Fishing With One of my Fellow Bloggers

Today’s trip was not quite what I expected as far as number of fish was concerned, but the companionship and the friendship I developed today with Jay from The Naturalist Angle Blog was worth the trip. Jay arrived at my house around 5: 15 and we left and proceeded to Smith Lake to try our hand at some of the big Kentucky Spots. There was only one problem the Spots forgot to turn on that violet hit mode. So we both spent the morning landing some nice bull bluegill and Jay did manage to land a 12 ¼” spot and another smaller one both on top. The top wasn’t working not because of the weather, but because of the feeding pattern. I told Jay that late yesterday evening there was a lot of cloud cover in the area and that was probably when the feeding occurred. Some of the best top water action is on cloudy days on Smith. This morning there was little wind to speak of and the water temp was around 85, which is excellent for top water action but nothing was happening.

I found out what I already knew about Jay, that he is an accomplished fly fisherman. He was making some exceptional fly presentations and some extremely long cast this morning, because most of the morning we were some distance from the bank. I told him at the start of the trip that if the spots could see you they would not hit, so some long cast was in order. As the morning wound down and the sun started to take away the shade banks we switched to nymph style flies, which produced one spot for me on a size 8 crayfish: nothing else happened from down under the rest of the morning. It was not from like of trying because we both put forth a valiant effort, with exceptional placement and presentations, but none of that matters if the fish aren’t there and not hitting. I looked forward to another trip with Jay and hope the Kentucky Spots are in a better mood whenever he makes his way back to Jasper again. 

   Jay with one of the big bull bluegills

Jay with the best spot of the day

Rock, Bluegill, Spots, Largemouth Combo

Little did I know this morning at 3:45 AM, which by the way is the time I crawled out of bed I would land a four species combo? Why so early to go fishing? Well in the Deep South especially during the summer months, you have to be on the water early to avoid the heat and humidity. After 10 AM it starts to get humid and hot and the longer you stay on the water the more it feels like a sauna bath. In other words don’t brother to go the gym and sit in a sauna, just get out in this weather and in a few minutes your clothes are all wet and you have accomplished the bath.
Back to the combo where it all started with the typical Kentucky Spot which Smith Lake is famous for and shortly later a good largemouth . Both these fish were taken on the size 4 Boggle Bug Popper using my 5 wt Redington 8 ½ ft. As the morning progressed I picked up a few more Spots and a another largemouth. Both of these fish were taken on a size 8 orange popper using my Temple Fork 4 wt. The 4 wt. also help me land some nice bluegill and one Rock Bass which gave me the combo. This was not one of those hot popper days. The fish were somewhat finicky so I started to scan through for fly box for a different color popper. As the morning progressed I fish through 4 different colors and two different patterns. Yellow was really early, followed by a white and then I lost a turquoise popper because I didn’t brother to check my line at the fly eye, and it broke off with a tiny gill, which may still be swimming with my $4.00 Boggle Bug Popper. Around 8:30 I tied on the Green Grasshopper, which I could see after some casting that it was too close to the color of the water and it was put back into the fly box. The trip ended  around 10 AM with the Orange size 8 popper which actually produced most of the fish I landed. It is an amazing little fly because it is so unusual in color and has black legs not white legs to compliment the look. I have used this fly for the past couple of years and it always seems to rescue me on slow popper days. Today’s conditions were a slight wind out of the south, with water temps hovering around 85, which I think before by the end of the day would have reached 87. Some days fishing with the poppers produce violet hits, but today all the takes were very sudtle with the fish rolling onto the fly. Sudtle or violet I'll take the hits either way. Charles made the trip with me today, and I hope we can get together again real soon.

Sorry for the dark image, but it was still dark when I took this picture of my first spot of the day on the Boogle Yellow Popper

This largemouth kills this white popper deep down

A nice largemouth on the white popper, no this fish did not die, he had a small cut in the roof of his mouth from the popper hook, I watched him swim off.

This big gill gave the 4wt all it wanted, it made numerous deep runs before it finally gave up. Great fighter.

