I do find it a bit ironic that my fantastic camping/fishing trip started out last weekend doing something I normally would shun off for something a bit more, I don’t know—Me.
~Little Bassilicious~
But I went to another lake with Slayer (not his real name), some good friends, the kiddoes and spent a couple of days fishing for Bass (gasp, your fault Terri) crap-ezz and the elusive lakey type trout.
The trout dissed me, but hoo-boy the Bass were on full topwater action. I pulled out my one and only popper the first night and I couldn’t NOT catch fish. Maybe it’s the stars, maybe it was fairy fishing dust or maybe Bass are just suckers for dry flies. Either way, dare I say, it was a Bassilicious bonanza…..
~Kaitlyn's Little Bass~
I caught Bass while Slayer filled his crap-ezz bucket to the brim so he could later slave away cutting fillets. Catch and release really does carry additional benefits beyond conservation. If you don’t keep anything, you can’t be guilt-ed into cleaning fish. Miss Kaitlyn also caught a lot of fish both Bass and crappie, enjoying whatever hit her line which seemed to happen A LOT.
Somehow I managed to make that one little frog popper live until the last night I was on the lake. That’s the problem with coming under prepared in the fly department. If you know you only have one magic fly there’s an edge to every single cast. I couldn’t help but think (over and over) Will this be the time I snap off or will I just catch another little Bass?
~Bass on a Popper~
My fun came to an abrupt stop when I set the hook a bit to hard and a lucky Bass swam off with my little piece of fishing magic. I quickly dug through the fly boxes I had brought on the boat, but me, the trout loving disciple, was lacking in sparkles, rubber legs and the unmistakable form of a floating foam frog head.
Good God, does this mean I need to buy yet another fly box and stuff it full of Bass paraphernalia? I think I’ll blame this blog. My open mind and expanding fishing list is a direct side effect of writing publicly. That infectious after effect should be put into a disclaimer section.
Anyway, back to the lost fly. I wasn’t about to sit in the boat all night with my fly-less line sitting on my lap quietly wiping tears off my check. So I pulled out a—-don’t laugh—- big old fat dry salmon fly. I tied that sucker on and ignored the laughter swirling around the boat. Desperation calls for desperate measures. I tossed it out and proceeded to scoot it across the water in the same sort of top water action as the popper.
Crap-ezz on the Salmon Fly
The Bass ignored it…….but……Cha-ching! I quickly became the Crappie Queen. That little result dropped a few jaws on the boat, but I claimed I knew exactly what I was doing the whole time. (fake it till you make it) So there you go fellow warm water fisherman. Want to catch Crappie on the top water? Tie on a fat salmon fly, scoot it across the water like a popper and you’ll impress anyone around with your mad skills.
See, for once I’m a helpful blogger. I performed a true field test gone good.
Now that I think about it, maybe the Salmon Fly usage was an omen. A good one…..I have to admit, although the fishing was considered “awesome” I was excited to ditch the lake stuff and get up the road to the Salmon stomping grounds. I think all those little fish were just a warm up. A time to get the arm loosened up for the big time that was coming my direction.
The Salmon experience gets it’s own blog entry =)
Rebecca
