The Show Me Fly Guy: April 23 & 24, 2016

Date: April 23 & 24, 2016

Body of Water: Farm Ponds

Weather: Mostly sunny with wind increasing until about 4 PM and then decreasing.

Air Temperature: 60’s in the AM, low 80's in the PM

Water Condition: Up, stained, and algae and grasses growth WAY ahead of schedule. This is going to be a banner year for weeds and moss due to an early spring I assume.

Wind Speed & Direction: Out of the south and east

Moon Phase: Waning Gibbous

Fishing Equipment: 9 foot Fenwick 8 weight with floating line and 9 foot Cortland 6 weight with floating line, & medium heavy action spinning combo

Flies/Lures/Bait: The Brave, John Deere, and Wild Eye Strike King Spinner Bait

Hatches or Fish Behavior Observed: Bass seem to be spawning or on beds. There wasn't much activity other than small bass and bluegill seeming to feed freely without the fear of bigger fish.

Species Targeted: Bass & Bluegill

# of Fish Hooked: 30 or so

# of Fish Landed: 20

# of Fish Released: 20

# of Fish Kept: 0

Largest Fish Description: 16 inch, 1.5-2 pound bass caught on a John Deere while bluegill fishing.

What Happened:

This was maybe the hardest fishing I can remember in terms of hitting farm ponds. The bass are either spawning or on beds and they ARE NOT interested in hitting a fly or any other lures. I should know because I threw everything that I had at them last weekend. I fished out of a boat, a float tube, and off the bank with about eight bass to show for my eight-plus hours on the water. That's not good! After deciding that the bass weren't going to bite, I switched to targeting big male bluegill and had some success. I caught a few gills around 8 inches and the one below almost went 9 inches. I guess things are just happening earlier than usual this year and I missed some good bass fishing by about a week. Oh well. The weather was nice, I got to spend some time on the water, and didn't get skunked. It will pick back up in a few weeks and there are always other species to target and other bodies of water to hit.