I tied up several of these today. Obviously, they are for bass and panfish but more than likely, if you know me, it's for panfish - big ol' rock bass, warmouth or bluegills. What can I say? I'm always in the mood to fly fish. Especially, when the last outing was awesome. It's always that last good trip out there that gets ya' thinking about heading back out again.
On Saturday, I was catching a lot of big panfish in riffles. I'm thinking these riffles were about 1 ft. to about 4ft. It was probably a medium to light riffle - heavy rains being a few weeks back. The riffles I was fly fishing were shaded but low, overhanging trees. There was also brush and branches in the stream in which the fish were taking cover. The temperature outside was 70 degrees and the water temperature was about 60 - we had a dip back into a cold spell that night. I was slapping my fly out about 8 to 10 feet out from where I waded. Sometimes, the popping bug was hit right away but most times, it drifted before the fish slammed it. I could see those big boys following the drift. They would come out of hiding, chase it and pounce. A big pounce it was too. They way those panfish pounced, they made me thing of some bass I previously caught in which the fish got ticked I slammed his home with a bug again. The best thing to do in riffles isn't necessarily to cast the water and immediately pop it. You may need to wait for a few shy guys. There's a reason those big panfish got HUGE - they are thinkers . . . and lookers. I hate lookers!! I get worked up and love to chum the waters with a popper because I can't wait for action. But, it's good to take it easy to because isn't it just fishing??
I've been tying up a bunch of flies to sell. I'm gonna get a good stockpile going. Hope I can keep myself out of them. Tight lines!!
