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