An EPIC morning of Fishing with my Wife!

It has been a great summer on the water for me thus far.  I have had the pleasure to catch a lot of fish and different species of fish.  I have had the pleasure of taking out some good friends and family members as well.  I have used flies on fly rods and bait on spinning rods.  I've fished in my raft, from the bank, and from my jon boat.  Even with all that variety, one thing seemed to be missing.  I hadn't fished with my wife yet.  That got rectified on June 20.

When Wendy woke me up on a Saturday morning at 5:30 and said, "Are we going fishing or what?"  We had discussed hitting the water the night before but I wasn't sure how serious she was about the endeavor until she asked me the question.  I'm almost always up for going fishing, especially with my wife, so I sprang out of bed and started to prepare spinning rods with circle hooks and fly rods with flies.  Before you knew it, we were northbound and headed to Watkins Mill State Park.  

I decided that we would target hybrid stripers with chicken livers for the first part of the morning and then chase some bluegill and largemouth at the end of the morning.  It didn't take long to start catching hybrid striped bass on chicken livers in about 18 feet of water and about 7 feet deep with our baits.  When we hit a school, the action was fast and furious.  Between schools, we drifted with the breeze and talked.  While we didn't catch anything big, Wendy enjoyed the ferocity and action that the smaller fish provided.  We doubled up a few times and at others, our baits got hit before we got them down 7 feet or after reeling them to the surface.  If we hadn't caught any other fish that morning, it would have still been a good morning.

As the activity slowed down, Wendy said that she wanted to try to catch some bluegill in the shallows on a fly rod.  I was all too happy to accommodate her request, however, I had other plans for myself.  I was going to throw some mid-sized streamers for largemouth.  While she LOVES catching a lot of little fish, I felt inclined to try to get one bite from something more substantial.  I'm not saying that I was right and she was wrong.  It's just different strokes for different folks.

We headed to the north end of the lake in my jon boat with fly rods ready.  Right off the bat, she started hammering bluegill and even a redear sunfish.  She was happy and having fun.  On the other hand, I was not getting any bites on my olive wooly bugger.  We decided to change spots and I decided to change flies.  I had noticed that she was getting hits on her black, 1/80 ounce jig, and I decided that switching to a bulky, size 6 wooly bugger made sense.  I sure was glad that I did because the biggest fish of the day was caught at the new spot we moved to and on the new fly.  It a bass that maybe went 14 inches and close to two pounds.  It wasn't huge but it sure was fun to catch.

I also ended up catching a few big bluegill and a decent-sized red ear sunfish on this fly after we moved back to the west side of the lake where we had started with flies.  In total, we caught 4 species on bait, jigs, and streamers.  We caught fish in deep water and in the shallows.  We had moments where the action was almost unhinged and we had time to just laugh and joke around.  I love spending time on the water, and I love spending time with my wife.  When those two things intersect, well that's just a little slice of heaven that soak up as much as possible.  It doesn't have often enough for my liking, but when it does, I sure do appreciate it.  Oh yeah, it was fun to have Waylon in the boat too!

 

Low Fat Minnows are Now in the Online Fly Shop

Link: https://www.etsy.com/listing/4526205544/2-pack-of-low-fat-minnows-shad-imitation

Last week, I took a shad colored Low Fat Minnow to a local homeowner association pond with the hopes of catching some fish.  I wanted to make sure that this patterns is effective prior to putting some in my online store.  After catching some largemouth and a white bass, I feel confident that this fly will catch fish.  

The first fish that was caught on this fly wasn't even caught by me.  I gave a couple of flies to a couple of guys on the James River and they caught a couple of smallmouth on this pattern.  The fishing was pretty slow and this was the only fly that caught fish on that particular day.  At the homeowner association pond, I caught the biggest bass I have ever caught on that water with this fly.  Oddly enough, he at it in open water towards the middle of the lake.  A couple of days later, I caught two more bass in the shallows around cover with this fly.  I then caught a white bass in deeper water as well.  Since this fly has caught smallmouth, white, and largemouth bass, I'm going to call it an effective pattern.  And since it is effective, I am going to put a few in the online store.  

The following was taken from the description about the Low Fat Minnow in my online store.  I hope it helps.

This fly does not have any added weight which gives it a very slow sink rate.  While it is not neutrally buoyant, it is close.  As a result, this fly can be fished on floating line, sinking line, or sink tip line.  It can be fished in the shallows, around cover, and around structure on floating line and should not easily get snagged due to its slow sink rate.  On sinking or sink tip line, it can fished in the middle of the water column as well as in holes and pools in a river.  The best part about this fly is its profile.  It has the majority of its mass in the upper half of the fly.  The mass tapers to a point at the tail which makes it very realistic.  

This fly's color and action are also impressive.  The color is extremely close to a young shad/minnow and the flash in the head, eyes, and body get a lot of attention in the water.  You can see it well from the bank which means fish can see it even better.  When stripped, it has a great flutter and kick to it.  It looks like a young shad swimming through the water that is begging to be eaten.  This fly can be stripped on erratic strips or on a slow, steady retrieve.  I wouldn't sell this fly if I didn't have the utmost confidence in it!