This 2lb. largemouth was taken on the little orange popper, he just roll on the popper, no violet hit

Nice Rock Bass on the orange popper, first one of this season

This big gill inhaled the orange popper deep in its throat. Forceps was the ticket to get to the popper

Last Spot of the day on the little orange popper

One good meal from these 3 bulls

I will be getting more of these little bugs

Landing Slab Crappie on Legion Lake Fishing With my Brother

This is one Memorial Day Weekend I won't forget for some time. My brother, Bobby and I spent the holiday weekend landing some of the largest crappie we have ever landed on the local lake near his home. I know the title of this post can be a little confusing, so here is the explanation. We were using 4 different techniques to land all the fish we kept the past three days. Let’s start with the Micro Light technique. I have talked about this technique before on this blog but let me give you a little more information. It is the method we started with Friday evening on the lake, which produced 17 crappie and bluegill. The micro-light method is just what it implies LIGHT fishing, using a 7 to 7 ½ ft. rod with a light spinning reel loaded with 4 lb. test light. This method emulates a short fly rod, which makes for some fantastic action when you are playing the size crappie and bluegill we were landing. We were using both rods Friday evening with reels that produced the perfect balance for the big 12 to 13-inch crappie we were catching.
The Jigger Pole was another set-up we used. My brother has used this set-up for a number of years. He is extremely good at playing and landing crappie with this technique. I am still in the learning stages here, but I must admit it is a lot of fun learning. Here the individual uses a long graphite rod usually 9 to 13 ft. in length with a small spinning reel or close face reel. This set-up is perfect to fish in tight places such as stomps or treetops. We used this technique Saturday evening in treetops and submerged stomps we found in some of the nooks on the lake. The best lure for the Jigger is a tube jig or a minnow. The advantage one has here is holding the lure in front of the crappie longer. 

If we had not switched from one set-up to another during the days fished we would have never landed 50 fish, we did and dressed the 15 best fish we brought home. and brought home the 44 we cleaned for a big fish fry. As always it is good to visit and fish with Bobby!  

Fishing With Jason on Smith Lake Landing Spotted Bass

Monday, Jason and I left the house at 5 AM for a daylight fishing trip on Smith Lake. I seldom get to fish with Jason, because he is in school and that has taken up pretty much all his time for the past two years. We were going to fish for some of the Kentucky Spots using the fly rod and also to see if there were still any crappie left in the area I fish Saturday. Starting at 5:30 AM has not produced the fish I consider good this season, and Tuesday was in the same lane. The first fish came at 7:30, with one of the crappies in the same area where I had success Saturday. Jason and I spent about an hour in the honey hole and landed 6 more slabs using the smoke and glitter curly tail grub with the redhead jig. The fish this time was bigger and slower to hit. I suspect the reason for the low numbers was the fact that we had caught all of them or the on-off hit factor crappie process. Leaving the crappie area we decided to start looking for shade because the sun had taken over most of the banks where we had fished earlier. If you are going to fish Smith topwater, you need to look for shade after the sun comes up because the lake is so clear the fish can see you at a considerable distance. It also helps to wear dark clothing instead of white or bright clothing. The Kentucky Spots on this lake have seen it all and are very wary of anything that threatens them. So you need every advantage you can muster. With that said, we pulled up on a steep rock wall bank near the dam where Jason did a long shoot cast that propelled his size 8 little white popper right next to the rock wall. He let the popper sit motionless for a few seconds before he gently moved it, which produced a violet hit yielding a 16” Spot. He had quite a fight on his 8 ½ ft. 4 wt fly rod. He played the fish to perfection and eventually landed it. This is what makes fly fishing so exciting and challenging is the play and landing a fish that is most of the time superior to the tackle you are using. It is the fish and you and sometimes the fish wins and sometimes you win. I noticed something on this trip that may make the next trip even more productive, which is popper size. The larger poppers haven’t produced as well this season so today was a test using smaller poppers, which really worked well getting the larger spots to hit. Before we left Jason and I landed 6 more spots and one largemouth, all on the white popper with the white legs. It was a great trip with my son whom I very seldom get to fish with. I hope we can make many more trips after he graduates.                    

My Best Crappie Fishing Trip on Smith Lake EVER!!

