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I decided to go out on a hot day with only one fly, a hopper. But, I figured I'd better take more than one fly, ha. All the fish I landed today were on custom foam flies. The fish were pretty active but it's probably because I was drifting in some swift riffles. The water was pretty comfortable partly because the evenings are cooling off more and recent rains had refreshed the stream.
Surprisingly, I landed a carp on a flip-flop bug. Initially, I went out for bluegills but found a large pool full of carp and suckers. I caught some really small carp too. Flip-flop fly http://purposehere.blogspot.com/2009/06/flip-flop-popping-bug-for-bluegill-and.html
I landed 5 bass but did lose a huge one after pulling a King Kong fly out of his mouth as he headed down into a deep pool after he lunged after it. The Ozark bass were plentiful and gave a good fight. Some bass were clinging to the edge of the shaded stream but some were swimming out into the stream looking for a meal. I was kind of surprised, seeing as it was bright and sunny and the bream were more about looking at my fly than hitting it.
It is definitely hopper time. Snake time too. I saw 5 snakes today. Need to make a snake club.
Don't know if it will make you feel any better, but 99% of the snakes you'll run into on an Ozark stream are Northern Water Snakes (Nerodia sipedon). I include the scientific name in parentheses so you can look up a picture online if you want to compare to what you're seeing on the stream. They are pretty harmless, unless you're a fish... although they are often mistaken for Copperheads or Water Moccasins (Cottonmouths). Copperheads don't really hang out in the water- they're more forest critters. Cottonmouths don't care for cool flowing water- they're more swamp creatures. Snakes don't negatively affect fishing either- they eat the weak, injured, or sick. A healthy adult game fish has nothing to fear.
ReplyDeleteYou can check out my blog for lots of good snake info too. Please feel free to ask me questions or send me pictures for ID. I am a trained herpetologist... in other words a snake nerd.
NERD. Awesome information. Two of the snakes that I could identify are actually Nerodia Sipedon. I don't hurt them. I usually toss a few rocks or poke them with my rod.
ReplyDeleteI'm still gonna keep my eyes open for them snakes!!!
River
ReplyDeleteNice catch on the foam, was all the fish hitting on top, and was the takes soft or wild. The reason I am asking is the soft take may indicate they did not really want the fly, but just annoyed with it in the area. The violet take to me would indicate a kill to eat. I am going on a wading trip this weekend that may prove to be a soft and violet takes. Thanks for sharing
Bill, they were slamming the foam. I had on a big King Kong foam hopper with Elk Hair. A bass slammed it, took it to the bottom but I pulled it out of his mouth. I was casting towards the bank and drifting but the bass were hitting it about middle of the stream. Sometimes, they did a lot of watching and sometimes, they just came out of nowhere and hit it hard . . . that was yesterday. Today, they were popping it lightly or slashing it and then hitting it.
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