Landing Quest Size Bluegills on Smith Lake

Saturday brought a windy morning on Smith; again the bass wasn’t having anything to do with poppers on top. In fact, no bass was taken at all for the morning. Some bluegills were still in the nooks, but the cold fronts lately had driven most of them off the spawning beds or someone had already got to them. 

If I had one warm water lake to fish the rest of my fishing days Smith Lake would be it. It’s magnificent rock walls, monster boulders, above surface and underwater is unforgettable. Oh, I forgot to mention the super clear water, which enables one to see at 10 feet depths or better. 

Two monster gills were hanging out around this brush. I was using my 4 weight 9 ft. today for added strength. I fished until 10 AM close to the launch. A lot of boats were all around me most of the morning. Once the sea doos showed up along with the big ski boats I decided it was time to leave.

I know I’ve shown you guys homes on this lake before, but this one has to be one of the most unusual. I really don’t know what theme if any they were trying to imitate when they build this house. Individuals from all over the U.S come to build houses on this lake to use for summer homes.

The wind and a little cool front cut the bite today, make; I counted 8 in the cooler as I was getting ready to leave with these three nice gills.

Blogging Buddies-----Hard to Beat!!!

It’s always good to receive free stuff especially if it's from a blogging buddy. I received this pack of goodies from Howard at Windknots and Tangled Lines the other day. I’ve known Howard ever since I started blogging 6 years ago, via his blog. It’s always good to know one of your fishing buddies thinks enough of you to give you something; know that the shirt, cap, flies and all the other items will be put to good use, a big thank you, Howard!!

I started blogging in 2/11 2010; back then there were more bloggers on the net as opposed to now. Some have moved on to Facebook, or simply quit blogging. I deleted a number of blogs from my roll the other day simply because they have stop posting. Some have been in my blog roll for 1 year or more. I still add blogs to my roll that are interesting, but not nearly as many as I use to, they are becoming less and less.

Blogging for me has become somewhat of a hobby; it gives me a chance to connect with individuals who love fly fishing as much as me. As I sit the other day working on a future post I was thinking of how many individuals I know in Jasper who fly fish, two! Both fly fish the lake with me but only one fishes the tailrace. Most of the time I go by myself, which is ok on the tailrace, because I’m never alone there; I never fish the lake anymore by myself. So I guess what I’m trying to say is I’m thankful I have all you guys I blog with about fly fishing daily. When I starting blogging I was trying to learn everything I could about fly fishing for trout; I’ve learned a lot these past six years from you guys. I’m still learning about the sport; so thanks Howard and the rest of you guys for making the process a lot easier.

Quality Rainbow Landed On the Sipsey

I know all of us who fly fish have had days when you ask yourself, could it get any better than today? Well a couple of Wednesdays back I kept asking myself that very question. There was only one other fisherman in the gouge that day fishing in the 50 degree water with a gusting wind from the north at 10 to 15 mph. Lucky for me the wind was blowing with the current making a drift much easier. I had 2 ½ hours to complete my mission today and I wanted to make the most of the trip. So I made a beeline for one of my favorite holes that always seem to have a good rainbow. Little did I know that today those good rainbows would be some of the best trout that I’ve ever landed on the Sipsey. Numerous trout were taken today using the bead-head nymph.

Some weeks ago I landed a number of trout with damaged gill plates; this trout today had a red nick on its outer gill plate.

The videos below sums up the action for the afternoon; trout landed about every 10 to 15 minutes. I started the trip without my Contour Video camera, but the action was so good, I decided to walk by to the truck and get it. I lost a good 20 minutes of fishing time, but I made up for it after I got back to the gorge and started landing rainbow again.

 

Sorry the sound didn’t record for this video, don’t know why---I added some music that I thought might complement the action of this trout.

 

This video is a little long because it took me quite a while to land this rainbow. I was using a 6X tippet in the super clear water. This fish is one of the best I’ve ever landed on the Sipsey. One will land more trout here if they use a lighter tippet. I hope you guys enjoy it!