Originally Posted by
skeetbum
Today was a little special anyway, but the visitors I had today were just icing on the cake. Having finished my fly rod project, I was anxious to see it bend. Pulled up to the ramp and some guys were pulling out and I had straps to remove. As I walked back to the drivers door, I looked across to the ramp. Sitting on the rail on the walkway was an owl. It didn’t seem to care how close I was, maybe 20’ away. Made a low volume, high pitched screech a few times, I guess trying to spook something into running. Sat there a long while, repositioned to the bank, then the nearby fence, then the oak over where I parked. Very used to human contact. I slid in and motored off, the sun not up for another hour.
The next visitors I could have lived without. No see ums and gnats were thicker than I have ever encountered. Even the spray I had on barely slowed them at all. Gotta go get some aerosol stuff with high deet content, the pump left blank spots. Once the sun broke over the treetops they were gone. Not soon enough for me.
Trying to concentrate on using the fly rod and swatting bugs is no easy feat, but I got it done. Got its first fish on the second cast. Not a giant but mission accomplished. A little better one came a few casts later, putting a good bend in the rod. The action was just like I wanted, and it’s weight very easy on the hand. All things considered, pleased with its outcome.
The fishing was slow for a couple of hours as I moved through proven territory. Little by little they began to eat with lots of smaller fish getting things going. I had gone to the UL when the bugs got too frustrating. Using what I knew would produce they got bigger as time went by. By about 9 I was getting pretty busy and went back to where I started. Good move, way different than a few hours back. I was looking for good CNBG over 8” and got at least 15 of those and a few more that were close. Got a couple that had the copper splash on their forehead and the lighter colors and barred markings, unlike the darker ones I usually post. All the ‘crackers Borden today would barely make 6” and a few Warmouth and small crappie finished things off. The last spot was also where I had some other visitors. Heard the blow of a Manatee and looked around to find 3 trails of bubbles. One was a very large one and two smaller ones were moving too fast for me to get a picture of them. Heat was up, hungry, sweaty and tired of snagging every other cast, it was time to go. Back to the ramp and pull out without incident, good thing. I was ready for some air conditioning as a cold drink or 3. Fished from about 6 til just after 11, plenty for me. Hope to see you out getting some soon, til then........Skeet.