This fly can be fished for largemouth bass, smallmouth bass, white bass, hybrid striped bass, crappie, rainbow trout, and brown trout.  This fly is tied on a Gamakatsu size 2 hook and is approximately 2 inches long.  I fish this fly on 6-8 weight rods and is easily cast.  It doesn't overwhelm a rod because it sheds so much water and has very little weight.  

Here are a couple more final thoughts on this fly.  This fly is an outstanding imitation of a small shad.  Do you know what eats small shad?  Almost every predatory freshwater fish in North America would eat a small shad.  Also, I feel like this fly could fill a void in a fly box.  I have a lot of big streamers like Braves, Captain Quints, and Lunch Moneys.  I also have smaller streamers for trout and bluegill like Taneycomo Tiger Tails and Wooly Buggers.  What I was missing was a mid-size streamer that could be fished for almost any species.  Also, this fly is two-toned with counter shading  as well, which you don't find in all flies.  It is characteristic that I am partial to because of it's realism which makes it close to "matching the hatch".

So if you find yourself in need of a streamer with a slow sink rate that can be fished for multiple species on multiple types of lines, this might be the fly for you.  I wouldn't sell it if I didn't feel confident in it.  I feel confident in it because it has caught fish for me!  So if you want to check it out for yourself, go ahead and click the link at the bottom or top of this post.  It would be a pleasure to send you some Low Fat Minnows.  Regardless of whether you buy some flies or not, thank you for reading and thank you for your support!

Link: https://www.etsy.com/listing/4526205544/2-pack-of-low-fat-minnows-shad-imitation

How to Tie a Clark Pierce's Low Fat Minnow

Link to Fly Fish Food's Low Fat Minnow: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ns6ndQRWDCw

A few months ago, I was happy with some Smallmouth Bass Streamers (SBS's) that I tied, However, I ran across a similar looking pattern called a Low Fat Minnow.  It is my understanding that Clark Pierce (aka Cheech and cofounder of Fly Fish Food) developed this pattern one day after he saw bass coughing up nearly transparent fry that they had gorged themselves on.  After watching a tutorial that was hosted by Cheech, I knew I had to give this fly a try.  I'm glad I did.

It is similar in a lot of ways to an SBS but without the dumbbell eyes, tied on a slightly smaller hook, and with a slightly different approach to tying in the different marabou colors.  I like the idea of having SBS's that are weighted and able to be fished deep.  I also like the idea of having some Low Fat Minnows that can be fished shallow or deep on a sinking tip line.  I am planning on tying them in different colors as well.  I tied both flies with a shad-like coloration but I'm planning on tying some in green and yellow (bluegill) and green and white (baitfish) color combinations as well.  I will post those when I get them wrapped up.  Get it?!?!  Wrapped up!  I crack myself up sometimes.

Link to Fly Fish Food's Low Fat Minnow: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ns6ndQRWDCw

 

Hamilton City Lake (Reservoir)- The Conclusion

The last time I was at Hamilton City Lake, it beat me. I have never taken defeat lightly. I used to cry when I lost a middle school or high school basketball game. It wasn’t always out of self pity. It was sometimes out of frustration. I would get upset that my best wasn’t good enough. I would get angry that my preparation and sacrifice didn’t conclude with a victory. I’m still that way.  I’m a perfectionist. I want to be the best. I want to win because losing hurts.  It’s not that I love winning. I just hate losing. That is what drives me. 

So when a new plan was needed for Hamilton City Lake. The definition of insanity is doing the same thing again and expecting different results. If flies didn’t work, it was time to move to the most productive method of fishing ever invented. It was time to fish with bait.

I have had a lot of success fishing for hybrid striped bass on Watkins Mill Lake with chicken livers. While I haven’t caught anything massive, I’ve caught a lot of wipers with this method. I was hopeful that this strategy would work on this lake and I didn’t see why it couldn’t work. So with two buckets of chicken livers, my dog Waylon, and my buddy Justin, I put away the flies and fly rods and brought out the spinning rods and circle hooks.

Things started off slow.  It was the kind of slow that can make you worry about your decision making.  There was little to no activity on the surface.  We weren't marking many fish on the electronics.  We weren't getting any bites.  It made me wonder if this chicken liver trick was something that only worked on certain bodies of water.  I thought about that for a long time and settled on the idea that such a thing just didn't seem possible.  It was about the time that I arrived on this conclusion that Justin had a fish steal his liver.  Then it happened again.  And then it happened for a third time.  This gave us hope that maybe things were about to improve.  

Things did improve...to a point.  I landed the first three fish that hit my chicken liver and then Justin started catching them as well.  We went through spurts of ferocious activity followed by lulls in the action.  It was similar to the activity that we see at Watkins Mill.  It seems like you will get into a school of hybrids, catch a bunch, and then either the boat moves or the school moves on.  Regardless, it was a blast and a huge boost to our collective confidence.  

