walls like this more than once, the first run rewarded Jeff with the bass in above image.

The next run produced this female spotted bass on a Barr Nunn popper, which made my 5 wt. sing. Sorry to say the third run told us to move on!

Guys this male largemouth is a late entry for this post that l landed last week fishing with Jeff on Ryan Creek near Smith Lake Dam. It was not in great condition, the largest part of this fish was its head. It was released to beef up for the winter. 

Not all rock walls on Smith will produce fish. The water depths on some walls are 60 to 70 feet deep. The best walls to concentrate on are the 15 to 25 foot depths which is where the bass were taken on this morning outing. I'm hoping to be back on the tailrace in a couple of weeks. October the 22nd will be the next trout stocking. In the meantime landing these epic fighting spotted bass will keep my fishing buddies and I busy.

The "Best Cast" Fly Line

 First off guys I'm no expert when it comes to fly lines. I do know when the fly line I'm using isn't performing to its potential. After doing the post on furled leaders; I thought, wouldn't be nice if I could find a fly line that was limp and had no memory like the furled leader I've started using. Enter the SF Best Cast fly line that can be described in a few sentences. First, this line has no memory at all and is as limp as the furled leader I'm using now. The ease of casting this line has really impressed me for distance casting and accuracy in placing the fly or popper I might be using. Also, this line doesn't tangle when you have line pulled off the reel getting ready for your next cast. I intend to have all my fly reels spooled with the Best Cast line by next season. 

Oh, I forgot to mention, the best part about this line is the price. It comes in 100 ft and 90 ft. length and is priced at 16.99 with free shipping at Amazon. I am using the dark green color instead of the bright yellow on a couple of my reels now. It comes in sizes 1 through 10 line wt. and has the welded loop on both ends.

This 2 lb spot put this line through the tangle test factor yesterday as I rushed to get him on the reel. No tangle line at all as this fish strips drag time and again. 

He nailed a Bullet Boogle Bug as I slowly moved it away from a rock ledge, fishing Brushy Creek on Smith Lake. The Spotted Bass were active early yesterday hitting a number of different poppers I cast their way.  

Seeing Spots

As most of you have noticed summer is upon us and is producing some unusual hot temps. Fishing takes a hit this time of year if you're on the water during the hottest time of the day. Daylight or late evenings are the preferred time to wet a hook or fly. During this time of the year, I'm on the water from daylight to 10 AM. The water temps warm to a point where the better fish go deep to find cool temps more to their liking. In order to get a reaction from a Spotted Bass or a quality size bluegill on Smith during the heat days, you need to fish a popper that makes noise. Enter the size 4, 6, and 8 size Boogle Bug popper. 

The Electric Blue Boogle is a go-to popper when fishing at daylight on Smith

This area is one of my favorite walls to fish on Smith. I can still see a Spotted Bass blowing up on my popper here. Getting the popper as close as possible to the rocks is a must. A 9ft. fly rod in a 5 or 6 weight will place the popper within striking distance of the wall. 

As the sun comes up it is important to look for shady banks. The shade will produce a few hits but daylight is the optimum time to land a really quality spot fishing the popper. This male spot was a challenge for my 6 wt.

I film this beauty as he swims off to fight another day!

Guys, it's hard to beat landing these awesome fighters using a 5 or 6 weight fly rod. This female was taken inches off the rock wall in the background. The huge bull gills go deep this time of the year, leaving the hand-size gills to keep things interesting using the 3 wt. but the prizes are the spots.

Avoiding the Crowd

I wanted to take a break from my bluegill fishing from last week so I worked in a quick outing on the Sipsey. A good number of fishermen were on the water, which made me think that access 7 would be less crowded. This was the week before Labor Day Weekend, on a Friday and not a good time to fish the Sipsey. I knew they were going to stock the place on the following Thursday right before the holiday weekend. So I was going to try to beat the crowd. Most all fisherman know when they stock this place.  

Just above access 7 close to the dam, there is one guy out of camera range, close to where they release the trout. I was surprised to find no one near the steps at 7.  

One to hand right after I got in place. All the trout that are stocked in the Sipsey are extremely healthy.

Keep an eye on the indicator--after filming and landing this trout I got my trout fix for the morning. I enjoyed the fight as much as this trout did!!

