The end of Steelhead season is usually welcomed by me. Some of my best childhood memories growing up was fishing bass on a Western Massachusetts Lake. I really took to fly fishing for bass about 3 years ago on the local golf ponds, so I’m really getting into the time of year that I have a soft spot for. I’ll often start early in the year pulling shad patterns, but move to topwater as quickly as possible. Watching a huge, knarly, air resistant fly get pummeled by a massive, angry bass has got to be one of the greatest sights…
SO…with my first bass landed in 2009, and with some warmer water, I left Thursday from work and neglected the grass cutting in hopes of my first top water bass of the year. After missing several lethargic swirls, a heavy rain shower chased me off and I went home feeling good with some action up top…
Friday, with Amy coming in, I had less then an hour to give the lower pond a going. Some fish were still on beds, although most had pulled off and began their forage in the deeper pockets of the pond. This particular pond grows incredible amounts of vegetation and algae. In about another month or so, it will become almost unfishable because of this, so I’ll often times try to focus on this early in the season. With cover already starting, I was focusing on hitting openings with smaller poppers, and getting a few sharp strips in before picking a new hole. Sure enough, about 15 minutes into the night, I had a fish take and a solid hook set. I was able to get her through most of the crap before I really felt what she had. Upon getting her closer to shore, I realized just what I had hooked into…
After looking through the pictures, I’ve estimated, with Amy, that she was about 22”, or about 6 lbs based on weight charts found online. I think this is being a bit generous…but would say she was definitely a 5+, which is up there with my largest bass ever, never mind on a fly rod. Released and even gave me a good splash on her take off…
I had one other small bass school me in a pocket of weeds, but considering the small amount of fishing I was able to do, I considered it a success. Will probably start the week fishing with Conklin for some more linesiders…maybe a canoe ride mixed in there…
Anyways, were excited to see the fish have returned from the deep water…Bring on the bigger fish…
Not great, but more more pictures of the fish I did see bedding...
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