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!
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