My flycasting skills are probably as good as any other average Joe. Been fly fishing for around 18 years, in-shore sight casting, blind casting (when can't be sighted) from a canoe or shoreline for bass (LM and peacock), pickerel, northern pike. Trout and off-shore species are about the only fish I haven't gotten into via the long rod. Retired to Boynton Beach 6 years ago and live on one of those water catchment ditches which our development calls a lake.
The "lake" is 6 years old, has a middle depth of around 15', is about 1X2 football fields, has a littoral at both ends and is nice and clean. Plenty of birds, frogs, mussels, snails, snakes, and there are about 7 species of fish in the water: LM, red Mayan cichlids, blue gill, catfish, crappy, tilapia, "minnows." LMs as big as 7-8 have been taken and released by some of the guys who use either live bait and/or lures. My biggest on the fly was around 6#. Sounds great, right? Clean lake with plenty of fish right outside my door. Well, here's my problem:
I'm not particularly into the fighting of the fish, it is the "take" that gets to me. So, whenever the water is relatively calm, I'm out there with my 5 wt at sun rise and sun set, fishing almost exclusively with topwater stuff (eg, gurglers, poppers, sliders). My casts are usually along the banks, anywhere from 1 to 20' out, or in and around the littoral. Although I do catch fish, their size and number are nowhere where I think they should be. And when one of the conventional caster is there with me, he will inevitably catch more fish than me.
What I'm trying to get at is: I know that I can (and have) caught nice fish there with plastic worms and on occasion with a zara spook or a skittle pop, but why am I having so much trouble catching fishing on the surface? They all don't have to be LMs, I also use small surface stuff for fish other than LMs. Where's the action? Oh yeah, although LMs do crash the banks, I haven't seen anything that would reallly shake my knees...yet.
So, guys, how about helping me regain some of my sanity
The "lake" is 6 years old, has a middle depth of around 15', is about 1X2 football fields, has a littoral at both ends and is nice and clean. Plenty of birds, frogs, mussels, snails, snakes, and there are about 7 species of fish in the water: LM, red Mayan cichlids, blue gill, catfish, crappy, tilapia, "minnows." LMs as big as 7-8 have been taken and released by some of the guys who use either live bait and/or lures. My biggest on the fly was around 6#. Sounds great, right? Clean lake with plenty of fish right outside my door. Well, here's my problem:
I'm not particularly into the fighting of the fish, it is the "take" that gets to me. So, whenever the water is relatively calm, I'm out there with my 5 wt at sun rise and sun set, fishing almost exclusively with topwater stuff (eg, gurglers, poppers, sliders). My casts are usually along the banks, anywhere from 1 to 20' out, or in and around the littoral. Although I do catch fish, their size and number are nowhere where I think they should be. And when one of the conventional caster is there with me, he will inevitably catch more fish than me.
What I'm trying to get at is: I know that I can (and have) caught nice fish there with plastic worms and on occasion with a zara spook or a skittle pop, but why am I having so much trouble catching fishing on the surface? They all don't have to be LMs, I also use small surface stuff for fish other than LMs. Where's the action? Oh yeah, although LMs do crash the banks, I haven't seen anything that would reallly shake my knees...yet.
So, guys, how about helping me regain some of my sanity