Today's Fishin' Report
I may get rained out the rest of the day, but, so-far-so-good.
Smallmouth Bass
Pound-for-pound, there's nothing in fresh water that fights like a smallie! And on a fly rod, nothin' like it.
Largemouth Bass; note the fly -- a hellgrammite imitation (Dobson Fly larva). It's about two inches long so you can judge the length of the bass.
Same fly; Bluegill Sunfish.
In all, fishing that afternoon, I caught quite a few nice fish (all returned unharmed). I've fished this lake since the year 2000, sometimes from my boat (12' jonboat) and sometimes from the shore. This past Friday and Saturday, I went back to a pattern I tried (with success) about 2 years go. I'm convinced that it's worth using regularly going forward.
The pattern consists of flies that absorb water and sink slowly. I use a 6 or 8 pound leader of about 6-7 feet in length and strip the line in about three feet at a time, letting the fly sink slowly for a few seconds before stripping in more line. It seems that the fish take the fly as it sinks much more than when it "swims" (when I'm stripping it in).
Smaller flies (1-2") work better than larger ones but I'll be trying larger ones next time back.
My first choice of lures/flies when fly fishing any lake, is the "popper". This floats and gurgles and it's great fun to see fish break the surface to take one, but, fish won't always feed at the surface, so, I'll use what I just described when I can't get a popper to work.
FYI, I pinch down the barbs on all hooks to make releasing a fish easier (and also the remove hooks from fingers).
I plan to start tying flies again soon (my old fingers will just have to go along with that).
A bass popper
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Going to head out again and try to beat the rain.
Very nice Mac. If I get one more job done around here, I might actually be able to get out on the lake (I keep hoping anyway). Here's a couple of the best indicators that Spring is here.
The next is one that was low technical difficulty, since it was shot indoors; but, I really liked the result. Even though it was sitting in sunlight, I used a flash to remove shadows and cut the glare from the window. This is the Orchid that I got my wife for Mother's Day.
Love the T-shirt, and a gorgeous orchid extremely well photographed.
It's been at least 15 years since I felt the exhilaration of fighting a frisky bass on the line. Thanks for the memories, A.Mac.
jwc,
My parents used to do the same thing with Herring in the Northern part of Lake Huron. Since a Herring has a very soft mouth and extremely good eyes, they had to use a very small hook and about 300 yards of 3# test line. They would run out against the drag for the length of the line several times before coming in to the boat close enough to be netted. If you pull too hard, the hook tears out and you lose the fish. Some of those Herring weighed close to twenty pounds.
Buzz and Mac,
The thing that got me was that, if you just look at the flower with the naked eye, all you can see is a smooth pink color, pretty but nothing like this. Only in the picture can you see the veins in the petals. A clear case of the picture enhancing the natural beauty of the flower.
The T-Shirt is a hand me down from his four year old brother, Greyson, who also would gladly trade his sister (either one of them), or beat the crap out of them, for a bike. This afternoon, Greyson found out that beating the crap out of his five year old sister was a dangerous proposition. He tried to take a toy away from her and; not only did she give him the back of her hand, knocking him on his ass, but then he had to sit quietly with his dad watching the NFL draft (which he finds boring) instead of playing. We all have to learn those little lessons (usually the hard way).
Hey, who's taking the shot?
Do the herrings come pickled or in cream sauce?
My wife took the shot with her iPhone.
And why am I replying at 2:23 AM which I never do? Because we came home to a water heater that apparently lost its ability to hold water -- unlike our basement currently. I am in the process of draining what's left in the tank so I can turn the water back on.
Instead of sleeping.
Awesome pic's TGA !!
Great fish AMac makes me itch to get a line wet.
Buzz,
My dad would eat that stuff, but I noticed that he always absorbed a fair amount of beer before he did.
They did the Herring fishing from a campground on the lake in late July and early August, when the fish made their spawning run. This particular campground had room for about 60 campsites, of which at least five or six were my uncles, aunts and cousins. Herring eat Mayflies from the surface of the water. Some of the fishermen would use artificial flies, but most would catch them the night before. They would lay a white sheet on the ground after dark and put a Coleman lantern in the center. Then they would collect the flies that landed on the sheet and put them into a small cage. Of course, while they were waiting for the flies to land, all the guys would sit around in a big circle, drink beer and tell hunting and fishing stories; some of which may actually have been true, I've never heard of anyone shooting a 24 point Buck, but it may have happened...somewhere. The fly would be put on the hook, cast out and allowed to float, much like a fly fisherman does it. After the fish hit, if you were good enough to keep it on the line, it would take about an hour to bring it in. Most evenings the whole camp would have a cookout, with fried Herring being the main course (cooked over a campfire in large cast iron fry pans). That, plus the potato salad made by many of the ladies, made a dinner fit for a king.
