The fishing has been a repeat of my last few entries.  I’m catching a few bass in the 1 to 2 lb class mostly on flies but with one exception, the Shaw Grigsley baby craw plastic jig.  I’ve also caught a few nice channel cats mostly on flies, the clouser minnow in green and white.  However, Larry Tegtmeyer, on one of his visits, gave me a few of the flies that he apparently designed and made himself.  One of them really has proven itself to be a real fish catcher.  Its a streamer.  He designed it so that it appears like a wooly bugger head with a rabbit strip body.  The color is  a white head, twin eyes, and a tan body of feathers and a rabbit strip.  I tied it on after all else had failed that afternoon.  When I cast it out I had an immediate strike from a very large bass.  The bass took off like a bat out of h… and caught me completely off guard.  The bass headed straight for the bushes hanging along the shore and got off.  I really didn’t do a good job of trying to properly set the hook being mainly concerned with keeping it out of the bushes.  Exciting, yes!   Moving along I hung into another big bass in the same area.  This time I set the hook.  Again, the fish took off for the bushes and underwater roots.  I could not stop it.  With my holding onto the line, not allowing the fish to take any more line, the leader broke.  I lost another big bass, the exceptional fly, and felt totally exasperated.  I still have another of these flies and I wrote Larry of my experience and sent him a picture of it.  I’m saving the fly so that I don’t lose it and so that I can use it to find other flies with a similar pattern.  I also told Larry that I think he ought to patent the fly design.  Thanks Larry, you are one heck of a fly designer.

Your Friend 

Tight Lines

Jim

I went out today for a very short time.  The forecast was for rain, but it wasn’t raining when I decided to try it anyway.  I went out in my two man boat and fished very close to where I keep my boats just in case it did rain.  For the first half hour I tried my favorite flies, the clouster minnow, the baby craw hard back craw, a frog popper and a muddler minnow without a single strike.  I moved on down the shore within casting distance to hug up my flies and popper right up next to shore.  Most bass will be near the shore on these dark cloudy days.  Still no luck.  I did take along two spinning rods just in case the flies weren’t producing.  One with a Shaw Grigsby paddle tail worm (the one I used at our outing on Sunset Lake last to catch bass).  No luck with that either.  I switched to my Shaw Grigsby baby craw and BINGO, I got my first bass of about 1 lb.  Just a few yards away I cast again and hooked onto another bass but it was coming right toward me and I didn’t get a good hook set; he got off.  A little further on and again, right nest to shore, no more than a foot deep I hooked onto the bass shown here; a nice 4 lb bass.  Just before I landed him the rain started and then it poured.  I had on my rain suit but when I heard the thunder I decided no way.  I quickly got off the lake, packed it up and went home across and down the street. 

Tight Lines

Jim

The last two weeks have been only fair for most species of fish.  I have yet to find a fish bigger that the four lb bass that I mentioned in another segment.  However the crappie are improving in size, not as many, but bigger.  I’ve been catching some in the 10 to 12 inch range with this one at 15 1/2 inches.  Not a good picture I know, but it gives you an idea.  The smaller crappie seem to have gotten off the nests and have scattered all over the lake.  The bigger crappie are hitting where I couldn’t buy a bite before.  They are in water a little deeper and not right next to shore like the small ones were before.  Of course, the deepest part of this lake is only around 5 feet.

I’m finally catching some bass.  Most of them are small, between 1 and 2 lbs with an occasional 2 1/2 lb fish.  I caught six of these fish just the other afternoon.  I was using the hard shell craw baby fly for three bass and the Shaw Grigsby baby craw plastic jig for the others.  Using the fly though also catches some nice bluegill as a bonus.  I got six of them at between 8 and 9 inches.  They fight like crazy and are really fun when you hang onto one.  The hook on the Grigsby  is too big for the bluegill to be caught.  Crappie will also hit the fly but I have better luck using the clouster minnow fly for them.

Tight Lines

Jim