Fishing Trip Washed Out--So Concentrate On My Other Hobby

Thursday was my day to make it to the Sipsey Tailrace and try some wet flies for the recently stocked rainbow. Needless to say it rained all day Thursday and into the night. My wife and I left for Tennessee on Friday afternoon which has halted the fishing for me until next Tuesday. At the rate I am going my bluegill quest may be gone for this year.

So with my fishing on hold for a while I spent some time Friday morning tending to my other hobby, gardening, in the form of my cherry tomatoes, and peppers.

The wife’s discarded flower pots with one of my five cherry tomatoes plants. The blooms are just showing up on this plant. It will produce tomatoes into fall.

This plant is already producing, amazing what a 2.00 bag of top soil will produce when tomatoes are involved.

One of two sweet banana pepper plants that will produce into fall with an amazing amount of pepper yielded.

I thought I would try a couple of plants in this pot and see if I could double my yield. Both plants are producing pepper. There isn’t a lot of maintenance that goes into gardening on this scale, a little liquid miracle grow and water is the ticket. 

Muscadines are another food passion of mine in the fall so I planted a couple just to see if they would produce in the coming years.

Advertising My Favoritte Fishing Products

I am sure that all of you who follow my blog I have notice from time to time that I mention products that I used when I am out on the water fishing. I do this not to receive something free from the company which I do at times; but simply because I am so impressed with the performance of the fly, fly rod, or any other fly fishing accessory that I may be using at the time. Most of these products are sold through small companies and a few through large companies. The larger companies have many more avenues to promote their products as oppose to the smaller companies. A lot of the smaller companies use referrals, product reviews or their own website to help move their products.

Over the years while writing post in my Fishing Through Life blog I have featured many fishing products which have brought me great success on the water. So today I thought I would once again give a shout out to some of my favorite fishing products I am using.

 

Flies and Poppers----Boogle Bug Popper---BreamBugs—FlyDeals—Ultra Light Lures—Roostertails, Tiny Crank Baits, Small Grubs and Tiny Rapalas

 

Fly Rods----Redington Fly Rods—Greys Streamflex Fly Rods—St Croix Fly Rods---Ultralight Fly Rods—Dawai Spinmatic Spin Cast Rods—Micro Lite Spinning Rods

 

Fly Reels & Ultra Light Reels---Redington Drift Fly Reels—Venture 3 Gloomis Fly Reels—Orivs Battenkill Fly Reels---and how could I forget my Pelican Boat.



It is good to be back on the blog circuit, after my wife and I spent some time in South Carolina, and in and out of Tennessee checking on our daughter, who is expecting their 3^rd child. Somewhere near July 17^th. my wife and I will become Grandparents again, which we are looking forward to.

By the way I can't wait to get back on the water Thursday!!!!!

  


 

 

The Bar Nun Popper Wins Again

Today I got to try out my newly purchased Bar Nun poppers I purchased from BreamBugs last week. What precipitated the purchase of the poppers was my fishing trip last Tuesday when I found out that color really does matter when fishing for bluegills. 

The bluegill on Smith Lake doesn’t spawn your traditional style, meaning the water clarity can afford them the luxury of spawning in depths of 10 to 12 feet.  In most other waters bluegill spawns in depths 6 feet or less. Once a popper is thrown their way in deeper water it may take a few seconds before there is a hit. In other words one has to have a little patience to get their attention, using the light scale chartreuse popper.

I had my 3 and 4 weight 8 ½ ft. Redington rods rigged today with a Muddler Minnow and of course my new Bar Nun popper. The objective for the two rigs was to see if color and pattern still really mattered to the bluegill after a week. Long story short it did, no hits on the Muddler at all and killer hits on the Bar Nun popper. In fact I would place the Muddler right in the same place I cast the popper and the bluegill would come up and nail the popper and totally ignore the Muddler. I ordered 6 poppers last week and now I am down to 4 as a result of losing one in a tree and one in a break off with a nice gill taking it with him in a brush pile.  

