Fly Fishing Using the Green and Brown Grasshopper

Today was another great day on Walker County Lake. I fished for 5 hours and landed 35 to 40 bluegills. I threw back some of the smaller ones which quite frankly got to be a nuisance. The water temps today were 65 to 68 which made for some good topwater action. I never use the 4 wt. today, but instead went with my 3 wt. which was a blast landing some of the big bull gills. I started the day with a small brown grasshopper from Bass Pro and ended the trip with a larger green grasshopper also from Bass Pro. Both of these flies are so realistic. They always land on the water with the body upright. A lot of the hopper patterns I have fished before landed upside down at times. These Bass Pro hoppers work to perfection. The fish were still in water five feet or better, and the water was clear enough for the fish to see the offering easy. Get ready for a number of posts in the bluegill category for at least the next 3 weeks. I hope these posts don't become boring, but my blog not only serves me as a communication tool, but it is my fishing log from year to year. It is really helpful to look back on a particular post and see what temps and time of the year the fish were reacting to different flies. My goal is to land and keep 100 gills filleted and put in the freezer for the season. This lake is the perfect lake to accomplish this task because it is well managed and the fish are extremely healthy. The lake is fertilized throughout the summer and if one is planning on catching a limited of gills on this lake they had better stock up before the first of May. May is when the game and fish start the fertilize program and this turns me and a host of other fishermen off. The water turns a slim green and most of the fertilize floats on top of the water for some time. In other words, I don’t like fishing English Pea soup.  I hope to be back on the water Friday and do this all over again.  You know this could turn into a job I really like-----and better yet I willing do this without pay!!!!!

Working on filling the freezer, by the way, this lake is stocked each year with 1000 gills and the limit is 20 per day. As I stated it is well managed.