After almost three months of recovering from a stroke, surgery and Balance
Therapy, I finally got to wet a line yesterday afternoon. We almost canceled
when it started to rain but no thunder so we decided to go.
I have been promising my Balance Therapist to take him fishing for Smallmouths.
He is a fairly new Fly fisherman and has never caught a Smallie on a fly rod.
I finally got to where I felt I could wade so we went yesterday afternoon.
When we got to Crooked Creek, we found the creek was pretty high from the rain
a couple of days ago and I was real leery about wading it. As there is no way
to fish it from the bank, I finally decided to give it a try. To my surprise,
the current was not as strong as I thought it would be. I decided to tie on a
sz 8 Chili Pepper and gave Jason a sz 12 Peacock and Bronze along with a couple
of Chili Peppers. He tied on the P&B and we waded in.
Almost immediately, Jason hooked into his first Smallie. It was not a very big
one but it was a Smallmouth. I finally waded into my position and in a few
casts caught a Roch. Then in the next few casts a real nice Smallmouth. Jason
was catching some Long Ears and a couple of Roach. We kind of separated and I
waded up to the first riffle. I caught no more fish from the time I left Jason
till the riffle. It was real slow. When I got to the riffle, I caught a nice
Smallmouth, then another and still another. Had a couple of Long Ear Sunfish
along with them.
Catching at the riffle slowed down so I moved up a bit above the riffle. I had
noticed Jason was also catching a few fish, not sure what they were. Being that
the water was high, it flowed into a ditch that is normally dry. The water was
real murky on the ditch but it looked fishy.
Got up on the gravel bar and made a cast. Hooked up with a large Long Ear. Then
a Goggle Eye and a Rock bass. A few more casts brought me a 8" Smallmouth.
I cast the Chili Pepper to the upper end and let it sink a bit. Raised the rod
and it was solid. I was using my 5 wt bamboo rod so I was not going to force
it. Not being able to see more than in inch or two below the surface, I figured
I was hung on a branch or log. I worked the rod a bit and finally started to
raise the something. No movement at all, just dead weight. I raised the rod a
bit more thinking I might of had a branch or something and did not want to
loose my Chili Pepper. Well to my surprise, up came a carp just like a
submarine. Full body from head to tail. I saw that it was hooked in the mouth.
Within seconds, he rolled, broke me off and was gone with my Chili Pepper. With
no exaggeration, this carp was at least 2 feet long, it was a monster. Tied on
another Chili Pepper and made a few more casts to see if I could get it to take
the fly. No dice but I did catch a few more Sunfish. Just as I was leaving to
head back down to Jason, I saw
the carp come to the surface and roll again, I think he was trying to get rid
if the fly. Heading back down to Jason, I caught a few more fish, both Gills
and a few Roach and a couple of smaller Smallmouths. As I got to Jason, I made
a cast just above him and hooked up. This I know was the best fish of the day.
It turned to be the biggest Smallmouth I had caught on this trip. I would
guess it to be about 12" and fat as a pig. By this time I was ready to quit, I
was really getting tired. Made a few more casts and quit. Needless to say, it
was a real good afternoon on the creek.
Talking to Jason on the way home, he commented that the Chili Pepper was the
best fly of the day. He caught most of the Smallmouths on the Pepper. He had
tried several other flies with no hits except one White fly. The P&B was the
second best.
We will do it again soon I hope.
Arkansas Tony
--~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~
You received this message because you are subscribed to the "VFB Mail" group.
To post to this group, send email to vfb-mail@googlegroups.com
To unsubscribe from this group, send email to
vfb-mail-unsubscr...@googlegroups.com
For more options, visit this group at
http://groups.google.com/group/vfb-mail?hl=en
VFB Mail is sponsored by Line's End Inc at http://www.linesend.com
-~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
