Playing the numbers game.

I should've called this blog the doubtful fisherman.  Seeing as how I just got back from the river, I'm standing in my damp shorts and wolfing down a pickle.  I do enjoy fly fishing very much.  I never did well with terminal tackle and I don't have patience for fishing with live bait.  After moving to this area, I spent a little time fishing on the Beaver Lake tailwaters.  It was OK catching small to medium trout but I ran into some smallmouth bass closer to home and fell in love with them.  That, and those giant panfish that keep jumping on the line.

I never was good at catching a lot of smallmouth bass.  I never really caught many large ones - I don't think I've ever caught more than 10 largemouth or smallmouth bass exceeding 2 or 3 lbs on a lake or stream.  I love panfish because they keep me occupied and I can even wow my own friends with fat ones - as they still say I catch small bass.

That being tossed out there for your digestion . . .  I am contemplating reality.  One in which I can't really fish a large smallmouth stream - one in which a number of other people have success.  I broke my new TFO fly rod when the heavily weighted fly came back on a wicked, tight cast under some timber and branches.  The rod just bent over.  I brushed it off.  My fault.  Not big deal, I can maybe get a replacement for that rod section.  I went home, grabbed another new rod and brushed myself off.  I headed to the main stream this time.

I don't like this river but there are lots of good sized smallmouth bass.  I don't like wading it due to gravel and large limestone?? covered in slick stuff.  Lots of floaters too.  More than a few already floated past.  I rarely catch fish on this part of the watershed but other catch "toads".  The only bass came hours later on a purple Crazy Dad.  She centered up on it as I drifted it towards her and she took it - but I couldn't tell.  It had stopped drifting and I jiggled it a few times.  She then moved to the nest.  I pulled up and she raised up.  Then she shook and the fly flew out of the water - only about 2 feet deep here.  I had no slack on the line.  She was huge and beautiful.

I fish some pretty primo smallmouth waters.  I play the numbers game. I go out weekly or more in the hopes of catching at least one.  And I always did - until my secret spot filled in with gravel and another became private property.  I tossed Double Deceivers, crawdads, Clousers, Shuckers, etc.  but they are on their beds and I'm wondering if the action folks have seen it pre-spawn.  Sometimes, I can catch 20 smallmouth with most being small.  And that's OK.  But I wonder if I only catch smallmouth bass because of luck and timing.  Sometimes, I work pretty dang hard to pull a bass out of a hole - even if I don't see one but have inkling.

Let me ask you guys these questions.  What defines us as fly fishers?  How can a fisherman tell when "enough is enough"?

I always get outfished - especially trout and especially if I go out with more than one person.  I look like a goof talking up my game and showing photos - only to crash and burn such as at a bass tournament I joined last summer.  I caught several bass the night before and none the day it mattered.  I see instagram photos of people catching bass after bass and nice ones too.  And yet, it seems that I relegated to be the "small-stream"/skinny water guy.

I crave large smallmouth bass but can't seem to put myself on them.  Folks don't really want to meet up either.  I do as they do - cast as they cast and am stuck wondering . . . how the heck can I take my own kids fishing when I can't represent as a father should?  I remember going out with my father for smallmouth and white bass and trout.  Only 2 of those trips ever yielded fish for me.  I take my kids out and they get bored after not catching anything - even then, it's all small stuff.  The kids want to camp and fish and I am afraid to even show them how to fly fish.  I can talk game to them too but can still barely produce with them around.

Anyways, wah wah wah.  Everything in life has come the hard way. . . . why this, lol.  Probably why Bill doesn't leave comments anymore, he he.