This bluegill along with numerous small bass and other bluegills continued to nail the popper until the sun over took the banks. Sun is not a friend of the fly fisherman especially on Smith Lake. I want bore you with images of more bluegills, but this one and two others were worthy of the quest. I am now 31 away from my goal.

I manage to land this nice spot using the size 6 yellow Boogle Bug right at daylight. This was my only bass of the morning. This fish took the Boggle while it was sitting still. I had to change my retrieve action to get this fish to hit the bug. The jerk and stop motion didn’t work for this bass this morning. A very slow motion and letting it sit still got the hit. The retrieve could be different on my next outing. That's what makes fishing so exciting for me, one never knows how the fish will react from day to day.

 

 

 

Popper Color Does Make a Difference When Fishing For Bluegills

I’ve always assumed that bedding bluegill would hit anything thrown their way regardless of color, nymph, dry fly or popper. Well Tuesday I got a lesson in just how finicky bluegill can be on Smith Lake. My buddy Ivan was fishing with me at daybreak yesterday for the large spots using the big poppers, which by the way never panned out for any major hits. I did land one spot in the slot at 13 inches which was the extent of the bass trip. I attribute the slow spot action to all the Memorial Day boat traffic, which really churned the water up for three days.

So we started searching for the bedding bluegills in all the nooks off the main channel. The first 4 or 5 nooks different produce anything but small fish in the form of little females and some little spots out of the slot, which is below 12 inches. As we moved from nook to nook we finally connected with a small band of gills bedding out from the bank near the overhanging tree line on the right side in the image below. Ivan landed the first of 6 nice bluegills in this area using a popper that I didn’t have in my fly box.

The bluegill were bedding 10 to 12 ft. deep here in this area and the minute they nailed the popper they would take off for deeper water. Ivan’s 4 weight really got a workout. I didn’t land a single fish here using a black Bar Nun popper. These fish were so aggressive that they were coming out of the water like a bass to take the pale colored version of this popper, which is very unusual for bluegill on Smith.

I tried a number of flies trying to get a hit as we sit there fishing for this group of bedding bluegills, but nothing work for me. I tried nymphs, dries, grasshoppers, even different colored poppers which proved to me that these fish were taking nothing on this day but this size 8 pale chartreuse Bar Nun Popper.  So yes color and pattern makes a difference when fishing for bedding bluegill.

I did manage to land one bull bluegill using the Black Bar Nun version of this popper that I will count for my quest. To prove to me again that the pale chartreuse popper was still taking fish over everything else, Ivan landed a couple bass where I had just place the black popper. Ivan has been using these poppers for years, and yes I have been using them too, but today the Bar Nun brand made a believer out of me. Can you guess if I ordered a few???





This bluegill will get counted for my quest which puts me at 34 away from making the quest for this year. Congrats to Ivan for finding this fantastic popper that enabled him to have one of his better bluegill fishing days on Smith.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 



 

Fishing the Hares Ear Soft Hackle

With a lot of boat activity on Smith Lake this Memorial Day weekend I decided to give the tailrace a visit this morning at daylight. I walked down to access four around 6 AM and was met with heavy fog and a fairly fast flow. The generators had been off a couple of hours leaving the rocks quite slippery. It was good I had my wading staff at my side.

The dry action this time of year is limited on the Sipsey even in the early morning and late afternoon, so I started working a fairly fast run with a Prince Nymph size 20 under an indicator. After no interest at all I tied on the Seal Leech with no reaction as well. I did notice as I moved up the tailrace there were some activity subsurface meaning the trout were not taking anything on top but right below the surface. So, noticing that I tied on a size 20 dry PMD. I did get some runs at the fly but no takes. By now it is approaching 9 AM and I am getting some company above and below me. There was more subsurface activity located around a large boulder across from me, so I decided to tie on a size 20 soft hackle Hares Ear. I wanted the fly to float just below the surface as it traveled through a slow run near the boulder.

The end result of a good drift next to the boulder just as the fly passed next to the edge. The take was a simple swirl right below the surface. I missed numerous trout here in this area, mainly because this is something new for me. One learns something every time they wade into the water trout fishing and today was a learning curve for me. Rests assure I will use the soft hackle here again.

