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10/7 - 10/9 Back to the freshwater . . .

1K views 0 replies 1 participant last post by  Quentin 
#1 ·
for a moment :D .

I have a hard time staying away from the coast on weekends in September and October, but I was home this weekend and spent a little time fishing some of my favorite local spots.

On Saturday I tried the river and found high but very clear water. I could see leaves on the bottom in places where I can seldom even see the bottom. Fishing was sort of slow, but I was too busy enjoying the day to worry about changing flies and presentations to try to catch fish. I started with the foam head diver because that's what I wanted to catch fish on, and then switched to a sink tip line and rabbit strip fly to try fishing deeper. After a while I still had no success and got snagged twice. Each time I was stuck solid and had to stick the rod into the water to push the fly off the snag, which is quite hazardous to the rod when the boat is in a current. I decided to switch back to the diver and finally got one of those hits and misses that get the adrenaline flowing. It wasn't a huge fish, and I don't even know if it was a bass or a pike, but to have a nice fish blow up on the fly when it's "just another cast" . . . :Eyecrazy: . I backed up the boat, got the camera ready and recorded a few follow-up casts hoping to get a video of the second attack but it never happened. One of these days I'll get a good one on video :D . A little later I had another pike follow and swipe at the the diver a couple times, and shortly before I got back to the launch site I caught a small largemouth that hit a couple casts in a row and finally got hooked so I didn't get skunked.

Sunday I went to the local lake, primarily looking for carp, and found very clear water that was mirror-calm at times. While stalking the shallows, I stumbled upon several nice largemouths that saw me before I saw them and spooked on the first cast or two. They were in sparse weeds in 3-5' of water. I thought about changing tactics and going for bass but stuck with carp because I wanted to catch something that really pulled (remember, I'm still in saltwater mode). Sometimes there is too much of a good thing: when I found the carp, there were so many that I kept spooking the ones nearby, which would spook the ones that were far enough away to try to cast at. Most of the fish that I saw approaching had just been spooked and were coming back to give me "the eye" (carp are like that :hihi: ). I did get some casts and finally hooked and landed a 6-7 lb carp, which went for my brown & olive woolly bugger before the 20 lb fish saw it :roll: . I was literally right on top of the two fish and it still took a few tries to drop the fly close enough. It's tough when they're too close! I was really surprised that they didn't spook right away, and on the third or fourth cast I dropped the fly right in front of the smaller fish. I didn't want to risk spooking both of them so I let the little one take the fly :D . It tried to drag me into the lily pads but I kept it on a short line and pulled it up when necessary. Not sure if I would have landed the 20#er in that area, especially on the 5wt with a 12lb leader!

On Monday I only fished a little from shore. Saw lots of sunfish and teased a few with a black beadhead woolly bugger. I was dangling the tail of the fly in the water and pulling it away as they charged it. It was pretty funny watching them crash into each other as they tried to get the fly. Also caught a small largemouth on the same fly dragged on the bottom but that was it for the day.

Q
 
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