Pushing the Redington 3 Weight Landing a Huge Spotted Bass

As most of you know this time of the year is when I concentrate on my yearly bluegill quest. Tuesday I continued that tradition on beautiful Smith Lake. My fishing companion for the early morning outing was Ivan who I consider a great fly fisherman. He started fly fishing in his teens and has never fish any other way. Now in the early eighties, he is still very proficient with the combo. The daylight launch found us leaving the boat dock with no humidity, some cloud cover, and the most important factor a full moon. I mentioned a couple of weeks ago in a post how important it is to fish 3 to 4 days before the full moon and 3 to 4 days after the full moon. As stated in that post this is when the fish are most active. I wanted to use today’s trip as a test concerning the full moon theory. The plan was to fish the mouth of nooks and the rock ledges on each side of the nooks. Both of these areas yielded numbers of quality bluegills. Bluegills on Smith usually spawn in water 8 to 10 feet deep in the super clear water. After the sun came up we could see the bluegill swimming up from the depths to take the Bar Nunn poppers; talk about excitement. Today was the best trip Ivan and I have had fishing during a full moon cycle.

This rock wall point which is submerged here was very productive the bluegills were nailing the poppers near the wall and around cover extending out from the wall.

The white and yellow Bar Nunn was the magic popper that attracted numerous gills during the morning.

The best of the best for me today, all of these nice gills will be prepared for future table fare. These five will go towards my count for the quest. I am now 30 away from reaching my goal for this year. 

This beautiful Mimosa tree was in full bloom located at the water's edge, but what was found under it really got my attention!!!

My yellow popper found this 3lb. 8oz. spot resting under the Mimosa. Little did I know that this fish was this big until it did a tail ballet a few feet from the base of the tree? The 3 weight got quite a workout landing this brut; lucky I had Ivan to net him. I hope I get my 4 weight back tomorrow so I can replace the 3 weight on my next outing. After today’s trip, it needs a rest!

Grandkids + Jenny Fishing with Pops

Bryson and Laelyn spent most of Wednesday morning with Pops fishing a local pond about a mile from our house. This was the first time we had fish this pond, although I've passed it many times leaving and entering our subdivision. The grandkids had a blast landing some nice size gills in their new fishing hole. This was Laelyn's first time to get to go with Pops and Bryson and she proved to be quite a little fisher girl. She could land the fish but wasn't having anything to do with handling them or the crickets which we used for bait. Some of the best years of my life since I retired, has been spending time with our grandchildren; I love these little guys. Pops, Bryson, and Laelyn will add another little guy to the group when their little brother "Cash" joins us in a couple of years. I think I may need some help when that happens.

Big brother consoling little sister as she puts distance between her and the bluegill she just landed

These outings can't be all about landing fish; a little exploring has to be added to make it even more interesting.

Bryson and his Mom, made a trip to Smith yesterday, to fish for the bluegill and anything else that would bite the crickets. Bryson is becoming quite a fisher boy, his landing technique is much better than last year. Next year his sister Laelyn will start making the boat trips with us.

 The prize of the morning went to Jenny landing this brut using a 7/1/2 ft. microlight rod with matching light action spinning reel spooled with 4lb. test line. Jenny played this catfish to perfection. She has landed catfish with me before using the microlights, but nothing like this one. Bryson did a great job taking the photo. I can't think of a better way to spend a couple of hours early in the morning!