Another cold day at the fishing grounds. High tide was at 0533 and I was at 4MR at 0730. As I have been using my fixed line rods a lot recently, I decided to breakout my Orvis Superfine Touch 8'6" 5wt and keep the rust off casting an adjustable length line. I tied up a foam sheet popper on a #14 hook and a squirmy wormy on a #16. I used the squirmy wormy until the bluegill tore the back half off. I ended up catching 10+ bluegs all blind casting and feeling the hits. Because of the extended reach, I was able to stay in ankle deep water and reach out to the opposite shore, and run the fly through the pool on the downstream side of the outfall. After the squirmy wormy took on battle damage, I switched out flies to the foam popper. I had epoxied on small googlie eyes instead of using the normal eye stickers and the body was pretty thick. Casting this fly brought me back to the sunny days of summer where you can count of dramatic hits from all the members of the sunfish family - which by the way includes the many species of bass. This fly took in more bluegs and two largemouths - and every take was a dramatic display of splashing water, rapidly snapping mouths and thrashing fins. Okay - maybe it wasn't that dramatic, but during the opening days of winter and all the gray, overcast skies and chilling temperatures it brings, the one thing that brings back the feeling of fishing on a warm summer afternoon is getting surface hits on a popper - what a wonderful resource 4MR has turned out to be (you just have to put yourself in a suspended state of awareness and ignore the fact that you are wading in the outfall of a sewage treatment plant)... what is the saying - desperate times require desperate measures??? I have gradually grown to greatly appreciate the slower casting mechanics of full flex rods - the Superfine Touch delivered smiles the entire session. In addition to the multiple bluegs and the two bass, I ended up with a few Green Sunfish and one Pumpkinseed brought to hand. I saw a huge channel cat sitting in a deeper hole, but just like the others before it - I could not entice it to leave it's slumber with the small flies I was pitching. Next time I'll bring out the Gulp crickets (catfish crack). It just hit me that we're not even in winter yet... the solstice isn't until December 22... I miss summer...
Another cold day at the fishing grounds. High tide was at 0533 and I was at 4MR at 0730. As I have been using my fixed line rods a lot recently, I decided to breakout my Orvis Superfine Touch 8'6" 5wt and keep the rust off casting an adjustable length line. I tied up a foam sheet popper on a #14 hook and a squirmy wormy on a #16. I used the squirmy wormy until the bluegill tore the back half off. I ended up catching 10+ bluegs all blind casting and feeling the hits. Because of the extended reach, I was able to stay in ankle deep water and reach out to the opposite shore, and run the fly through the pool on the downstream side of the outfall. After the squirmy wormy took on battle damage, I switched out flies to the foam popper. I had epoxied on small googlie eyes instead of using the normal eye stickers and the body was pretty thick. Casting this fly brought me back to the sunny days of summer where you can count of dramatic hits from all the members of the sunfish family - which by the way includes the many species of bass. This fly took in more bluegs and two largemouths - and every take was a dramatic display of splashing water, rapidly snapping mouths and thrashing fins. Okay - maybe it wasn't that dramatic, but during the opening days of winter and all the gray, overcast skies and chilling temperatures it brings, the one thing that brings back the feeling of fishing on a warm summer afternoon is getting surface hits on a popper - what a wonderful resource 4MR has turned out to be (you just have to put yourself in a suspended state of awareness and ignore the fact that you are wading in the outfall of a sewage treatment plant)... what is the saying - desperate times require desperate measures??? I have gradually grown to greatly appreciate the slower casting mechanics of full flex rods - the Superfine Touch delivered smiles the entire session. In addition to the multiple bluegs and the two bass, I ended up with a few Green Sunfish and one Pumpkinseed brought to hand. I saw a huge channel cat sitting in a deeper hole, but just like the others before it - I could not entice it to leave it's slumber with the small flies I was pitching. Next time I'll bring out the Gulp crickets (catfish crack). It just hit me that we're not even in winter yet... the solstice isn't until December 22... I miss summer...
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