I love spring, and the bass that come with it

It hit 80 degrees today. That mean that the bass would definitely be fun. First, I had to take care of some yard work. I borrowed my stepdad's pickup and got to it first thing in the morning. Two yards of organic playground woodchips later, my kids have a badass corner of the backyard to raise hell in.


After I dropped off the pickup, I decided to hit this far up headwater of a local trout stream near their house. It's about a mile above the upper point of the state-stocked section, and it's separated by a huge dam that ensures no state-raised fish will make it up there. The owners of the stream dammed a quarter mile stretch of it for their cattle back in the 60s. I grew up fishing this water since I was 14 years old and I basically really learned how to successfully fish for largemouth here. It is full of them, and not many people know about this place, so they can be fairly easy to catch, but they can also be really moody at times. A private club used to stock it with trout when I was in my teens, but I haven't taken a trout from there since I was about 25. I doubt they are still around since it does get pretty damn warm in the summer.

I had just recently filled a fly box with terrestrials from two seperate fly swaps and I was dying to smack some fish around on topwater.



Unfortunately, the foam didn't do the trick. The water was a little murky from the rain earlier in the week and only a few tiny bluegills even took a shot at the surface bugs. The bass and panfish were however more than cooperative on bugskin wigglers.


After I headed home and did another 4 hours of knocking out things on the honey-do list, I headed out for some sunset smallmouths in the backyard creek. My legs were pretty ripped up from a long day of weed wacking, plucking weeds from the garden, and laying wood chips so It felt really nice to wade knee deep in some cool water. This stream was also a little murky, but I found a trib that was already crystal clear and I fished where the two bodies of water met. I picked a good spot.


I wound up having a last slamming these bronze hogs on small clousers.


That's about all I have for now. I'm sorry blog, I've been neglecting you. The fishing has been too good at night to make time to post. I'll try to be more proactive with the updates.

Also, I picked up a Go Pro HD Hero 2. Keep an eye out for some video footage soon!

After two years, I finally got one!

I headed out Thursday night after the kids were finally asleep in the darkness to stalk some nighttime risers. I stopped at a few spots with street lights and noticed two things, extremely low clear water, and no fish. I guess the bait chuckers were really wiping them out.

I headed down to the old foot bridge were I was chasing carp over the winter and I saw a few rises. Perfect. As I walked to the stream I also noticed it was really muddy. I then saw a ton of monster carp mudding along the edges of the stream, digging for food. I opted for the bigger species :)

I tossed a small crayfish imitation named "Skip's Dad" that I got from the Instagram Fly Swap. I swung it in front of a big carp and a smallie came out of nowhere and smashed it. OK, not what I was looking for, but I didn't get skunked.


This wound up happening a few more times, with dink smallmouth taking the fly. After a few minutes I saw a window of opportunity with two big carp heading towards the same big rock. I dropped my fly perfect between then and saw a slight pull on my line as the small one inhaled it.

Once he was on, I realized that I had made the mistake of not really having the gear for this fight. I had a 4 weight and 6X tippet. Not something you want to realize when you're backing deep into an 8 lb carp.

I took my time, played him right, and safely landed him. I was so freaking excited. After two years, I finally got my first carp on a fly. I let out a giant "YES!!" even though I was standing in the middle of a dark park by myself with no one else around. This was a night I won't soon forget.


I watched him swim away with a giant smile on my face and noticed the trout starting to rise again just upstream. It didn't matter. No trout in this stream would repeat the fight I just had.