Not a fly fishing report sorry to say. The fishing trip started off today as being a bass fishing outing using topwater lures at daylight. Fishing the Rapala one of the oldest topwater lures was the choice at daybreak. Things started off slow and didn’t improve until the sun came up and 3 Kentucky Spots were boated, with the Rapala. If you haven’t used this lure it is deadly when worked with a slight jerk imitating a wounded minnow. This jerk motion is what produced the BEST crappie fishing trip I have ever had on Smith Lake today. 10:30 is when I spotted some tiny minnows skipping across the surface in the back of a nook just off the main body of the lake. By 10:30 on any Saturday fishing Smith you have got plenty of big ski boats churning and steering up the water to the point where you have dingy water mixing with the super clear water. This situation will cause the small minnows and tiny shad to ease into this type of water and try to hide in the dingy water from the bass that is chasing them: and this you might say is what produced the best crappie trip I have had on Smith Lake. Before today I had never caught more than 3 or 4 crappies on this lake. The first cast I made into the dingy water I thought was going to produce bass, but instead, produce huge crappie on the Rapala. I knew when I landed that first fish they had to be more where that one came from and as I suspected there was, to the tune of 18 in this little nook with a few brush piles for them to trap the minnows in. The 18 was caught in 1 ½ hours, which seems like a long time to land 18 crappie, but consider the conditions, wind 10 mph, out of the east, heavy boat traffic producing huge wakes and last the lost of my trolling battery trying to contend with the wind and boat traffic; but with a trip like today, I will count my blessings.  

I don't have to tell you how good these fish are when fried or baked. I was lucky and may never catch this many carppie again in one place on this lake. As a matter of fact, you might say that this catch today was truly by accident---but that is what makes fishing so interesting to me, you never know what you are going to encounter when you hit the water. That is why I love it so.

Hanging Out With my Best Buddy

This week my wife and I spent the better part of the week staying with our daughter and grandson, while our son-in-law was on a business trip in Dallas, Texas. Jenny our daughter didn’t want to stay by herself, so Mama and I gladly accepted her invitation to spend some quality time with her and Bryson our grandson. Bryson and I spent the first day outside because this little guy is an outdoor kid. If it moves outside he wants to investigate. Of course, we spent some time down at the creek beside their house exploring the water and listening to all the birds and frogs chirping. He loves the sound of the outside and not a sound goes unnoticed by him. Our second day was spent exploring the surroundings of the local park and watching different insects crawl around in the grass. I had forgotten how little guys like Bryson like to explore, and it brought back memories of when our son was a little tot, wandering around in the back yard. I have always heard that grandchildren are different from your own children, and now that we have Bryson I know that to be true. There is nothing like Grandchildren and the best part is the spoil factor, and believe me, my wife and I are working on that aspect.

 Beautiful creek near their house

Bryson exploring, sorry for the blur, but he was moving to fast

Ready to try for the grasshopper

Tuesday's Fishing Trip Produced a First!

Tuesday’s regular fishing trip was on beautiful Smith Lake. I say regular because Tuesday and Thursday are my fishing days, and the rest of the week is taken up with the gym and catching up on chores. Man, it is nice being retired!

The trip started around 6 AM and ended at 10:30.  The setup for the day was again the 5 wt and 4 wt rods rigged with a size 4 popper on the 5 wt. and a size 4 Zonker on the 4 wt. I was targeting Kentucky Spots and landed 6 in the 12” range, but missed out on the larger fish. They were not hitting the popper as well as I had seen them hit in the past, so I had to really work the bug to get the takes I got. The one thing I have discovered on Smith when using the poppers is you must find a shade to get a take, and after 10 AM that is hard to do. The perfect time to land quality spots on the lake is daylight. After the sun comes up you are either looking for shade or going down under with buggers, crawfish, craws, zonkers, or any other fly that produces a slow fall. This lake is gin clear and shade or daylight is a must for success on top. I did manage to land a quality catfish using the zonker on a slow fall stripping the line as if I was using a streamer, and in a way, the zonker is a streamer pattern. The catfish was a first for me on the fly and I have to say it gave the 5 wt a good bend. I am off the rest of this week because my wife and I are spending some quality time with our grandson in Tennessee. Who knows I just might share a few Bryson stories with you guys this week. Take care everyone.





