Went to fish below a dam Saturday morning. The target was white bass. When we first got there, I was a little intimidated.
This was big water, and I'm a small water kind of guy. Luckily the plan was to make a few casts towards the bank and then head to some creeks close by.
To set the stage, it was extremely cold and windy. Water temp was 52 degrees. So much for "warmwater" fishing. I thought I might have brought too big of a jacket, I was wrong. I couldn't have had enough jackets. That wind cut right through to the bone. Needless to say, casting wasn't easy. It was chuck and duck casting. So after three or four "casts" I finally connect. It felt like a nice size fish.
Well, I was wrong. But at least the skunk was off. Also, this was my first ever white bass. I was excited to have finally added another species to the growing list of fly-caught fish. Then, the guy that took me said, "that's probably the smallest one I've caught here." :evil: Well, so much for my short-lived excitement. We make a few more casts and nothing. So we head on to a side creek.
I decided to change to my 5wt with a small white/chartreuse clouser (sz10).
It doesn't take long before a fish slams my fly.
Then another hit...
A crappie was a welcome surprise. It seemed to alternate between catching a couple of white bass and a couple crappie for a while.
The creek....
The action was pretty steady. My favorite part of the day was this boat of spin fisherman that came up right next to us (because they saw we were catching fish) and proceeded to cast over where we were casting. We continued to catch fish, and they caught nothing. :lol:
After I donated a couple flies and was out of my clousers, I tied on a white zonker and added some weight. I knew that shad were a predominate food source, so anything white should work.
First cast, Bam!
Second cast....
We each caught well over 30 white bass, all small ones, and probably 10-15 crappie. A lot of other boats we passed were throwing those damn alabama rigs. Those things are ridiculous, but I digress. The catching was good and I look forward to going some day when the 2lb white bass are everywhere like that. The guy I went with told me that the 2lbers were the norm for him in the past! :shock:
Today I wanted to try out my new waders, so I headed for the trout stream. The zip-front was a nice addition.
Water was pretty calm and slow.
Started off with a pretty consistently successful fly on this river...
I fished for almost 2 hours with only a few missed hits. I made my way to the riverbank and decided to fill up on casting fluid.
Apparently, that was all I needed. Two casts later..
Continued catching a fish every 5 minutes or so for the next hour.
A storm was lurking, so I decided to end on a high note and head back and get some rest.
Another good weekend spent getting my fix. It'll be two more weeks before I get to wet a line again. I hope when I do, a smallmouth will be on the other end.