Awesome Morning Fishing the Dry Fly "Gnat"

The metal stairs of access six was a welcome site Tuesday morning as I made my way down to the gorge to fish the Sipsey for the first time this year. Heavy rains have kept it high and out of its banks for most of the Spring. So to say I was ready to fish was an understatement. As I set foot on the wet slippery rocks at the bottom of the stairs I was met by a young couple from Birmingham fishing with spinning gear in a distance. There was one more individual fishing upstream. I couldn't believe I partially had the place to myself. I decided to start working in an area I hadn't fished since last fall which was near the dam at access 7.  As I made my way to the area I notice the trout were feeding sparingly on top, which I had seen before numerous times here. So the most logical fly for me to try was one I 'd fished many times before here and that was the size 20 "Gnat". When in doubt what dry fly to use on the Sipsey with no hatch try the Gant. 

My first cast was made above one of the seams below access 7 that drops water into the larger deep mini pond, which I like to call it.  Here the water slows and lets the fly really get the attention where the trout were feeding. As the tiny Gnat broke free of the fast water and entered the slow water a trout nailed it on my first cast of the morning. Sorry to say I lost my first trout, either by poor hook set or not expecting a take that fast. Little did I know that this missed take would prove to be the best dry fly action I've ever experienced on the Sipsey. 

First trout of the morning using the tiny Gnat letting it do its magic. I am not a fan of fishing tiny flies. It's hard for me to see the fly on the surface. This morning I had no problem seeing it because the takes were so aggressive. 

The water was crystal clear and ice-cold making it the perfect place for trout to survive in of all places near Jasper Alabama. This is the large pool area where most of the feeding was taking place below the seam. As I was landing numerous trout here one of the guys at the fly shop showed up and started fishing below me with a client. He had the guy fishing with a nymph. 

Another willing taker on the Gnat. I decided to change the sizes of my Gnat to a size 18 which increased my catch ratio, bigger fly wider gap hook. I was using my 4wt.  9 ft. Redington with my 3/4 wt. Gloomis free spool fly reel. I've written a post on this reel before, because of its ability to take up lose line at your feet extremely fast by spinning the face of the reel. This feature that this reel has is so useful when you're wanting to use the drag to play a big fish. I really didn't need this feature today because all the trout I landed was in the 11" to 12" range. 

Extremely slow water here where the trout had slowed some in there feeding frenzy, but still taking the Gant. The difference now was the take was a sipping motion, which caused me to change tactics with the fly. I stop adding floatant to it and started letting the fly drift a little subsurface. Another fly I like to use when the trout are sipping is the Alans Soft Hackle. I completely forgot about other dry flies today because the action was so good on this one fly it blacked out all other patterns.

 All good feeding sprees have to come to an end and around 10 AM it was over. The rest of the morning was spent fishing nymphs in around the huge logs near access five and the shaded area entering access five. I added to my total with some better trout in deeper water in the log jams. I don't like to talk numbers when I'm trout fishing, but today's trip had numbers pushing close to 20! Wonder if I will be back tomorrow?-------YES!!

Confinement,How 's it Working for You?

Fishing has been light for me this year mainly because of the virus and the restrictions that go along with it. It has affected everyone's lives in one way or another. I have managed to make a few trips to Walker lake close to home and land a few gills to keep in practice. 

This trip was back in March on a sunny afternoon trying to dodge all the other fishermen who were fishing the lake. Confinement can take a toll on individuals if they're cooped up in the house for long periods of time. It seems everyone here that never fished are fishing now or at least out and giving it a try. All the lakes are covered with people and most are ignoring the distance thing, not a good idea. 
Cathey and I live in a small retirement community where no one walks but us in the morning hours, so no mask needed. Alabama started a total lockdown Saturday at 5PM. No one should go out unless it is for essential items. We will abide by the rules, which is what most individuals in this country are doing. The more individuals who don't follow the rules and regulations will cause the nightmare to continue for who knows how long. The bottom line, this crisis will not end until there is a vaccine available sometime next year.    

In the meantime, Cathey and I will continue to keep ourselves occupied with projects around the house and hopefully, some fishing trips worked in the schedule. 

One of my projects has been building log cabin bluebird houses for us and the Grandchildren. A couple of bluebirds already occupy this house. 

Delivered both these bookcases to these little guys a couple of weeks ago before the lockdown occurred. Notice I said bookcases, they're using them for everything but a bookcase.