He really wanted the Boggle Bug

The Kentucky Spot fights like the Smallmouth, that is why I love to go after them

The Zonker in craw color, this was a nice male catfish

First Fly Outing on Smith for the Kentucky Spots

Monday was my first trip this year for me to fish for the Kentucky Spots using the fly rod on Smith Lake. I started out using a size 4 Boggle Bug in dark turquoise on my 4 wt. After a few minutes of casting I discovered that the size 4 popper was a little too much bug for the 4 wt because it required to much effort to get the distance I wanted. I had my 5 wt with me but it was rigged with a cream Wooly Bugger. I usually fish the size 4 Boggle Bugs with the 5 wt, but I needed the backbone of the 5 wt for the Buggers, to help with hook set. With all that said I lost the lone Spot of the morning on the turquoise popper, and never got to stretch the leader again with that fly. The top water action was not happening so I decide to go to the Wooly bugger and a Craw. I did manage to land two Spots using a cream bugger and the other three spots was landed using a unique craw pattern tied by Pat Cohen from the blog Warm Water Journal. This craw is amazingly life like, and will be one of my top producing flies this season. Pat ties some exceptional flies and this pattern is just one of many he ties. The spots in this lake feed heavily on crawfish and this fly is the perfect imitation to entice big hits. The down side of this whole trip was the fact I only got to fish an hour, because my crack battery went out. I have learned over the years if you own a boat, there is always something that is going wrong with it, and today was an example.

Good fight on the 5wt--the lake is super clear so this spot had no trouble seeing the Craw. I expect to land some larger Spot using this fly.

This Craw pattern is going to be a winner on this lake for me, because the bass have not seen anything like this pattern before

The Tornados That Hit Our State

Needless to say I didn’t accomplish my goal of landing 100 bluegills during the month of April. The horrendous Tornados that hit Alabama this past week put an end to my quest.  I must say I have never seen destruction like my family and I have seen this past week. It all started Wednesday morning with the start of over 100 tornados that pounded the state all day and into the night. Power is not restored as of yet to most of the state, and parts of the state will not have power restored for weeks. The subdivision that my family and I live in lost electricity Wednesday morning and was not restored until Friday night. Our area escaped with some minor damage such as trees down and power lines down. We feel very blessed that we survived all three tornados that came our way and pray and feel for all those that lost family and all their belongings. You don’t realize how precious life is until you go through and experience something like we witnessed and went through this past week.  I am sure most of you have seen the destruction and damage through the news media, but for those of you who may have missed the footage the videos below show the actual events.



Inching Closer to my 100 Bluegill Mark

I hope everyone is not getting bored with all these reports of my bluegill fishing trips. I have really got into this quest of mine, landing 100 super bull bluegills by the end of this month. Keep in mind here, I am only counting the big males. Today;s trip got me closer to my goal. I started out around 7 AM and left the lake 3 hours later. I didn’t have to contend with the bad windy conditions I have been battling lately, which help me hit some of the areas that I have not been able to fish. Those areas today produced some big bluegills along with a couple of nice Shell Crackers. The big boys today all came on the Black Gnat and the rest were taken on the size 8 popper. The limit on this lake is 20 bluegills for the day and it is strictly enforced. This lake is well managed and the fish are some of the healthiest I have ever landed. The fight is awesome, and most of the time the fight is going away from the boat. I had the limit by 10 AM and left for home. I only kept the big bulls which totaled out at 15. I did find out today that the Gnat works best with my 5 wt as opposed to my 4 wt. I can set the hook much better with the 5 wt, and I can also get the fly up out of the water much better with the added backbone of the 5 wt not to mention handling the big Shell Crackers I landed today. The 4 wt works great for all the surface flies I fish on the lake. I don’t have to tell you guys how much I am enjoying this little venture. After today’s outing my total is 85. We have bad weather tomorrow and Wednesday, so I only have Thursday or Friday to make my mark. Wish me luck!

One of the first of the day in--this fish came up 7 ft. to grab this popper, I was fishing a flat ranging from 7 to 8 ft. deep

When they take the fly this deep in their mouth, you know they mean to kill it. The orange popper has been the color for the past couple of trips.

