My friend Cris Carpenter reminded me the other day that there are special days on the water that will stay with you for the rest of your life. Last Sunday was one of those days. I didn't catch a trophy and I didn't catch a gaudy number of fish, but it was a good one!
I was up at our family farm to clear some brush around my cabin and do a little fishing. After I was done with the brush, I tried to hook my boat trailer up to my truck. I say tried because I quickly realized that I had a flat on the trailer. Without an air compressor readily available, I decided that I was just going to have to do my fishing on foot. When I arrived at the lake that I was planning to fish, I realized that too was going to be out of the question. The aquatic vegetation was too think and extended too far into the lake. Even if I did hook something, I never would have landed a single fish.
My attention turned to the small pond up the hill. This is usually a good pond but there were obstacles that stood in my way and I was getting tired of obstacles. Between me and the pond was tall, tick infested (probably) grass. Where the grass was thinner, there was poison ivy. I'm extremely allergic to poison ivy. Then there was the potential obstacle of seeing more of the same aquatic vegetation and thus, the same issues that the big pond had. I decided to throw caution to the wind and maybe catch a break for once on this trip. I have been really busy lately and just wanted to spend a little time on the water.
When Waylon and I arrived at the pond, the smile that came to my face could have reached from Kansas City to St. Louis! Not only was the aquatic vegetation absent, but there was serious topwater activity going on. I recognized some eats as bluegill and others as bass. I decided to chase the bass first and then maybe lean on the bluegill for some fun.
I'll be honest, I'm a guy that believes in fate, karma, and divine intervention. When I looked at the fly that I had on attached to my leader, I thought that maybe it was some sort of sign. The fly in particular was a dragon tail gurgler. I wrote about this fly awhile back and you can read that post if you click here. While my friend Aidan had caught some bass on this fly, I had not. However, I know for a fact that Labor Day kicks off topwater season for bass in the area. Both of those things gave me hope.
On my fifth cast, it happened with the subtleness of a broken shoelace. A bass smashed my fly. The moment that you land a fish on a new fly is a pretty cool feeling and I soaked it up. I used the same cadence and it didn't take long before I got another aggressive take. I landed that one too. My retrieve was short and erratic which caused the fly to have a great wiggle in the tail and dart side to side. The next 5 fish fell to the same action with me only missing the sixth fish.
I was thrilled. The takes were aggressive an on the top of the water. This fly got broken in really well...so much so that the fly fell apart! I landed 7 out of the 8 takes that I had and that speaks to the aggression of the fish, not the ability of the angler. The obstacles that stood in my way of a memorable day faded from my memory but the smile held on for hours. The memory will live on for much longer and will be remembered as one of those special days.
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