Bassing around

I ventured out for a few hours to go fishing for some bass at our local dam today. I started out with some poppers and the smaller fish were hitting the poppers all the time. It really was fun targeting individual fish and then to see a few small bass all storm at the fly as soon as it lands. The bigger fish would however just swim up to the fly and inspect it  for a few minutes before it would turn up it nose and swim away.

 

FRUSTRATING and yes I was sitting in the tree trying to get this guy to take my fly

It's just not going to happen

Eventually I had enough of the smaller fish and set out to get my revenge on some of the larger fish. I tied on a fish skull streamer and low and behold on the fist cast one of the larger fish chased it as if possessed and  I watched it as it opened its mouth and swallowed the fly. I was a bit quick on the gun though and pulled the fly out of its mouth. I few choice words and two casts later another fish chased the fly and it was fish on.

My arm just wasn't long enough to get the whole fish in the pic. :-)

I was pleasantly surprised at how effective the Fish Skull fly was as it landed me quite a few decent sized bass.

Happy but tired little soldier

OOPS, hero shot gone wrong

Blue Gum Grove 01-08-11

Had the day of work today to attend to some things. I managed to finish early and decided to go down the Blue Gum grove for the evening hatch. I tied up another Fish Skull fly over the weekend and decided to try it out. This fly had a awesome action in the water and I with the dam settling and the water very clear I could see a couple of fish giving it a look and a follow but none committed to it.

 

There were some fish rising around the dam and I think they might have been more focused on the hatch. I tied on a small nymph and first cast it was fish on. The little bit of wind dropped and the dam was transformed into a mirror, which together with the clear water made thing a bit difficult. I did manage to land another few fish though.

The was also a Fish Eagle competing with me. This was actually quite amazing to watch as he was sitting in a tree and every now and then he would launch himself and dive for a fish. I actually spend a good hour just sitting on the bank watching him. I shot a little movie on my point and shoot camera but it came out terrible. I really wished that I had my bigger camera with me as I could have taken some awesome shots.

FINAL SCORE

ME: 1

FISH EAGLE: 0

Sunday fishing

Not being able to cast a line in the last three weeks has given me a serious case of cabin fever. This past Sunday I had enough and went out in a howling wind and pouring rain to Blue Gum Grove for a cast or two. With the weather the way it was I didn't expect to much, but at the end of the day I was pleasantly surprised. I caught quite a few hard fighting rainbows and lost a whole lot more. The fish is in a great condition and are in spawning mode cruising the shallows. Most of the hen fish I caught was full of eggs. After a few hours I was soaking wet and had my fill for the next while. Now if only I can get some free time to spend at the vice....

The best part was comming home and enjoying a nice Sunday afternoon snooze. Even my dog Roxy thought that that was the best idea ever. :-)

Blue Gum Grove

I spend the morning at Blue Gum Grove today trying to fool the new fish that we stocked in the week. A few days in the dam and they are already getting clever enough to first inspect and then avoid my flies.

The morning started out misty and cold but it soon warmed up. I had my little point and shoot camera with me and in between the fishing I snapped some pics.

While I was taking some pics of the dam the below two fish decided they also wanted to be in the pictures. I didn't realize that I snapped the moment of them chasing dragon flies until I looked at the pics on the computer. These are cropped to show them better. Not the greatest of pics but it was kinda cool to discover them there.

A closer close up of the second fish

And yes did land some fish but unfortunately my batteries on the camera died so no pics of them.

A few hours at Blue Gum Grove

I don't get to fish as often as I like to these days with work commitments and family matters to take care of. I have only been on my favorite streams twice this season compared to going every weekend last year. I did manage to sneak out for a few hours this morning and headed down to Blue Gum Grove as it is only a few minutes from my house.

Our summer has arrived and I was a bit worried that the warm water would have affected the fish already, but I was quite surprised to land a few fish. All of them were in excellent condition and was still fighting strong despite the warmer water.

The first hour was a bit slow with one Brown and one rainbow coming out to a olive woolly bugger. Shortly after I started to see some head and tail rises and tied on a tiny flashback nymph and got another few good fish. I also missed a few and got smashed up on my 6x tippet a few times.

All in all it really was a fun morning out.

These brown were about 20cm long when we stocked them about 5 months back. I saw this guy leaping clear out the water  after a dragon fly, and he smashed my woolly bugger when I put it in front of him.

A saw this rainbow cruising and placed a size 18 flashback nymph in front of him. As soon as I gave the nymph a twitch he turned and took the nymph as if it was the real thing.

Getting that bend in your rod is what its all about.

A hour's Bass fishing

I went for a an hour to Blue Gum Grove today to try out my flies that I tied yesterday. In the hour that I was there I landed about 15 Bass with the biggest being about 1kg. A friend of mine’s wife caught a 3.5 kg fish there a while back so I know the big ones are there. The water at the dam is crystal clear and it was fun chucking a fly in front of a fish and teasing him to take it.

A sunny morning at the Bass dam.

All the fish were caught on the Mohair Streamer as this hungry little guy showed.

The missing evening rise

A friend and myself fished the evening rise at Blue Gum Grove last night. Unfortunately there was not much of a rise even though the conditions were perfect and there were lots of insect activity. We both still managed to land a good sized rainbow in the hour and a half that we fished.







  Jasper fighting his rainbow

And the result

                                                                                                            
                                                                                                                           


There was only the occasional rise and they were all over the place which made it a pointless exercise to chuck a dry or emerger out there in the hope of a fish swimming by. I fished streamers, dries and nymphs and eventually landed a beauty on a small Flashback Pheasant Tail Nymph.

The beers were cold, it was great company and you can not ask for a better way to start the weekend.

A new bug is born

With the start of the river season still a month away I decided to give Blue Gum Grove another try today. It was mainly to give my new Barrio Fly line a test and I can tell you for the price of these lines I am suitably impressed.

While bobbing around on my float tube I noticed the below little bug popping to the surface. Unfortunately I just had my little point and shoot camera with me and sitting on a float tube taking macro pictures is no easy task so apologies for the poor pics.

A few seconds later he started to make his appearance.

Next thing you know the wings came out, and at this point I was praying for a Rainbow Trout to come and get him.

And in a matter of just a few seconds a new bug was born....

You would be excused if you though that just witnessing this that I would off course find a suitably imitating pattern in my fly box to tie on, but at the end of the day the good old Olive Woolly Bugger did the trick just as well.

Own little piece of heaven

Blue Gum Grove is a dam a few minutes from my house. Some friends got together and stock the dam with some rainbow and brown trout.

A Sunny day at the dam

A mixture of Browns and Rainbows

One of the first fish coming out after giving the dam a few days rest.

And the result. Just look at that smile....