guidoStow

Awesome outing!

Hopefully good timing for me, I'll be based in Buzzards Bay this next week.

Temps are going to drop this week...

Awesome fish! Nice job.

Another local pond. Put in at 5:30. Water 75 air 56 but rising quickly. Lots of pads to work with little reward until I found this larry and had two misses by big pickerel.

Fishing in Mordor. Same pond. 5:00 start again but the lessening hours of day light made it plenty dark. But soon the sun was coming up and the blood red against the wildfire induced gray were quite unsettling. Water was 76 degrees, air was 64. Unfortunately the Bass were off to a different pattern today (if only I'd remembered to bring an approaching rainstorm with me...). I fished hard from top to about 8 feet down (but I'd brought a 10wt for pad duty so the rod with the S5/S7 line got bumped so I couldn't go the last bit...) but larry was quite disinterested. A feisty 18" Pickerel tried hard to save things by smashing a 4" bulkhead. I thought that would be the action for the day but two casts later a 9" Bluegill nailed the same fly. Forgot the phone, no pics.

Thanks! Google Pixel 8a. Straight from the camera.

After wenging about the heat, I had no excuses not to go out when it broke. Back to the new suburban pond. Put in at 5:00am, probably a bit late... Water was 82 degrees air was 71. Found fish on an edge and the surface bite on. Five bass 12-16" lost one that hit right at the boat (so I couldn't get a great hookset) that looked bigger. 2 psycho black crappies one of which came entirely out of the water to destroy the fly. 45 hot minutes and it was done. Much later had a bigger fish on I could not stop with a 8wt who buried herself in the pads and slipped the barbless hook. Then it turned fully off and I just beat the rain which started on the drive home.

Leader twist or line twist? Some flies just spin as you cast them and will twist your leader aggressively. Often poppers are the worst offenders, you can trim the elements that are out of balance (legs hackle or tails) or find another that casts with less spin. If it is line twist, that is often a product of the basic casting technique. Fixing technique is a tricky subject... A more pragmatic solution is to learn how to untwist it quickly: This trick was posted on the Gink and Gasoline blog. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N4O5YBSapRg Hope this helps! (I'd love to hear of a pond where fish are jumping into the boat...)

I'd be quite interested in hearing how you do on the fly, that's all I use. I have had a highly interrupted season but I'm hoping to be able to get out more consistently...

New lake, put in at sunrise. Air temp 70 degrees, water 78.

I caught a half dozen small smallmouth in a northern NH river last week. I'll be back up again after the 4th craziness subsides...

Hit my local pond this morning. Water was 70 degrees. Had follows and careful examinations from 8 LMB with out a single one sealing the deal. No SMB interest...

Vermont camping/fishing trip this last week. Ran the whole gamut of nature moments, vehicle breakdowns, wild weather and focused bite windows. Water was 64 to 71 over the week. The LMBs were in cabbage beds in 10' of water the SMBs and the Rock Bass were on cobbled shelves.

65-70 should be peak spawn. That's certainly warmer than I have seen it on the chilly pond I fish most.

And the water temp is just too cold for fish that still follow that theory

Interesting. I've always read that it was temp that was the driving factor... Thanks!

Did you happen to get a temperature reading at the Charles? It might have had a smidge of impact on the timing...

A couple more SMB before the swimmers crashed the party Water was just under 58 degrees so the long pre-spawn continues...

This spring has just been one set back after another...

Another suburban friday morning... Beat the rush hour traffic and was on the water by 7:00. Chill and overcast with a breeze. Water temp was had fallen back to 56 degrees.

A 4" bass streamer fly bumping the rocks in 20' of water...

T-storms before dawn delayed my start but I finally connected with a few more SMB today. Water was 57 degrees, air was around 50 and it was blowing...

I hit the west suburban pond yesterday. Bluebird indeed! One long follow from a LMB observed in the clear water but no contact. water temps started 52 going to 54. I did get this other brown fish...

Certainly funky weather...