How awesome would it be to tie a squirrel fly pattern and have an angry bass smack it off the topwater? A large part of me believes that this animal died from some type of disease, however there is the curious side of me that wants to believe that this squirrel fell from a tree and into the lake. And while desperately trying to swim to shore it just happens to swim across a bass nest and bam! repeated head shakes and multiple dives the squirrel gets spit out and floats to shore. I like that story.
Today my co-worker and fellow angler Jack decided to assault the bass on our way home from work. We arrived at the lake around 1:00pm and left around 2:15pm. I tied on my size 10 purple wooly bugger again since I have been doing well with it lately. It was a perfect bass fishing afternoon with calm wind and warm sunny weather.
I scouted the middle lake where I had last seen some large bass defending their fry. It had just been four days since I have last fished here and the large bass have moved on and the fry has already dispersed. We have experienced random cold fronts recently and hopefully this has not affected the spawn cycle or killed the fry. I have read that a sudden cold front can lower the surface temperature quickly and kill the fry when the water temperature drops 50 degrees Fahrenheit and below. At least three nests seemed abandoned and the fish were not home. I eventually sighted a small-medium sized bass holding in a shallow nest close to shore. After about five casts the bass stubbornly took my fly.
This bass is smaller than the ones I caught this past Monday. Nevertheless, it gave a good fight with head shakes and a few jumps. There was a larger bass just outside of the nest that was reluctant to take my fly. I proceeded to walk the shoreline and sight fish for cruising bass and their nests. There were hardly any bass still holding close to their nest. What I mostly observed were bass on the move and I spotted a decent sized bass cruising about 20 feet from the shore. I cast just beyond the bass and stripped the streamer at a medium retrieve. Wash and repeat about a dozen times and I kept collecting pond slime on my fly. The bass was interested and pursued my fly on every cast however there was so much slime that it created a 6 inch slime tail and the bass was biting the slime instead of the marabou and hook. I cleaned off the fly for one final attempt to catch this bass and when it hit, it hit hard. As I was pausing between strips the bass hit like it was no longer messing around. It ran and took my fly line to the reel, after several hard runs and aerial attempts to escape it submitted to me.
Something fell from the tree and onto Jack's arm, which seemed to slightly startle him.
It was an eyed hawk moth (Smerinthus ocellata). The "eyes" can be seen on the hind wings. I was mesmerized by the size of the moth and became distracted from fishing for a moment.
After regaining focus, I decided to hop over to the east lake and try a bassy looking area for one final catch before leaving. The edge of the tules held a hovering bass fry and while the water was dark and murky, I felt there was a bass lurking beneath. I gave the hole to Jack and after several casts and no strikes, he decided to try another spot. I was confident that there was a bass nearby and I positioned myself for a better angle with my fly rod and gave it a few casts. It didn't take many casts to produce a strike and the fight was on. This fish actually fought pretty hard for its size. I was surprised that it was the smallest bass of the day, however it looked healthy and photographed well.
For only an hour of fishing, this place is a bargain. I paid three bucks at the front kiosk and caught and released three fish in an hour. It just cant get better than that! What a great beginning to a weekend.
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