mrl0004

I had not fished in a while, and it was killing me. Of course as usual, that's the weekend the forecast looks the worse. Tornadoes and thunderstorms lead to swollen rivers. Oh well, had to find a back-up plan. Saturday I headed over to check on a creek I had not fished since last June, and lucky for me, it was crystal clear. Didn't know how active warmwater fish are yet, because the water was definitely not warm.


Took me a while to get it dialed in, but I found a fly that worked and caught this:


I love this little creek. It's easy to access, and reminds me a lot of a trout stream.




It has all the classic riffle, run, pools. Unlike a trout stream, the pools are the most productive. I have a favorite, and it's a grab bag of fish species.


It has the most of the main species on this creek, red-breasted sunfish.


You'll catch a bluegill every now and then, some creek chubs, I've seen gar, several types of suckers and of course largemouth bass. The bass are extremely finicky here, you will see them everywhere, but they will not bite! I have caught 2 largemouth (on the same day) in the half a dozen trips to this creek. Doesn't mean people don't try. I found this in some debris in the middle of the creek.


Apparently a bank fisherman thinks huge largemouth live here. That freakin' spinnerbait was monstrous. The biggest bass I have seen or heard of caught here is 2lbs. The water in most places, at its deepest is a couple of feet. I just don't get it. It looked brand new, so the poor guy probably lost it on his first cast ending his hopes and dreams of catching that BIG one!

I kept fishing, and something slammed my fly. I thought, "This was it, I got a bass on!" Finally got the fish where I could see it, and I think (I need ID help) it was a nice shellcracker. It had a very faint red border to the flap on the gill plate. I don't know what else it would be, never caught one here before, but it doesn't surprise me. What isn't in this creek. There are also mussel shells EVERYWHERE. Weird that I only caught one though.


Well, it was weird until my next cast....


I wish I could have gotten into a bunch more, but the bite tapered off after that. It was a fun day, but I have to figure out how to make the largemouth eat! I guess I shouldn't have made that comment a while back about how boring largemouth bass fishing is.

Today (Sunday) some of the rivers had slowed down and cleared up a bit. Wanted to try out a crawfish pattern a buddy showed me me recently.


This creek was still very swollen, but somewhat clear. I basically had to fish from the bank, and there wasn't much of one that wasn't a pile of debris. Piles of debris = snakes, especially here. I made probably a hundred casts. I stripped fast, stripped slow, let the fly hang in the current, literally everything I could try.

Finally, I said for the last time, last cast. Cast out into some swift water and stripped slowly back into a pool. BAM! Fish on! After quite a few aerial acrobatics I got the first bronzeback since last July.



I thanked him for saving my day and sent him back.


After that one fish, I was content (and tired of casting), so I called it a day. When I got back to my car, I saw a familiar sight on my windshield..


Or at least I think it was a caddis, never seen one anywhere other than a trout stream.

Now if I could just fast forward to late April......

buckhunter14

Very cool story mrl004!

Those are some might fine panfish there. Up here we have many similar varities, and they are all grouped together into the "Bluegill" Species for me. Pound for pound they sure can be a riot, specially fish reaching from your fingetips to your forearms!

Awesome.

Gangly

The first and second appear to be Red Breasted Sun fish based on the elongated opercle ("ear flap").

The third appears to be a Bluegill.

The fourth is a Red Ear Sunfish. The species' most distinct characteristic is the red edge on the opercle ("ear") flap of the male (orange on the female).

In some cases they breed amongst eachother adn the traits start to blend so it can be tough to tell, particularly in juveniles.

Beautiful fish and great scenery. As usual, great post and pictures, glad you caught a smallie. That crawfish imitator looks FANTASTIC.

mrl0004

Thanks man, but I only needed ID help with with the third one. The rest I am all too familiar with. The third had a very light red (almost pink) bordering the operculum. It had the same coloration as the shellcracker below it, but it's eyes were bigger.

m.t.hands

Great pics as always Matt, i bet the brown fish went crazy when you hooked up...nothing quite like a smallie

mrl0004

I agree. Love those jumps, followed by bulldogging in the current, nothing better. The only problem is, I only know of one or two places up here that has 'em. Everyone is tight lipped on smallie water, so I've had to really look.

m.t.hands

have you fished any below tims ford???, i know years ago we would wade and catch smallies there...what about the flint or paint rock???i know most of mine are caught over on wilson or pickwick, we have caught some one wheeler (lower end) and guntersville, well in my life i have caught two, both on rocky points on the lower end

mrl0004

Cool. Thanks! I knew about Wilson, haven't found an access point on the Flint for an easy wade. Paint rock I've heard has them, but didn't know if someone was jerking my chain

CabinOutdoors

nice story man thanks for sharing

North Wind

Spring is here and we're hammering steelhead in Idaho!