Notcie the Black Gnat, this Shell Cracker was in water 6 ft. down. I was fishing the Gnat with a slow fall, all I had to do was watch the line, when it goes so does the fish

This is what he looked like after landed him

Today's catch which gets me to 85

Seperating Myself From the Rest of the Pack

Today’s post is an update on my quest to reach my goal of landing 100 bluegills by the end of this month. I missed my trip on Thursday of this week because of the rain. I did get to go on Friday. I launched my little Raider boat at 7 AM and fish until lunch. The wind was a little more cooperative today compared to this past Tuesday. The only negative aspect of the trip today was the number of individuals on the water. It seems every nook, point, and bend I approached to fish, there was a boat. The positive aspect of the trip was the fact that I was the only one on the lake fishing with a fly rod. Everyone was either fishing live bait for bluegill or fishing for crappie with minnows or fishing for bass with artificial lures. I was really getting some strange looks; I had one individual to ask me, what kind of outfit was I fishing? I explained to him what I was doing but I don’t think he quite understood what I was talking about.

Today proved to me that if you are not following the norm by fishing the way everybody else does, then you should be a little more successful than the rest of the pack. That is what happened to me today. I stopped counting after I landed more than 30 bluegills. Of those 30 gills, 18 were keepers and 10 were the big bluegills I was after. The bedding process had begun because the water temps had reached 72 degrees. So this explains why all the boats on the water. I only have a couple more trips to make before it is over with on this lake for me this year. I hope I reach my goal.

The little number 10 orange popper on the floor of the Raider boat was the choice popper today before the wind. It seems the bluegills were attracted to this color more than the traditional white, chartreuse, or yellow colors.

These are the best of the bunch. As stated in the post, I brought 18 home, but these were worthy of the picture. Half of these were landed using the Black Gnat after the wind got up. This group brought my total to 70.  



Reaching That Number 100 Gill in All That Wind & More Wind

I was reading Mel’s Post over at Blog Cabin Angler the other day on wind. Well as I fished Walker County Lake today I reflected back to his post. Why because I experienced the wind factor “big time” today. I found myself with fly line wrapped around my head at times not to mention the fly itself hooked either in my clothing or in some article in the boat. I made the comment on Mel’s post that the wind can be a friend or it can be your enemy. Today it was more of my enemy than a friend. It was gusting at 15 to 25 mph. at times and the lake was white capping after lunch. So you asked with all this going on where is the fish? The fish with exception of the 15 I brought home is still in that windy lake. I decided after I got home around 1 pm that I would not stay and fish in those conditions anymore. It is not worth the problems one’s goes through to stay an extra hour for two or three more fish.   I arrived at the lake this morning around 7 and didn’t land a fish until 7:45. There was no wind and the water temp was reading between 66 and 68 with the wind from the south. I finally made a hook up right before 8 which was a largemouth around 2 lbs. I fought the fish to the boat only to have it break off as it made one last jump as I was reaching to lip it. I lost popper number one. As the morning progressed I lost two other poppers on break offs in brush, which were large bull bluegills. The 15 bluegills I brought home were all caught on a size 8 Chartreuse Popper, and a size 8 Irresistible wruff. I really like this little fly because it resembles some of the Mayflies coming off the trees at this time on the lake. You know I would never go without the Gnat. The Gnat is the fly that produced all the larger bulls today. I started using the Gnat when the wind got up and stayed with it until I left. I told all of you back in March I was going to set a goal of landing 100 bull bluegill before the end of April. Well after today I stand at 60. With wind like today I am wondering if I will reach my goal. Stay tuned for Thursday’s trip, if the rain doesn’t wash me out. Wish me luck.

Sorry about the glare, the mimosa trees in the distance was producing the Mayflies, which caused me to tie on the Irresistible wruff--it produced female bluegills no bulls

Flydeals tie this fly for me with a red tail and a white hackle--excellent dry for bluegills

This little ruttier saved me many casts by keeping the boat parallel to the bank when the wind really got bad. I made the ruttier out of a discarded trolling motor mount.

Good bluegill but not the biggie I have been accustomed to. But I will take these all day. He was one that I counted towards my 100 goal. Notice the Gnat.

I counted 6 of these bluegills towards my 100 goal. The rest in the cooler was female bluegills.

