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.