Fishing Lake "X" and upstream part 1

[Travis C.]

Went out yesterday to stretch the oars a bit and hopefully the fly line as well.

Started out the morning at 5am until 8:30am chucking a frog pattern with several boils and hookups. There were a ton of minnows about 3/4 inch long swimming around and fish all over seemed to be running through them. Fully intending on catching a topwater bite stuck to the frog most the morning.

Equip used: 7wt flyrod WF line with a 2x leader and foam rubber leg frog.
Equip used: 5wt flyrod WF line with a 4x leader and #10 BH Wooly bugger.

Here is a few pics of the bass and bug. Not much size but a lot of fun no less.







Switched over to a black wooly bugger before leaving to try and imitate the minnows and ended with a gill.

[Travis C.]

Here is the upstream part.

Knowing from the morning that the lake was full of minnows, I came prepared to just fish a minnow imitation on a spinning rod. This was around 2pm in the heat of the day and fished about 45 mins around fallen timber.

equip: 6'6" spinning rod with 6lb test mono and banjo minnows.

These fish were considerably bigger and I got to see them come up out of nowhere to eat it on all but one.

[Reel Tune]

Nice work Travis, hopefully soon you will be able to get into the larger bass with the fly rod.

[Travis C.]

Originally Posted by MidTNKayakAngler

Nice work Travis, hopefully soon you will be able to get into the larger bass with the fly rod.

Thanks...I have yet to take it to Old Hickory for a real go at them. I can catch them with regular gear there so its just a matter of sucking it up and leaving other at home or being sure to pack it as well.

[Reel Tune]

It's hard for me to commit to just taking a fly rod also.

[Travis C.]

There is big bass in the places I was for this thead as well. I know a bunch of 4-6lbers couple 8's and at least one 10 caught over the years. Just haven't pegged them on a fly rod there.

[nomad60]

Lake X, eh?

Way to go in this heat.

[Greasy Ham]

Nice catches Travis. Heard of anyone catching any keeper crappie this year at Lake "x"? Last I was there some guys were catching a bunch of 9 inchers but no keepers.

[Travis C.]

Originally Posted by Greasy Ham

Nice catches Travis. Heard of anyone catching any keeper crappie this year at Lake "x"? Last I was there some guys were catching a bunch of 9 inchers but no keepers.

Most of the time I fish/catch them is late fall and late winter. Have heard of at least one catching some but that was long before this heat wave ever got here.

Now that the minnows are everywhere, you can bet the crappie are chasing them at some point during the day. There are plenty of keepers to be caught just have to locate them.

Maybe next trip I will soley fish for crappie and will have a better idea.

[Alphahawk]

Nice fish!!

[tylerreid1234]

Are those Banjo Minnows i see? Haha nice fish!

[bd-]

Try a clouser dace or a kreelex minnow when bass are busting schools of small baitfish like that. Fish it just a few feet under the surface. Another bass fly you need to try is a superbugger in about a size 6.

Bass can be tough to catch in lakes with a flyrod because it is hard to reach as deep as you can with conventional tackle. Switching to an intermediate line instead of a floating line helps.

[Travis C.]

Originally Posted by tylerreid1234

Are those Banjo Minnows i see? Haha nice fish!

Yep. I have a whole big box of them and they work as advertised.

I don't fished them all the time but when certain factors fall into place they get used with great results. There are a couple other ways I fish them very successfully that is not how your "supposed to" but that is something to figure out by trial and error.

[Travis C.]

Originally Posted by bd-

Try a clouser dace or a kreelex minnow when bass are busting schools of small baitfish like that. Fish it just a few feet under the surface. Another bass fly you need to try is a superbugger in about a size 6.

Bass can be tough to catch in lakes with a flyrod because it is hard to reach as deep as you can with conventional tackle. Switching to an intermediate line instead of a floating line helps.

I will have to drag the full sink out more. Rarely do I fish it because of hardly every catching fish stripping streamers. But I guess that sentence has the answer in it though...have to fish it to catch something on it.

Can I pick up some dace's down at the shop?

[Kiss my Bass]

Here is my bass contribution, caught a few of these couple days ago at Williamsport right off the bank under cover watermellon crawfish.