Fishing with my fly rod is very slow and with plastics or spinners … nothing.  I’ve tried everything and fished both fast and slow with very little success; a few small bass and bluegills.  Some of the bass will attack the Betts popper but don’t hook up.  I think the weather has something to do with it, very clear and mostly calm.  The only success I’ve had is just before dark.  I’ve tried for crappie as well using in line spinners, i.e., Mepps, and Beetle spins in different colors with no results.  I know there are a lot of crappie in the lake so if the bass and bluegill are slow the next time out I might try some small crappie jigs and tubes to get some action but I refuse to use live bait for the or most any other fish except channel cats, and then it’s night crawlers.  I did try some of the new poppers that I purchased from Breambugs.com. and they are top quality poppers from Betts and Accardo, but no matter what popper I used the fish didn’t cooperate.  I guess I’ll have to wait for cooler fall weather.  However, it may be that the water is still very dirty in the pond because if you read about my outing with Ivan the water was clear and the bass and bluegill did cooperate.  The water in the pond clears up some in the fall and fishing there does improve every year.  The pond is very shallow, by the way, between 4 and 5 feet so it stays dirty most of the summer… a real challenge.  Ivan and I are planning to go the a local lake this Saturday in my canoe.  The lake is small, 30 acres, and very difficult to access because it is surrounded by steep bluffs, but we did find a possible opening where access may be achieved.  We’ll see.  Were both senior citizens but with the drive to explore this seemingly inaccessible lake we hope we will be successful.

Tight lines

Jim

Thought I’d try the pond again for some bass.  I took out five rods with my favorite lures  for this pond, wave worm, green lizard, Zoom worn, spring spinner with the "swimmin minnow", and my fly rod with the Betts popper, size 8.  I managed to catch only two fish, a nice channel cat and one 1/2 lb bluegill all on my Betts popper.  The cat weighed about 3 lbs.  I was out for about two hours on a beautiful bright afternoon.  I did get a few more hits but no connections.  Here’s a picture of the cat.

Tight lines

Jim

Went out fishing with Ivan after a long dry spell of his not fishing and we had a great time as usual.  He’s great company and a good and dedicated fisherman.  Ivan and I have been friends for close to twenty years and have enjoyed many fishing trips together over the years.  Ivan too, wanted to learn how to fly cast in the last few outings and has accomplished some pretty good skills at it.  On this day we caught about twenty fish which included bass and bluegill and one catfish almost all on the Arbogast 1/32 oz hula popper.  I wish that Arbogast would start making them again. We did try plugs and plastic worms, the " swimmin minnow " and a some other poppers with  little success.  I managed to catch three bass on the rattle trap in chartuse and red.  Ivan caught all of his fish on his popper.  We did see something happen that we had never seen before:  I was bringing in a small bluegill on my popper when out of the weed patch a fairly good size bass came up and chased my bluegill, thrashing around, and finally caught it.  Needless to say I didn’t get either one of the fish but it was exciting to see.  All in all we had another memorable time again.  Next time I’ll get some pictures.  We were fishing at a local small lake so that we didn’t have to pay a lot for gas.  Fishing can be good close by so if you haven’t tried your local ponds/lakes you might be surprised at what you’re missing.

Tight lines

Jim

I took my 5 year old granddaughter out fishing in my two man boat on the pond and she loved it.  She wanted to steer the boat so I put her on my lap and around and around we went until I taught her how to steer.  After that we continued to go around and around!  But  eventually we were able to get our bearings and get to a fishing spot and try for some bluegills.  And she succeeded as you can see in the picture.  Once again she was delighted especially when I told her we would return it to the water to catch again some other day.  A future fisher person for sure.  If you haven’t taken your grandkids out fishing, try it YOU’LL be delighted.

Tight lines

Jim

A beautiful day in the lower 80’s so , I went fishing in the pond.  I tried all my regular baits, Yum Craw, etc., but came up with nothing for the first 1 1/2 hours.  Switched to an inline spinner, a mepps, gold with a feathered tail in yellow, red and green.  That got me two crappie.  Switched to  a Beetle-spin spinner except with the "Swimmin Minnow" instead of the beetle.  That got two bass 1 to 1/12 lbs, three bluegill (nice 9"), and two more crappie.  By then it was getting late so I headed in to try for a catfish in the last 1/2 hour.  Caught a nice 4 pounder on a nightcrawler.  I had to cut the leader because the fish swallowed it before I let it go.  According to all the experts the fish will probably be O.K. because the fishes stomach acids will dissolve the hook.   Fish are apparently stronger inside than we are, I hope anyway.  I always release my fish and hope what the experts say is true.  That’s it for now.

Tight Lines

Jim

My daughter has a good idea; why don’t you, my readers, list their favorite lures, maybe the top ten that you catch most of your fish on and the circumstances, i.e., water color, depth, etc. Mine are:

1. Fly fishing:

a. 1/32 oz hula popper (black/white) clear water

b. Betts frog (one size only) clear water

c. Swimmin Minnow (2 inch murky water

d. Rapala 1 1/2 ” floating shad minnow. Black and silver. clear water

2. Spinning/Baitcasting:

a. Yum baby craw, murky water (small split shot)

b. Kitani straight worm (black/red) murky water and clear water (no weight)

c. Zoom ribbon tail worm (pumkinseed) murky water (small split shot)

d. Zoom ribbon tail lizard (green) murky water and clear water with or without weight

e. Rapala (clear) x-rap medium diver, clear water, five feet

f. Rapala Floating jerk bait 4″ (clear water) black and silver

These are the lures I can usually rely on but not always. I do use spinners and jigs depending on the fishes moods.

The day was very nice yesterday, about 85 degrees with a light wind so I decided to give the sub/div pond a try for bass again. I started out at about 2:45 P.M. in my two man boat. The first hour bought nothing but as I reached the east end of the lake I cast under some over hanging bushes and got my first bass, a 2 1/2 pounder. Continuing on I caught two more bass about 12″ long. Now it was going on 4:30 P.M. and I started circling to the north side and heading back west. Nearly half way back to where I keep my boat I hooked into two more bass but only landed one , another 12 “. Continuing on I caught one more 12″ bass. Reaching my favorite catfish area I thought I’d try for one and got a nice three pounder. During this outing I used a Kitani black and red worm, a green Riverside lizard, a frog colored tube by Riverside, and a Yum baby craw in pumpkinseed. All my fish were caught on the Yum crawfish except the catfish, I got him on a nightcrawler. I can usually catch a nice bass in that area but got no hits. I quit at 5:30 P.M. to get home for supper. By the way, Joe, the date on my camera is wrong, I’ll have to correct it. The water is still very dirty with very low visibility so I had to use the spray on bass attractant and fish the baby craw very slowly with an occasional hop. That’s when the bass hit it.

Tight lines

Jim