Ready for the fillet knife

The end result of today's trip. The fillets above are left in the refrigerator overnight in ice and salt. The salt is added to eliminate what blood is left in the fillets. The next day you rinse off the salt and either deep fry or bake to a golden brown. The majority of the fish I have been catching lately have been put in the deep freeze for the winter. By the end of summer the freezer should be full.

Not Everyday on the Lake can be a Stellar Day

Has anyone notice that one can’t have a fantastic fish catch on every trip. Today’s excursion was one of those outings. I went back to Walker County Lake today for what I thought would be another stellar day. Well, the fish won out today. I was late getting started and the wind took over about an hour into the trip and never let up all day. I did manage to land a decent crappie and some medium size female bluegills before lunch. After lunch, it was changing fly after fly, and yes that included the Gnat. Today it produced one crappie and a bull bluegill medium size and that was it for the Gnat today. I notice that the lake was still falling and the transition of the spawn was taking place because there were too many medium-size female bream around the edge and in the back of most of the nooks. The big males were nowhere to be found. They had moved back into the deep water, waiting for the females to drop their eggs, so I feel that this was the case today. I do think that next week will be the time to be on this lake for super bluegill action. The water temps will be between 75 and 80 and that is the magic number for the spawn to begin. At that time the big males will begin to move onto the beds and the action should be furious. Today the temps never reached 73. Another factor affecting the spawn for next week will be the moon phase which will be full. So check back for what I hope to be a better report.

Best fish of the day on the Gnat.

Fishing the Super Black Gnat Fly

Today I fished with the best-wet fly I have ever used. Consider the conditions, the water was falling, the wind was out of the east all day, fishing right after a cold front and the barometer was sky high all day. When I say all day I started fishing around 9 AM and finished the day mid-afternoon. So here is the take on the trip, I started out with my 3 wt, fly rod using a small popper to no avail. After about an hour of fishing close in pockets, I switched to my 4 wt rod using a wooly bugger, I fish with this fly until after lunch landing two small bait stealers. With it being partly cloudy most of the afternoon and the water temps bouncing back and forth between 62 to 65 I switched back to a variety of poppers using my 3 wt. only to continue to land little tiny bait stealers. Feeling frustrated I switch back to my 4wt because I wanted to get a little more distance and have a little more power for a hook set. The 4 wt is the set-up I ended the trip with, after switching to the BLACK GNAT, yes the black gnat. I started back down one of the long runs off a steep bank, I had fished a couple of times the morning and most of the afternoon. To make this story shorter, I caught or lost 22 large bull bluegills about an hour before I left the lake. The 15 pictured in the cooler were some of the fattest and largest I have caught on Walker County Lake. I got broke off 3 times during this last-minute run, as I stated I brought home 15. This trip today proves when you find a lure or fly that produces when nothing else will sing its praises, and I will be doing that every time I tie this little jewel on my fly line.

I will ice down this group because I just didn't want to fillet fish after I got home. I guess the only bad part of this trip is the fact I have to get up in the morning and clean fish. Sorry, I forgot my camera so I had to take this picture when I got home.

Fishing for Crappie After a Cold Front

Well I have been in Mississippi for the past couple of days fishing with my brother.  We were fishing Legion Lake for some of the spawning crappie. Thursday was slow because of a cold front that had passed through on Wednesday. The water temperature was showing between 59 and 62. Most all the crappie was caught in 5 to 6 feet depths. The lake was falling because of all the heavy rains which along with the cold front made it tough to land many nice fish. The hits were extremely light and soft. We were both using micro light 7 ½ ft. rods with 4 lb. test light. The lure for the day was a 1/16 oz. curly tail jig retrieved slowly with the tip of the hook baited with a white or chartreuse nibbet. The nibbet makes a difference on the slow days. The weather turned cooler as the afternoon approached and cause the bite to pretty much stop. As we were leaving the water I wanted to try the black gnat on the crappie using the fly rod. I landed a couple of nice black crappie with the gnat retrieving it slowly. This was my first crappie that I had ever caught on the fly. I know that those couple of crappie won’t be my last. This was not only a great fishing trip but as always a nice visit with my brother and his wife. As always the food was exceptional.

The Black Gnat also scored with those two large bullgills.  

The Black Gnat is quite possibly the best wet fly I have ever used. The slow drift and and fall make it deadly for trout, bluegills, bass and yes even crappie.