Found Lure

I found this guy on the upper Illinois River last week.  My day started with trout fishing on the lower Illinois River, then I headed up river to launch my canoe and fish for bass and what not.  I caught a hand full of trout but couldn't quite get with the program.  The trout that I did catch, took a bead head something or other.  I wasn't using a strike indicator (bobber) and was having difficulty seeing the strikes. For the strikes that I did see, my reaction time was just too slow and I was missing fish left and right. To compound the problem, I don't think that my fly was getting deep enough fast enough.  Just as my frustration level was getting to the point of throwing a tizzy tantrum,  some old lady came up to the spot that I had just been fishing and proceeded to fling worms on a rod that looked better suited for tuna from a lawn chair.  Within 10 minutes I suspect that her arm was wearing out from all the fish she was catching.  As for trout fishing this day, I was ill prepared and not in the right frame of mind.  As I left I heard someone yell "Make sure that stringer is tied down good,  there are a lot fish on it!" It was definitely time to go.

At this juncture on the fishing trip I felt that paddling away from people would put me in a better place mentally and physically.  I decided to hop in my car and travel upstream a good ways and launch my canoe north of Tenkiller Lake on the Illinois river and then paddle upstream for about a mile.  This suited me better.  The water was warm enough that I didn't need waders, which is much more comfortable and the paddling was great.  The feeling a being miles away from everything just adds to the sense of adventure.  After paddling upstream I found a nice sandbar in the middle of the river that had a nice 50 yard run wedged between the bar and the shore.  The run had several deep holes and loads of cover.  This was perfect and I beached my canoe and fished on foot from the sand bar.  I caught several smallmouth, largemouth,  sand bass (one was near 2 lbs), and dang near a gozillion bream.  Just as I was headed back downstream to go home I found this lure.  Also, I forgot to mention the deer, red belly woodpecker, and osprey that I saw.   The day finished up nicely.

My Second Catfish on a Fly

 

I paddeld up a creek a few days ago looking for white bass.  I caught a few and also caught this guy.   

Found Lure

I hadn't found any lures in a while so I was excited to find this one the other day. I guess with warm weather I should start finding more.

Pat Caught a Fish

Nice bass caught on a plastic worm.  Pat could have dragged a shoe lace and caught fish this day!

Pat caught a fish!  Actually he caught a bunch of fish.  We had a great day on a little farm pond not too far outside Tulsa.   The pond that we fished is one of my favorite ponds for a variety of reasons.  The first reason is the place is loaded with dumb fish.  Yesterday, I can’t tell you how many times I made poor casts that came crashing down on the water and still a fish would come up and take the fly.  A place like this can make the most novice of fishers seem like a pro.  The second reason I love this pond is the fact that it is hard to fish without a small boat.  It has steep banks with thick trees and shrubs surrounding it.  There are two little cuts or coves in the pond, that when you are in them, it seems like you are back in some far off swamp.  Pat and I fish this pond out of my canoe, which adds to the sense of adventure. 

Nonstop action on twitchy flies.

As far as fishing partners go, Pat and I have a pretty good relationship.  He doesn’t fling feathers, which is a good thing because I am not sure both of us whipping fly rods around in a canoe at the same time would work too well.  The other thing that makes Pat a good fishing partner is that he doesn’t whine too much about me standing up in the canoe while I fish and zing flies past his ear.  I think I've only hit him once. 

On this trip Pat caught the most and the biggest fish of the day.  I mostly fished little surface twitchy flies and had plenty of action catching small bream and bass.  I figured I would give Pat a chance to catch one as big as the bass I caught out of the pond some time back.

I caught this bass in the pond a little over a year ago on a popper.  The fish was next to a sheer rock wall over 8ft of water.
Glory Days. I think this is my best bass to date.

Another Hobby Lobby Fly

I love this fly.  I tied it up the other day and took it out to one of the city ponds this morning.  I only had about 45 minutes to cast, but I was chomping at the bit to try it out.  The thing I like about the fly is it's made with stuff from Hobby Lobby.  Sharpies and craft fur.  Real simple to tie and it works too.  I caught three bass this morning.  All of them were small, but still, catching fish before work on flies you have tied up is great.