Bluegills Galore

The rain does not want to stop but that's just fine as far as I'm concerned. Foul weather just seems to turn the fish on. The obvious downside is that our tailwaters will be generating for several more weeks, but I'm okay with that as well. After 2+ years of severe drought, too much rain is definitely preferred over not enough rain.

This afternoon I made a quick run over to the nearby lake I've been hitting more frequently lately. When I arrived, a gentle rain was breaking up the surface so it was hard to spot fish. I decided to try something different today. Instead of just carrying one rod I carried two, one for 'gills and one for bass. My four weight was rigged with two simple flies, a #10 white Wooly Bugger variation and trailing behind was a #16 purple Simi Seal Leech. The rain began to taper off and I started spotting a few fish in close to the bank. After varying the retrieve, I settled on fairly fast 6 inch strips and the fish were soon jumping all over my flies. Early on, the white fly was killer but as the afternoon wore on, the fish became increasingly keyed on the smaller leech pattern and wanted it fished slower.

I never landed any good bass although I did hook a couple on the little leech. A bass on a #16 hook and 6X tippet doesn't stay on long without a lot of luck and while mine was good, it wasn't that good. I had to be satisfied with a bunch of feisty bluegill which were actually a lot of fun since most of them were caught while sight fishing. One of the large specimens of the afternoon had been gorging on earthworms. When I landed the fish, it commenced spitting up worm after worm. I finally got it to stay still long enough to get a picture with a nice juicy worm dangling out of its mouth.

Now I know why worms worked so well back when I was a little kid with a cane poll and bobber. Apparently all the rain brought the worms out and they got washed into the lake where the fish were waiting for the feast.

As the rain came down harder, I started thinking about how nice it would be to go home and dry out. Finally I gave in and called it a day. Not a bad way to spend a few hours in the afternoon!