 

I'm interested in knowing how you guys would fish a wet fly in slow water or when trout are feeding subsurface?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 



 

Using The Big Boogle Popper to Mimic The Pop-R

The size 4 Boogle Bug is a big popping bug, which in reality mimics a Pop-R bait casting lure. The Pop-R is a go to lure on the bass tournament circuit for a lot of the bass fisherman, who want to land large bass on the surface.

 Tuesday morning on Smith I use the size 4 Boogle Bug as a Pop-R. To mimic the Pop-R one needs to use short jerks and a pause with the big Boogle Bug. On the pause is when the hits occur. I have seldom hooked a bass moving the Boogle Bug.

I have had some problems casting this size popper with a regular 6 weight fly line, so I spooled my 5/6 Redington Drift reel with the Scientific Anglers SeriesBass Bug fly line which turns over the big bugs with ease even in windy conditions.

 

The result of the pause when this nice spot nailed the olive green red eye Boogle Bug setting motionless. My 6 weight 9 ft. got quite a workout matching muscle with this fighting spot. This fish knows no boundaries when it comes to freeing itself from a hook popper.

This spot killed the popper right at daylight, in fact I could barely see the bug, but I could hear the explosion on the surface. Daylight is my favorite time to fish any surface popper; it seems to bring out the ugly in the spots on Smith. After the sun peaked over the horizon it was all over for the top action and time to head home. I hope I get a chance to challenge the big bluegills again next week.

Back to Work on my 2014 Bluegill Quest

I was back on Walker County Lake Tuesday working on my bluegill quest. I wanted to see if the live bait crowd had left any bluegills on the beds that I could take with the small poppers. I fished roughly 3 hours and landed some nice gills worthy of my count for this year. This is a daylight dust to dark lake and if one wants to catch anything at all you need to fish at those times.

The first bull gill of the morning with the popper stuck deep in its throat; awesome on the 4 weight.

Most all the bluegills were located directly under this overhanging tree. It was tricky casting placing the size 8 popper directly under the tree limbs. When the popper did make it to its target under the tree and next to the bank, it was just a matter of seconds before the popper disappeared and the fight was on. Sorry for the poor quality of this image.

Another nice bluegill with the popper stuffed inside it's mouth.

I thought I would enter this bluegill in the contest Mel’s friend is conducting on Facebook.

These five are worthy of the quest, I am now 35 away from my goal. 

Some fantastic table fare baked or deep fired in peanut oil. Add some fresh fries, cole slaw, hush puppies and of course a cold Coors; anybody hungry??

 

 

 

 

Fishing The Sink Tip Line for Super Size Bluegills

I guess all of you have noticed my long lapse in posting. Well road trips and baby sitting grandchildren has put a damper on my blogging. Since my wife retired in December we have been taking short little junkets to some places we never had the time to visit when she was working. I mentioned sometime back that my wife told me that when she retired she wanted to travel some, so we are making up for lost time. My blogging will be limited somewhat from this point, so if you wonder what happened to Bill in the week’s and months to come, just know he is traveling around with his college sweetheart here and there.  

I did manage to work a fishing trip in last week on Smith fishing for the spots and bluegills. This big bull gill was landed using a new method for me, which is fishing with a sink tip # 4 fast forward weight line. The sink tip as you know enables me to go deep when the top action isn’t happening, which was the case on this day. The Super Nymph was the fly which the fish inhaled deep into its throat. The disadvantage using the sink tip for me was the lost of flies in brush and rocks. I lost a couple of flies and one fish I never got to see, which I think was a nice spot.

I feel the sink tip will be a winner for me in the summer months on Smith, especially on the rock walls. This line is a weight 4 and one would assume you would use a 4 weight fly rod to cast it, but I found I can get the line up out of the water much better with a 5 weight line when casting. The sink rate on this line is tremendous and one can get to a depth of 20 ft. or better fast. I landed this bluegill in a 30 foot depth range.

Nice spot on the Boggle really early, but when the sun came up the bite stopped. I will count the big gill on my quest, I am now 40 away.