They fished in a place called St. Martin's Bay, almost directly North of Mackinac Island. Since that area is subject to sudden storms and they were using fairly small boats, the invariable rule was that, if you saw black clouds building up on the horizon, get ashore FAST. If you didn't, your boat would be swamped, your engine drowned, and, if the wind pushed you out into the main lake, your next stop would be the offshore islands of Northern Ontario. Canadian Coast Guard would pick up one or two every couple of years who didn't pay attention.
Still dealing with the plumbing thing; naturally it's Sunday and Mothers' Day, so, the plumber won't be here until 8:00AM tomorrow.
The main water in the house is on and I've shut the valve going to the hot water heater. I've connected a garden hose to the drainage valve at the base of the water heater and run it to a wash tub. It's been draining for hours and hours! How can that be? A 40 gallon water heater should drain in, what, 30 minutes to an hour? If the water heater is leaking or rotted, why isn't there any more water on the floor?
And here's one I really can't figure out. All of the sinks' spigots work -- cold water only -- BUT NEITHER SHOWER IS GETTING ANY WATER.
The toilets flush, the garden hoses outside are getting water -- WTF?
I was supposed to go to my daughter's house today. I could shut off the main water valve but I think I should hang around home just in case.
Any ideas anyone?
I checked and what I thought was a shut off valve from the main water supply to the water heater was actually the output pipe to the showers; my ignorance. As soon as I reopened that valve, the showers got water but apparently, there's a bad pipe fitting because the leaking began immediately, from the top not the bottom, so, I turned off the valve and the leak stopped.
Thanks Gunny; much appreciated.
The plumber's coming in the morning and, even if the fitting is the problem, I'll have it fixed, and, because the water heater is about 15-20 years old, I'm going to have a new one installed. It's time.
Since everything is quiet (for now), I'll put up pictures of some of the other fish from yesterday (along with the smallies already posted).
I hope none went the way of the Edmund Fitzgerald?
Added 2 more pictures and some information for anyone interested.
Mac,
I've never done C&R so there's something I've always wondered about. I understand filing or crushing the barb so it doesn't do more damage, but how do you keep the fish from swallowing the hook? Even a barbless hook will do some major damage once it is swallowed, and it's pretty hard to do emergency surgery on a fish that won't hold still. You could lose a lot of patients that way.
I don't think that any died at that period (late 70's), although there were a few who drifted for several days while the CG was out looking for them. That bay does have a reputation as a killer, though. Earlier (in the 50's), at least four went to the bottom. In a storm, it can be a nasty piece of water. In calm weather, it's really beautiful there, though.
My dad got a pretty bad scare. One year, my wife and I came up and brought my 14 foot runabout with a 40 HP Johnson motor. This was much bigger and sturdier than the 10 foot soap dish with the 7 horse motor that he usually used. He and my wife went out one morning in our boat and the weather started kicking up. My dad knew about the weather so they were headed back in within a minute. He got about a quarter of a mile when the motor quit. Dad totally freaked out, and tried everything to get it started. He didn't think to ask my wife what she thought was wrong; after all, she was a girl and couldn't possibly know anything about engines. She just smiled, walked to the stern, unplugged the gas line from one tank and plugged it into the other one. Engine started immediately. What!! Did he figure I was dumb enough to let him go out there without enough gas to get back???
I recall using a plug that looked a bit like the bass popper myself, and sometimes I would cast with lures but mostly I caught the bass still-fishing with worms. One of the best fishing spots was just a few hundred feet in front of my cottage where the lake bed dropped down into a lot of weeds. The good thing about the lake my cottage was on was that it was limestone based, notwithstanding the amount of granite in the area, so it counter-acted the acid rain coming from the south-west (the USA) with the prevailing winds. That meant I could eat a lot of the fish I caught. There were guidelines published by Ontario's Lands and Forests department for most of the lakes of any size as to what and how much was safe to eat. As well, we only needed a simple below-the-sink ceramic filter to make the lake water potable, although we did prefer water from a nearby spring for drinking. Those were the days.
Using artificials rather than bait is the key. An artificial fly (or lure) has the following properties;
Size
Profile
Color
Behavior (Movement)
Depth at which it's fished
What it does not have is scent and flavor (unless it sprayed, dipped, impregnated/injected with such).
Once a fish strikes an artificial lure/fly, it knows it's inedible and will try to throw it off, etc. . This is not to say that lures are not sometimes swallowed; but a fish will not try to eat it once in its mouth.
There are hook removers/pliers/hemostats that push down on the hook and grips it so it can be extracted. Barbless hooks offer no resistance (hang ups) to the push downward.
I rarely if ever kill a fish but it does happen.
Gonna' say good night -- I didn't sleep much last night and will be up early with the plumber (I hope).
Gunny,
Too bad we're in different parts of the U.S., I think it would be a hoot if the two of us got to go fishing together; politics aside, it'd be fun.
Who knows, maybe a bunch of us can "hook" up one time.
Kavika and I and some others have talked about some kind of fishing gathering; who knows?