16 July 2020
The weather is hot, I’m a bit tired, so I thought I would just head to the river for a bit. First step, set low expectations, just enjoy some time in the outdoors, fresh air, nice scenery, and hope to get a bite. I had purchased some new UV curing fly tying resin, basically a UV light will harden the resin, I really like this stuff.
So I went to the dam and put on a zebra midge first thing, thought I’d give it a shot. I found my little honey hole and began fishing. I started getting bites right off the bat, I don’t typically use a strike indicator (it’s basically a bobber if you don’t fly fish) and try to get hook set by feel. Early on I went probably 10 cast in a row getting a bite, finally, I got one. (disclaimer: as I am in the river and my coordination skills and vision have dramatically taken a hit over the years, I do not pull out my phone for pics, so no evidence whatsoever. This was about a 8-10 incher, I probably coulda just said 9”, but I like even numbers.
The first one was good and reminded me why I need to get a net, and I continued on with the bites. Seriously it was ridiculous my catch to bite ration Sunday, I did hook a quite a few that got off. Then I hooked a nice one, I set the hook, it shook it’s head and released. I kept casting and was not getting hits. After around 10 cast of no bites I thought, something is not right. I checked and that last nice one had broken my line. It coulda been because that fish was very good size, or because my tippet is so small, like 2.7 lb test or so.
Fortunately I had another zebra midge, put it on, same thing began, caught a couple, missed a bunch, and then hooked a nice one, fought just a minute, then released, yup, broken line. Note to self, you cannot horse one in with that small of a tippet.
I then go with a squirmy wormy, bites start up again. Not as frequent, but still plentiful, I caught a couple and finally decided to call it a day. The ones caught were in the neighborhood of 10”, the ones that broke off, appeared greater than 15”, but probably not by much. It was a real good day with the sun shining, the river cool, and the fresh air to breath, it’s a no mask required in the river.
Hoping the temperature doesn’t kick back up again, but not looking forward to any cold weather either. Hope to do a bit more fishing this fall, only two rods left to build for now and I am beginning to get a little faster as some of the weaves are real similar or the same as others. Hope you got out and that you caught a few fish, have a great week and God bless.
08 Aug 2020
Sorry, been trying to write this for a couple of days, but man it’s been busy. So July was a bust, the heat was impressive and the rod building has been busy. Enough excuses, the daughter and I finally made it out to the lake.
We saw a lot of bait fish schooling when we launched and thought, why not catch some. Well, as we got closer, they were all very small. We threw the net a few times and a few different spots, but couldn’t find any bait that was in the keeping class. So we just decided to bass fish and keep the bucktail at the ready.
It was still hot and started off slow, but I did get one to the boat. Kayleigh determined that if it didn’t make my hands smell like fish, then it didn’t count. I hooked another, but it didn’t make it near the boat. It was really slow until the sun began to set, then we started getting a few hits. Kay was on the Ned Rig and I was using the TRD Crawz. She ended the night catching a few more than me, I think she landed about 3 bass and a catfish. I did catch a big catfish and tried to change the rule to whoever caught the biggest one, but she would not have any of that. We don’t have a pic of my catfish as while she was using the lip gripper, it got off. I did ask if that was intentional, she denied it and still does as I am writing this.
You’re probably wondering, man, that was short, to the point and not much of a journal. Well, we caught a few fish, I got whooped, and as we get back to the boat ramp, the adventure began.
I had thought we had gotten pretty good at this, at a minimum, top half of boat loaders anyway. I have read that tribulation worketh patience, well, patience got some work in that night. She backed in the trailer, I loaded, she pulled up a hair cause it just didn’t feel right, and we were off by just a few inches. Backed in a bit, tried to adjust for a bit (fortunately no one was there to launch or pull out) and through the adjusting, we were now off by a few feet, like real bad, the boat was on the railing. Backed back in to relaunch, same event occurs. We spend I don’t know how long, but felt like forever, getting the boat straight on the trailer. I was mere inches from wiping out and falling into the lake, it’s dark, and tribulation was in full effect.
We finally got everything squared away, oh and I forgot to mention a buncha folks were fishing at the dock. They were fantastic, offered assistance, held a light for us, were just great. And they were so kind that I did not even hear any laughter during this process. Now I am sure that I was the source of entertainment for folks later, which I think is great. I like the idea of making others smile every once in a while. I would like to extend to them a big thank you and I am now offering my sincere apologies for some videos I have laughed at in the past.
The fishing was good, time with at least a portion of my family was good, the launching was good, the departure, well……….. I hope everyone had a great week. And if you see someone struggling on the ramp, try not to snicker too much, I may write something about you on here, if it’s me you’re laughing at.
