Fishing Report 6/17/2014

I haven't been out casting, fishing or catching for the past few days - we had the packers and movers here getting our household goods out of the house and into non temporary storage (military speak for long term storage). It has been difficult purging things we don't need or haven't used in a long time, organizing items to make it easier for the packers to box, and separate what we are going to need for the next couple/few/several months while we figure out what our future holds (what job, where we will live, buy/rent, how close to water/surf/wind/fish we will be...) - pretty stressful. Well - I ended the dry spell today with a late afternoon session. Caught a 7-8" largemouth and a few hand sized bluegills. 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!!!

Fishing Report 6/10/2014

I took a break from fishing yesterday - don't want to burn out... but I'm back in the saddle today. I took out the Leiderman made, Lamiglas 7'0" 3wt, 3 piece. I actually grass cast it yesterday while the kids were at Tae Kwon Do (test cast with a RIO Perception and a RIO Gold), but I wanted to get it wet today. I lined it up with a SA Supra DT3. The rod cast wonderfully with the DT3! I'd call it 'relaxed' slow action, and with the DT3, it threw some sweet loops! This little bucketmouth was the first taker on this rod! He didn't have much mass to put a big bend in the rod, but fishing is fishing and beggars can't be choosers (on what bites). Better than a skunk. I moved spots to open up on my casts and I got hooked into something else. It pulled HARD and I even thought at one point I was not going to be able to turn the fish. After all the excitement, I pulled up this bull blueg! This Lamiglas rod is way too much fun with bluegills!!! All my hypothesis I've recently penned are even more true with this rod (1. Bluegill ounce for ounce are the hardest fighters out there; 2. If Bluegills were bigger, humans would not be at the top of the food chain). At the end, I lined it up with the RIO Gold again just to establish a reference - no contest. It will cast a Gold, but the form was off (a bit too heavy). I'll try it with the Perception again to see if there is a difference (but from the test casting results yesterday, I like the performance with the DT3 the best). What a sweet little rod (thanks Mark - rest easy knowing this one has a good home and it'll be used to wrestle panfish A LOT)!!!

Sunday Fishing - Dropping Tide at... Wait for it.... 4 Mile Run!!!

Yes - since everything else is still frozen, I spent the afternoon wading through 4 Mile Run. I don't mean to seem jaded about this - in fact I am grateful that I get to go fishing at all considering the average air temperature has been in the high 20's. I do mix it up by taking different rods and different lines - all to see if I can pair up a line and rod for the long haul. As I was walking through the river bed, I saw this gizzard shad resting - looks like something got a good hit on it - look behind the dorsal fin. Today I brought out the Scott F26533, a SA Supra DT3 and a RIO Gold WF3F. I started out walking upstream towards the outfall. I spent most of my time at the storm culvert with the WF3F line - bluegill, pumpkinseed, green sunfish and large mouth bass - the 4MR foursome. I did make it up to the outfall itself and caught a green sunfish that seemed to have a bad right eye. I lost a good fly about this same time - a small shrimp/clouser combo that sank well (bead chain eyes). On a back cast, the fly hit the rod and broke free - don't ask me where. I wasn't trying to pick up a foursome - I was actually trying to get a bona fide goldfish to take the fly. I switched flies out several times but didn't get the time of day from that fish. Next time I'll bring some Gulp Maggots - that'll do the trick (who doesn't like eating a maggot???...???). Goldilocks here actually had a couple of escorts - but they were much better camouflaged (brown and golden - like the bottom of 4MR). I moved back down stream and fished by the bridges/power line island. I lost count of how many bluegill hits I got - probably 50+. I had switched out the WF3F for the DT3F line. When there wasn't any wind blowing, and I got a good lift on the line, the DT3 cast really well. But it was less forgiving of mistakes (which forced me to keep my form up)