August Heat and Frogs

Gurgling Frogs and Bass

A couple of hours to troll the banks in the August heat, seemed like the right time to tie on a frog.  One Gurgling Frog carried the night for a half dozen top-water crashing bass. 

A Day on the Water

Colored Up & Full Kype

Saturday was spent on the water & the fish cooperated dawn-to-dusk.

Most fish were taken on nymphs.  Three fish came up for a caddis dry, but honestly focused on nymphs for most of the day.

 The Rainbow above was on a #18 Ruby Midge, as did 6-8 others.  

The Ruby Midge 

The RP Starling wet took fish throughout the day, yet oddly they were all browns?

The RP Starling

The "Ralph's Little Pine" accounted for a couple during the heat of the day.

Ralph's Little Pine

The largest fish of the day was a 22" bow with a broom for a tail and huge kype.  A long fight and being alone precluded a pic but it ended the day in good fashion.  He took the "Little Crappie Fly" under an indicator.  

Little Crappie Fly

Fish took everything from dry flies, to wets, streamers and nymphs. A great day on water with not a soul in sight. 

Blues & Kings In The Surf

Blues & Kings In The Surf

I fly fish 95% of my time on the water.  But in the surf, its all about casting the big rods.  

This year found the Bluefish and Kings plentiful.  Cocktail blues are fillets waiting to happen.  They were all over cut bunker.

Kingfish are quite possibly the best eating of all.  Bloodworm Fishbites were the ticket.

But the excitement of the trip was a 40+ inch span 50-60lb Cow-nosed Ray.  A 30 minute fight on an 8' medium action rod and 20lb line. The ray would be assisted back into the wash and I would be assisted towards a chair and a beer. 

No flies were harmed during this fishing trip.

Evening Colors

Evening Colors

At 95 degrees I figured to hunt the shaded bank until near sunset, then point the Cumberland towards the lily clusters in open water.  Expecting a few bass to show late, the activity was less than expected with only a few rises. The highlight being a 3-4lb fish the dogged hard in the weeds, than after clearing the weeds gave 3 good jump to show off and promptly spit my WOG back at me.

The Gills on the other hand lit up in size and color as the sun went lower.

I nice way to wrap up the day.

Morning WOG Report

Morning WOG Report

This morning brought mid 80's with a light wind.  The wind was substantial enough to push all of the algae to one side of the pond, making one half fishable for top water flies, and the other half a mess. 

The Black WOG proved to be the bug of choice.

Oddly enough, only one gill came to hand.  It was as if the water was void of them.  

About a dozen bass in all, but most of them pounders. Three decent fish did choose to chase the WOG though.

All-n-All a good morning.

MAXIMA #$!&^$!! Tippet!

One-&-Done

I seldom ever post negative on products. However, after 7.......again 7 Wogs broke off pulling them loose from lily pads & two bass well over 3 lbs broke off......and all at the knot?

So'long Maxima

I am the furthest thing from a gear snob. I build all of my warmwater leaders with standard Stren mono. And nearly all of my warm and cold water tippet is Stren Flourocast line.  Swear by it. Landed more 20"+ trout on 4lb Flourocast to begin to doubt it.  But I ran out of both 8 & 10lb on my last outing and could not find replacements. So while at Basspro I figured I would try the Maxima Ultragreen.  Having had good luck years ago with Chameleon for steelhead out west, I figured it would fill in nicely. 

I was wrong.

Thinking maybe the 10# was a bad spool...I switched to the 8#.  Same results.  

 

One things for certain.....I know what I will be using this winter to tie up Xmas decorations.

My usual warm-water leader and tippet 

This one miraculously held the knot.  

Happy 4th!

A Happy and Safe 4th!