As we drifted, we started to discuss our lack of catching anything with size.  Neither at Watkins Mill or at Hamilton City Lake have we caught anything in the four pound range or bigger.  Is this because there are just fewer "big fish" in food pyramid?  Is it because the bigger hybrids don't eat chicken livers?  Do the smaller fish get to the bait before the bigger ones can?  Are we not fishing deep enough?  These were all things we discussed and things that haunt me to this day.  At some point during our pondering of the mysteries of the universe, I got a hit.  I knew right away it was the biggest fish of the morning for either of us and I got to utter five of the sweetest words that have ever been joined together in a sequence.  I said, "Hey buddy, get the net!"

During the fight, Justin and I both observed that the fish wasn't making any long runs or headed in the opposite direction of the boat.  We noticed it was trying to get to the bottom and that there was a slow but steady determination to this fish.  I think we realized at the same time that this was not a hybrid.  He guessed that it was a catfish and we were right.  Regardless of the species, it was a great fight and a fun catch.  We picked up a few more hybrids as the morning moved along, but still, nothing "big" ended up in the boat.

So there is my review.  You probably ended up with more questions than answers, like myself.  I think this lake holds big fish and I'm not just referring to the hybrids.  I think this lake could hold some big bass as well.  However, the lack of structure and morning topwater activity makes me wonder if the 50 mile, 1 hour drive is worth it.  I think I would rather fish Watkins Mill because I am more familiar with and holds more structure.  Watkins Mill is closer to my house, I can run my outboard motor at a no wake speed (Hamilton is electric motor only), and seems to have comparable-sized hybrids.  If I had bait casting gear, heavy weights, soft plastics, and maybe live scope, I would hit this lake with everything I have!  

Will I go back to Hamilton City Lake in the future?  I might but it is not high on my list of priorities.  It's pretty, quiet, and definitely has fish in it.  It just doesn't seem to fit my style of fishing and is a pretty good haul from my house.  However, if you've never fished this lake before and want to explore it for yourself, I say go for it!  There is a nice dock, a decent boat ramp, and a vault/pit toilet.  It's located about 10 miles from I-35 and within site of highway 36.  It has a shelter house, some picnic tables, and a small gravel parking lot as well.  So if you're looking for new fishing spot in the Kansas City/Northwest Missouri area, you might dig it!

 

Hamilton City Lake (Reservoir)- Part 1

Hamilton City Lake- https://mdc.mo.gov/discover-nature/places/hamilton-city-lake

So there I was, standing under an oak tree with Waylon and waiting out a small pop-up storm at Watkins Mill State Park.  It had come out of nowhere and put a healthy amount of fear in me since I was in my raft and only able to row back to the boat ramp at a less-than-desirable speed.  Anyway, after watching the skies and the AccuWeather app on my phone, and as I was trying to decide if I was going to head home or get back on the water, I was joined by a couple of fellow anglers that were trying to solve the same riddle.  As we contemplated our future endeavors, we began to swap fishing stories.  It was then that they started to describe a lake that, according to one angler, had bigger and more hybrid striped bass than the body of water that we were currently on.  They said it was called Hamilton City Lake.  This got my attention and started to burrow its way into my brain.  

For the next two days, I researched the lake as much as I could.  I used the Missouri Department of Conservation website, AI, and called some buddies to find out everything I could about the lake.  What I found out was that the lake, allegedly, held a population of both hybrid striped bass AND largemouth bass that were both large and plentiful.  While the lake was twice as far from my front door as Watkins Mill, the idea of more and bigger fish held an potential opportunity that I couldn't stop dreaming about.  A couple of days later, and I was north bound in my truck with my raft in tow and a child-like enthusiasm and an excessive amount of enthusiasm.  

When I arrive at the lake, I was greeted by two things.  One was a serious lack of structure.  There were very few trees along the bank or in the water.  Two was the large amount of aquatic vegetation.  It not only grew along most of the bank but extended well into the lake as well.  This was not the type of situation that I was used to fishing but I brushed it aside.  I wasn't here to fish cover and structure for largemouth or bluegill.  I was there to chuck streamers for hybrid striped bass.  All I needed was a main channel and a little wind to move me.  Some wipers chasing shad to the surface and feeding on them would have been helpful, but I wasn't counting on that.  So with my Maxxon 7 weight rod, some sink-tip fly line, and a streamer, I pushed off the bank and rowed my raft to what looked like deep water.

To make a long story short, I got skunked.  I threw a fly for almost 2 and 1/2 hours with only a couple of slight bumps and taps to show for my efforts.  However, I wasn't shocked.  It can be difficult to get a hybrid striper to bite.  It is a challenge to get a fly down to them if they are suspended.  They seem to feed in windows and can get tight-lipped sometimes.  On the bright side, I did see shad and saw some hybrids break the surface here and there.  I even saw a guy catch a decent one off the dock as I was taking my boat out of the water.

Was I disappointed?  Yes.  Does disappointment and failure motivate me?  Absolutely.  I decided that I was going to return back to the lake with a new tactic and that's exactly what I did.  Stay tuned for the conclusion to this series.