At the ramp a police officer stopped by to make sure I was legal, and I was, sort of. Today I fished out of my Step Father's pontoon again. It is registered with a sticker, but he never put the Fl numbers on it. The officer told me I should really have them visible. I told him I was selling it and was just trying to get a few trips in before someone else takes the boat. So, he let me go. As he walked away, he said, "Do you have a whistle"? Yes, in my pfd I do. And off he went.
I launched and headed up stream about a mile and a half. As the trolling motor was pulling me up, I could hear bluegill popping behind me. But I was focused and did not want to stop because I was on a mission and wanted to fish my way back down.
Both of my 5 weight rods were with me. One was rigged with a #8 popper and the other with a little bead head fly I whipped up the other night. They are pictured below.
My mission for this morning was to break my dependency of the popper. We are going to go with a straight nymph. Not popper/ dropper combo. Yes- I live on the edge. It is a dangerous life, but I ain't scared.
I arrive at my destination and reach for- the popper. I feel so dirty. Yet it feels so good. Cast, set, wait, pop, wait, pop, nothing. Cast, set, wait, pop, wait, Bam!. Okay, it was not quite a Bam!, but I am hooked up on a little gill. It is pictured below. But I can't do this anymore. I need to step away from the pipe; and after I release the little bugger, I reel the line in and switch to the nymph rod.
The nymphs I tied were very simple. I like vibrant colors, so in lieu of the normal brass bead I opted for chartreuse and pink. The chartreuse fly's are simply #12 nymph hooks with marabou tails, olive dubbing and a wrap of gold flashabou. The pink are pink bead heads with cream dubbing and red craft fur. Quick and simple.
On my third cast I was hooked up. I would cast, count to five, short strip (2-3 inches), rest, repeat. The takes were very gentle. I don't think I ever felt the hit. Most of my takes were found as I picked up to recast the fly. I was watching my line closely and never saw any indication of the strike. They were all on the pick up of the fly line, if that makes any sense.
One observation on my part is I really need to lower the power I am applying to the cast. These little flies are very light and I did have a learning curve of untangling some messes on the tippet to fly line connection. In all, it was a good morning. And I had many gills landed on the nymph. I actually enjoyed it so much I think I am going to get back to my roots and focus on the freshwater fishing for the foreseeable future. The may not be broad shouldered redfish. But I think I have more fun fly fishing the sweetwater.
Hope to have some more reports with some bigger fish soon.
