Wednesday, July 6, 2011

Smallies on the Fly 7/5

Smallies on the Fly from Mike McNeese on Vimeo.



Tonight, Mike and I decided to hit a local flow that is known for its smallmouth bass. We met at a local shopping center and headed for the river for the last couple of hours of daylight. Although this was a short trip, it was still an eventful adventure.
We arrived on the river before 7pm and quickly rigged up for our journey upstream. Mike was throwing a wooly bugger and I had a small crayfish pattern to toss around the stream. Mike was first on the board with a fiesty smallmouth. These fish aren't huge by any sense of the imagination, but they think they are. I am not sure there is a harding fighting fish than a river smallmouth bass.
I had not had a strike and decided to work a slack pool behind some dead fall. I had to sling shot a cast in between two large dead logs and it was immediately hammered by a broad shouldered smally. It was a miracle that I was even able to get that fish out of that mess, but I did. I am not sure how big he was, but it would be the best fish of the day.
We continued to work our way upstream. We caught some small fish and then decided to switch to top water flies. I was throwing a hairbug and Mike was throwing a popper. We had several strikes and I eventually hooked a fish the grabbed the fly right in front of Mike. I was glad he was able to see it, but no video.
We caught a few more fish before heading back down stream. On our way back to the car, we found a mink hunting through the weeds. We were able to call him close by sqealing at him. He doesn's show up well on camera, but it sure was cool when he caming running down the bank and pooped his little white-chinned head up out of the weeds. Later, we watched bat after bat leave their sanctuary in one of the overpassing bridges.
It was another fantastic evening spent with a good friend, a fly rod, and some fish.

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