Bass in the Rain

[DanMarino]

Hiked down to the river to try for some bass. Fished my regular spots and only had a small largemouth take my fly and come off. It was one of those times where I didn't realize a fish ate the fly and I didn't really get a good hook set due to slack line from the current.

After no other action I hiked through the woods to a pond about a mile away.

Used this bullet head darter I tied up a month ago.



Caught 4 tiny largemouth bass.
The pond water was very clear and it was neat seeing the bass take the darter and eat it aggressively and swim away. I was using a 5 wt so it was fun and neat seeing fish eat a fly I tied up.







I like the action of the darter when tied on a loop knot. It has a nice wiggle on the pause when stripping it. All of the bass took it on the pause.

Looking forward to using this fly on the Upper Potomac for smallies. It seems like it will be very similar to fishing a curly tailed grub within the top 12 inches of water.

[DanMarino]

This is the fly compared to a 1/8 ounce jig.

[Mark]

Tom,

We seem to be competing to catch the smallest fish possible on the fly.

Here's my contribution from Thursday from an Eastern Shore pond:

B.jpg

Congrats on your bass. That's the species I targeted (unsuccessfully) but I couldn't resist the foam spider when I saw the bluegills eating insects on the surface.

[DanMarino]

Foam spiders are fun to fish. Pink spiders are the best color I've used.

[Mark]

It wasn't quite a match the hatch situation but the foam spider worked.

This is a photo of the insect the bluegills were eating.

P1020634.JPG

That's my fly line on the water in the lower right to give you idea of how small the bugs were. The foam spider was a lot larger than the natural food but it still enticed the hungry bluegills.

[DanMarino]

No bluegills yet for me this year Mark. I threw a spider 2 weekends ago for a bit, but no action.