This week is the week between college classes, so I am
enjoying playing around doing the things I love but have to sacrifice. With the weather temp high forecasted at 61˚F for the day,
the only decently “warm” day for the week, Cody surprised me with an after work, fly fishing excursion to one of our favorite little lakes, Lake Springfield at
Fort Parker State Park. After catching
huge Rainbow Trout in Russia and Alaska this summer, I wondered how I would
feel catching the little stockers.
While
Texas does possess naturally reproducing Rainbow Trout in McKittrick Canyon at
the Guadalupe Mountains National Park, fishing for them is disallowed. So, the Texas fisheries stock trout, but they
are little guys. However, fish are
pretty and fun and give us great enjoyment, so today was not about size, but
getting out to catch the first fish of the year some 35 days later than
usual.
Cody’s 1½ pound Largemouth Bass was caught on a GirlieBugger. All the other fish were caught on top water
flies; Cody used a Miss Prissy, and I caught my Rainbow on a black Cap Spider
while the Largemouths loved a brown grasshopper pattern we bought in Montana
fishing the Big Hole River in 2009. The
video captures the light but on-going hatch that made the Rainbows and
Largemouths jump all afternoon.
I liked our comments, the
splashing fish, and just the sounds—minus the nearby roadway traffic—so, I
added no music this time. A great two
hours of fun for us!
So you are FlyFshrGrl from Texas--I have been seeing your name on Alan's blog for sometime and really didn't know who you were until I read this post and saw the post label----I have to say this is the best post I have read this week----why because of the top action for the bass using the hopper and Miss Prissy, I use both for bass in the spring and summer, awesome flies. Great job filming, what wt. fly rod were you using? I would think a 4 wt. would be perfect for that size fish. I have added you to my blog roll and look forward to more great post from you. Thanks for sharing
ReplyDeleteHi, Bill.
DeleteThanks for the compliments, and we are glad you enjoyed our day out on the water! Today (Thursday 2/5/15), the high was 35˚F, so we figured that front had something to do with all the action we saw. Also, that south shore area where we were catching the bass was shallower and warmer than the middle where our tubes were for the majority of the time, which is where I caught the two trout.
Cody and I build our own fly rods from TFO blanks, and so Cody was casting his 3#, 4 piece, TFO Finesse 7'9" rod, and I was using my 2#, 4 piece, TFO Finesse 7'3" rod.