Alright, I wasn't expecting the results that I got from field testing. Truth be told, I took this fly on a fishing trip with the middle school fly fishing club that I sponsor. I was planning on just tossing this fly in the shallows a few time and playing around with it. To really test its sink rate, I started making longer casts to see how fast it got down in the water column. At some point I decided to cross over from testing to actually fishing the fly with the hope of catching a fish or two.
The conditions seemed right for a largemouth to hammer this fly. I was fishing a wind-swept bank that was rocky, the fish were in pre spawn mode, and my students had not fished this stretch of water. It seemed like this was where the bass would be. If this was indeed where the fish were supposed to be, I wanted to see if they would try to take my new fly down. The results of my little experiment came quickly.
On my third cast, my fly landed between some aquatic vegetation that was growing along the bank and some cabbage that was growing in deeper water about 10 yards away. It seemed like the perfect ambush point for a pre spawn bucketmouth. Apparently, I made the right assumption because a 12 inch largemouth darted out of the depths and hit my fly on a pause. I missed that fish. It happens. Two casts later and I was hooked up with the same (or maybe a different but nearly identical) fish. It wasn't a big fish but it got the ball rolling in terms of determining whether my fly was effective or not. More testing was needed.
I worked my way down the bank and my fly ended up getting hit by another bass as it sunk down into the depths of the trough I was fishing. This fish felt more substantial than the last one and when it headed towards open water, I could feel its weight. My line started to come to the surface and when the fish jumped, I finally got a glimpse of what I was hooked up with. The bass definitely weighed over a pound and I really wanted to land it. Thankfully, I got it to the bank and the confidence that I had in the fly grew. This fly's maiden trip wasn't over there though.
After the release, I started to move towards a spot that I had been eyeballing and I was excited to fish. I had seen many fish caught in the spot over many years. The conditions were right for another fish to be there. Nobody had already fished that spot yet either. With light and cautious steps, I made my way to the last spot I wanted to throw this fly.
The wind (totally the wind's fault) caused me to make a few bad casts but I eventually put one where I wanted the fly to go. My line came tight on a pause and a proper strip-set ensued. Like the last fish, the fight started off slow but the heft of the fish was easy to recognize. This fish also headed to open water and lept from the water. This fish was bigger...noticeably bigger. The fish was fighting hard but slowly tired as it approached the bank. This is always a point that makes me nervous because of so many memorable fish that I have lost at the bank. Thankfully this story had a happy ending because I was able to get my hands on it.
The hydrilla gorilla weighed in at 3 pounds exactly! It was my biggest bass of the year and the nail in the coffin on the matter of whether this fly will catch fish. It will and I will be cranking out some more of these in a variety of colors really soon! The next step is to see if a smallmouth will eat this and I like the odds of that happening.
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