There's been talk of closing the public lakes and big reservoirs if the public here doesn't follow the guidelines better. I hope this doesn't happen because it would put a dent the rest of the fishing season for me and many others. Guys stay safe and know we will get through this!!  

Wood Projects

The winter months are a slow time of the year for me, mainly because of the limited time I spend on the water. Living in the deep South one doesn't encounter the extreme cold that the rest of the country experiences. 30 to 40-degree weather here is cold enough to keep folks inside, especially me. I can remember when I was younger I could endure the cold much better. Now I spend the colder days working in my woodshop, blogging, going to the gym, ancestry research and watching older movies, especially westerns. 
As for today's movies, there a very few that interest me. While I'm trashing today's movies I might as well lump the music of today in there too. The late sixties, seventies, and eighties had some of the best music ever. In other words, those individuals could sing and deliver a song with meaning. 

Sorry for straying away from my post title, "Wood Projects." I've spent the last 3 weeks working on three wall shelves for the grandchildren which will hang from their newly painted rooms. They needed some shelf space to display all the items they have accumulated since birth. I'm amazed at what a 10, 7, and 5-year-old have collected. 

The next step is getting the paint on all 3 wall shelves. 32"wide and 42"tall should display a lot of the kid's items they have collected.

My love of woodworking was developed during my teenage years working at my Dad's sawmill. My younger brother and I would spend the summer working at the mill while we were out of school. After high school, I attended a local Jr. College where I signed up for a woodworking class to take as an elective. At the time I wanted to be a history teacher, but after taking the wood class I decided I would change my major and become an Industrial Arts Teacher. It was a wise decision for me because it enabled me to do something that I enjoyed. In all my years of teaching, I never had to carry any of my students to the Principals office. I was blessed to have taught some outstanding individuals. 

I spend a lot of time in this 12 X 12 shop in the winter months. I'm still working on hanging some of my clamps.

My New Fishing Buddy

I kicked off my 2020 fly fishing season this afternoon, on Walker County Lake. Little did I know that this year's opening for 2020 would be a memorable one. Why, because I would meet a little guy that was as excited as me to land fish. This eight-year-old name James reminded me of my own grandchildren. James, his sister, and his parents were fishing for catfish and trout using redworms. The parents had landed a couple of catfish but no trout. When James saw me land a nice size trout he ran over close to me and wanted to get a closer look at the fish. His mom told me that he had never seen a trout up close and thank me for letting him touch the rainbow. I saw how excited he was so I told her and her husband that I would be happy to let him land the next three I hope to land. So James waited patiently while I landed my 4 limit trout per fisherman. 

James' little sister wanted to get in on the action; one proud little guy with his sister to offer encouragement! Congrats James on landing some quality trout.

Walker County Lake is beautiful this time of the year. We've had a lot of rain lately causing the water level to be quite high. Even with all the overflow the lake still stays super clear. I'm looking forward to landing some supersize bluegill starting early March on this outstanding bluegill lake!! 

Quality Trout Landed Fishing the Sipsey Tailrace

We finally get a break from the tremendous heat we have experienced here in Alabama. Today's high was 87 which is quite a contrast from the 100's we have been experiencing. As I left the house this morning for the Sipsey a cool breeze was blowing with no humidity. One of my fishing buddies was going to meet me at the pump station near access five. With fly rods already rigged, we headed for access six. As we enter the gorge we were met with some really cool windy weather, which made me glad I was wearing my long sleeve shirt. To our surprise there was no fishing, so we had the place to ourselves, which is unusual. There was no surface activity at all so nymphs fishing deep was the choice to begin the morning.

This crystal clear tight seam produced the first trout of the morning. I was fishing one of Alan's Soft Hackles drifting it through this seam when it was inhaled. I was standing above the seam and letting the hackle drift through the fast water. I really like to fish this pattern because there are very few ways to screw up the presentation. Just cast out and let it do the work. 

I'm glad I was fishing my 4 wt. because I don't think I would have landed this trout fighting it through the fast water. Thanks to Charles for netting him and getting the pic. A big thank you to Alan for tying up some killer patterns that is working for me on the Sipsey. 

The trout were released to fight another day. I lost two other trout that was this size simply because of hook set and fast water. The hackle proved to be the fly of the morning, after a really slow start. No trout for the first hour and a half, then this beauty made my day!!!