This Scott is very sssssslllllloooooooooooooooowwwwwwww - you need to really let the rod do the work or your casts will not unfurl the line. I did not get a chance to try the rod out with a DT3, but I'll keep my eye out for other ponds once we settle in down south (WHO AM I KIDDING - INDIAN RIVER BOUND and I plan on stalking with an 8wt in hand during the waking hours!!!!)
Most of the lakes were wrapped in barbed wire or squarely placed inside golf courses - so no fishing. I did find one on Google Maps that was part of a municipal park so off I went. I lined up the Orvis SFT 1wt and used a green-peacock dub bead-head nymph. I ended up with 5 Bluegill in hand and 2 more that let go (I still crimp down the barbs). You can always count on bluegill!!! But all but one of the fish had some signs of a really hard life - sore red lips was the most common, but check out the missing eye and chewed up fins on this one guy. He had lost his eye awhile ago and had grown skin back inside the socket (or maybe it was born without an eye). Tough guy. And as always, the 1wt made these guys seem much bigger than they were - the skunk is gone!!! We are headed further south tomorrow - we'll park at Mayport, Florida for a little bit until I land a job (fingers crossed that it'll happen soon). I am looking forward to SUP surfing a new ULI that I got to replace the FAQ (stay tuned for that), and getting a bunch of saltwater fishing along the south jetty at the mouth of the St John's River. It's been about 20+ years since I fished that area - should be a fun upcoming two weeks!!!
According to Marlon I caught five of these guys (I stop counting after one). And this one liked the black ant imitation I tied up just a little too much (but I did get it out and the fish was unharmed - except for some "alien abduction" stories it can impress the lady bluegills with).
The story behind these windows is the "second" time we went to this shop, I was with the kids and there was a "lego" table next to the window. We were playing while La was looking around and I saw a bunch of bluegill hanging out in the canal. I hadn't reinvigorated my fishing quite yet so I just filed it in the back on my mind drawer. Seeing as how we are more than likely leaving this area and not coming back for any long term stay, I figured I should try and catch a few of the bluegill from that time long (three years or so) ago to close this item out. The bluegill (and the rest of the fish for that matter) weren't by the window - they were all under the big tree further North up the canal. This was a nice way to say "farewell" to the C & O Canal and the wonderful fishing it has offered me over the past few years - *Thanks*
Tagged three different species - the ubiquitous Bluegill, an eager "moving up the ladder" bucketmouth, and a Redear. The Superfine Touch 1 wt was the rod of choice (although I was contemplating the Helios 5wt to get through the headwind).
I became a much better flyrod caster here. The kids learned so much about the little things around them. We all learned about the changes brought about by the seasons. Thanks Lake Newport!
Makes you also wonder if these same species of sunfish were in this run back then, or if these are more recent transplants to these waters.
Sometimes you don't have to rig up the rod - but that doesn't mean everytime (or even most - let's keep that the exception ;)
Lined up the Leiderman Lamiglas 703/3 with the SA Supra DT3 - magic for lightweight flies. I had tied on some bigger/heavir flies to see what the limit was - didn't take much (Cheech's Lowfat Minnow in size 4 wacky hook was too big, the beadhead yarn bodied killer buggers in size 12 were too heavy). Still great fun casting/catching with this rod - who would have guessed I'd love casting a noodle!!!
The resident Canada Geese came around to check out what was getting the turtles all excited (kids = food). The young of the year were out swimming the lake. Noe went back to the house to grab some food for the turtles, but got to feed these guys instead.
