A Day on the Water — Bass

  Wakely Lake is a long drive and a long way to drag a kayak full of fly gear just to land a few (6) bass12 to 16 inches.  I was busy with many smaller  bass, a couple bluegills and a pumpkinseed.    The best pattern was to cast Poppers to lily pad edges across deep, scattered, upward growing pond weed.  Then 3 pops and a pause.  Today, like last week, a Lime Chartreuse Bug Popper pattern was much better than black.  Fishing deep with a bead head Clouser (Popovic's Jiggy) in Chartreuse and White got a small pike and fast action on...

My secret Bluegill pond used to have very big Bluegills.  I have been seeing blue worm containers littering the banks for the last few years.  I am worried the big ones are gone and the gene pool is headed toward smaller Bluegills forever.   Fish were hitting a prototype #6 Black Bluegill Choker and getting hooked well, only a few hooked deep.  The foam head needed to be a bit bigger so it floats higher and the larger head momentarily can catch on the outside of their mouths so they can be hooked before they can gobble it down deep.  This...