Had fun fishing Murphy City Hall pond for Bass this morning. Caught five Bass and a Bluegill. Largest Bass went 15" and 14". Did get a cool action shot of a Bass chasing another little Bass while fighting one on the line! Cool stuff... never had that happen before. Even saw the little Bass jump out of the water to get away! All went for a Foam Grasshopper!
Another round at Bethany this evening. Action was not as good as yesterday but it stayed steady. Caught Bass using the new - Redington Pursuit 4WT 8'. Rod feels good; too bad the hook sets were not in time. Missed a number of Bass. Started fishing a Foam Grasshopper in Size 8. Caught a couple; missed more than a couple. Switched to a Size 12 and was hooking them but kept losing the bigger ones when they threw the hook. Settled on a Size 10 and had more caught then missed with it. Liking the new fly rod; still liking the top water action on the Grasshoppers!
Was looking for another fly rod to go with a Ross 3/4 Weight Reel. Happened on a few fly rods on sale at Cabelas; this one caught my eye - Redington Pursuit 4wt 8' Fly Rod. Came with a Rod Tube, too. Sale price was $99, on check out, price rang up lower. Total price out the door came to $76! Gotta love it when Cabelas knock a price down, they do knock them down!
Here is a picture of the 9" Shellcracker that went for a Foam Grasshopper! Thought it was a Bass at first. This one made the Fish Bulletin Board... Cool beans!
Went back to Bethany Lakes Thursday for another round of fishing. Used the Foam Grasshopper Variant that has been working well lately. This round it continued to do well with 25 Bass and a Big Shellcracker caught and released. No Bruiser Bass but the Shellcracker did go 9" in length! Fun stuff!
Another round at Bethany this evening. Brought another Crawdad Pattern to test. Was able to get one Bass to take it, else action was slow. Switched to a Prince Nymph and started catching Bluegill and Sunfish; caught several and then decided to try a Grasshopper. Started with a Size 10 White Grasshopper. Caught a Bass, missed several others, and then caught one finally. Then, switched to a Size 8 Green Grasshopper. Ended up catching more Bass with more consistent hook sets! Fun stuff... Bass were liking Grasshoppers this round!
Tried a different Crawdad Pattern this evening. Made of Marabou and a Bead Chain for eyes. Caught several and lost one. More tweaking of the pattern but think we are getting close to a simple pattern that is easy to tie but effective still! Fun stuff.
Nice day, too nice not to go fishing. So, headed to Bethany to see what was biting this morning. Slow action but did catch a little Bass and then some Bluegill. Used a Strike Indicator and a Prince Nymph fished 1.5' below the indicator.
Fished Bethany Lakes this afternoon in hopes of trying a new Crawdad Pattern. Had a couple of strikes, and then lost the fishing fly. Switched to a White Grasshopper and hooked a few Bluegill and Bass; lost the White Grasshopper, so switched to a Yellow Grasshopper. Hood a few, missed a few... forgot that the Yellow Grasshopper was barbless... needed to keep constant pressure else fish was lost Had a good time, regardless!
Went with a Crawdad Pattern this morning and headed to Bethany. Caught four Bass, largest went 16" in length. Fun stuff... going to tweak the pattern a little more; think we may have our version of a simple but effective Crawdad Fishing Fly!