A Fun Day

[J. Rentch]

Yesterday four Free State Fly Fishers visited Unicorn Lake to enjoy a great day to be on the water. We were targeting panfish, pickerel, and bass. I could see the Lily Pads starting to emerge from the winter in the shallow water. The air temp was around 60-65 at 11:30 and water was 54 degrees. I started targeting Bluegills throwing a Double Humpy dry fly. Was throwing towards the shoreline with my 5wt. Was able to land 5 by the end of the day. I even caught a hungry Pickerel on the dry fly. Was able to net it before it bit through my 10# fluro tippet.

Later I switched to Pickerel with a red/yellow Bendback fly on my 7wt. I found several in the middle of the lake. These were in better shape than the first pickerel. I even found my 6th bluegill that inhaled the Bendback.DSCF0006 (7).jpg

Had a great time, finally after this miserable winter. Hope to find some more real soon.

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[Mark]

John,

That's a very nice bluegill. Too bad our FSFF bluegill contest doesn't start until 1 April.

Indeed, it was a good day to be on the water.

I did not catch any panfish -- just a small bass and 8 picks.

My two largest picks were on back-to-back casts of a yellow articulated crystal bugger:

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My other pickerel catches were only 14 to 16 inchers. But I caught my first topwater fish this year:

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My son had tied the above deerhair frog imitation. It worked!

Again, a good day for pond fishing.

[dsaavedra]

Nice bluegill John! That looks like a fun day, you had some great weather for it.