Beginning my Big Bluegill Quest in "The Year of the Bluegill"

Friday was the day to start my big bull bluegill quest. So in keeping with the theme “The Year of the Bluegill” I made my first trip to Walker County Lake about 20 minutes from the house. I was so anxious to get on the water that I forgot to call and check the water temps at the lake. With that bit of information missing I arrive at the lake around ten and made the best of the day fishing for really small bluegills and one little bass in 52 degree water. I know exactly when the big bluegill begin there migration to the shallow water which is 62 degrees and Friday was not the day the big bulls move anywhere near the shallow edge.

I just had to get a picture of a Father and Daughter getting ready to try their luck with the red worms. This little girl was so excited being out there with her Dad. She kept telling him she wanted to catch a fish!

Using this little boat is the best way to fish this lake. It sets high in the water and is easy to maneuver and can get into tight places. I use a rudder on the back to keep it straight when paralleling the bank. It is light and easy to load in the back of my truck.

These little ducks really got to me before the day ended. It seemed everywhere I placed my nymph they would be there in a few minutes. If I had been fishing poppers or dries they would have ruin any change for a hit on top, because they were cruising the banks. They were not Mallards.

 

This big bull was worth the trip. It was landed a couple of hour into the trip on a fly that David Knapp of “The Trout Zone” tied for me a while back. He was tying some trout flies for me that I will try this month on tailrace. He included this little Seal Leech nymph in size 12 with the shipment. It was the fly of the day for me.  I landed this nice gill with his Leech pattern using my 8 ½ ft. 4 wt. it was quite a battle, and well worth the trip for me. I will start my bluegill quest with this big bull being number 1; so now I only have 99 more to land. I did catch half dozen really small bluegills as stated earlier with this same nymph. All the hits came in 8 to 10 ft. of water proving that nothing is happening around the edge yet, but there is always next week.

 

World Record Striped Bass Landed in Jasper Alabama??

Guys I just had to share this trophy striped bass catch that a local resident caught on the warrior river the other day. There have been some large striped bass landed in the lake I fish here at Smith, but this thing is astounding. It surpassed the world record by 3 lbs. Check out the article on how he landed it.

Dora’s James Bramlett landed this 70-pound striped bass while fishing on the Black Warrior River on Feb. 28. On Tuesday, the fish was declared a world record. AP photo

DORA AL. — James Bramlett’s phone has been ringing like a tambourine at a hootenanny since he landed Walker County’s version of Moby Dick near the Gorgas Steam Plant on the Black Warrior River on Feb. 28. Bramlett, who lives near Dora, normally fishes several times a week, hadn’t wet a hook in a long time, according to his wife, Jan. She had a medical issue and was awaiting major surgery, so he didn’t feel comfortable leaving her alone. “I kept after him, until he finally decided to go,” she remembered. On that Thursday, Bramlett was on the water before the roosters crowed and had several nice bass on his stringer that morning. He maneuvered his boat up next to some lily pads and used his trolling motor to maintain position instead of dropping his anchor. A while later he saw a nice fish roll on top of the water, so he pulled out the largest shad in his tank, which was about 12 inches long, and baited his hook. Using a 30-pound test line with his Ambassador 7000 reel, he lobbed the line to the spot where he saw the fish. He felt the fish take the bait. “The line coming off that reel sounded like an electric Weed Eater,” he said. The bass headed for deeper water and he pulled Bramlett’s boat along with him. The fight took them toward the middle of the river. “When I looked up, I saw a tugboat headed toward me pushing an empty barge.”Normally that would be a big problem, but fortunately the tugboat operator saw what was happening and cut the motor, bringing the barge to a stop. The crew of the tug knew it was a big fish and they cheered Bramlett as he did battle with the bass. After more than 20 minutes, the fish began to tire and Bramlett managed to get him close enough to see. “I looked at my landing net and I knew it was useless. So I put the butt of the rod against my stomach, and held it with my left hand while I used my right hand to unlatch the keepers on my gaff.” He slid the hook of the gaff underneath the lip of the bass and managed to drag it in the boat. “I knew it was a big fish,” he said. Bramlett felt like he had a record fish even before he weighed it on the ancient scales at Gross Fishing Camp in Parrish. He put the fish on the scale and kept bumping the counterweight down the measurement bar until it rested on 69 pounds. Those scales weren’t certified, but he knew the fish was big enough to snag a state record, set in 1959, by 15 pounds. The fish was weighed on certified scales and officials from the Alabama Department of Conservation and Natural Resources listed the official weight as 69.98 pounds. The fish is 45.5 inches long and has a 37.75 inch girth. Bramlett learned Tuesday that his trophy striped bass surpassed the world record of 67 pounds, 8 ounces set in 1992. When asked if he would have the fish on his wall, he said ‘no.’ “The fish will be mounted, but I’m not sure where it will end up. I like looking at the pictures much better,” he said. Bramlett will go down in history as holding the world record for the largest striped bass.

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The Short Journey Back as Oppose to The Long Journey There!!

Guys I can’t tell you how glad I am to be back home after a 3 day 36 hour drive out to Marysville California. I never realized what a killer trip it would be when I told my son a couple of week’s ago that I would help him make the drive. We spent three days riding through extreme wind, sleet, heavy rain and lots of snow in Flagstaff and the mountains in California. In fact we were lucky to even get out of the Flagstaff Friday morning because of heavy snow. Let’s just say it was a trip that I will never forget; but parents will do most anything for their children and I am one of those parents. Jason owes his Dad a lot of fishing trips in the northern California streams after this journey. One of the highlights of the trip aside from the area that Jason will be working in is meeting one of my blogging buddies Mark of Northern California Trout he came up and we did lunch together on Saturday. Mark is one of those guys you feel like you have known for years. He and I pretty much covered the gambit of fly fishing over lunch. I hope things will worked out for us to meet again this summer when my wife and I fly out to visit Jason. This trip has kind of put a damper on my blogging for this past week, but I am back now and ready to read some interesting fish tails. I missed all you guys!!

 

One can't make a really quality picture with your vehicle moving, but this is an image of what we viewed from Northern Texas Oklahoma, Mexico, and most of Arizona. In fact, traveling 1-40 all the way to Flagstaff was summed up in that image above "desert".  When we entered Flagstaff we saw some beautiful country.

Lots of snow-capped Mountains

Not use to driving in snow like this, if you are from the South

Wind turbines are really big in Oklahoma, New Mexico, Arizona, and California