Monday, September 5, 2016

A Sluggish SMB Start Leads to Mid-Afternoon Feeding Fun

   I was able to fish the Volga River yesterday -- finally after 1.5 years of wanting to get there again!  

Three of us. Water low and had to drag boats more than usual. Portage toons (like the meat in a sandwich) between 2 downed tree trunks in the water. None of us were complainers, and we had a good time. All SMB were small and then rock bass and a few chubs thrown in to widen the species caught. Ha! Too bad it wasn't the occasional white bass or trout that are sometimes pulled from here.

   I did finally trial my yellow popper and after broadcasting a hole, I switched to chartreuse popper (ole faithful) and had a couple strikes and landed one after casting to the same hole. There were a few more strikes later on, but the day remained cooler and the fish were lazy like I had been the previous day.

   Switched to streamers and had some more contact, but guys doing better (M knows the Volga VERY well). Then, I switched to an olive pattern -- no one fishes olive anymore, why is that?!-- and the game changed. Then Douggles switched to olive with orange. Bango!

   Whether is was the fly color, the time of day the fish turned on, or a mix of both, I got most of my fish with that fly. For me alone, probably ~20 bass day overall after a slow start. But, at the hole that had already been fished, I did pull out an SMB in the first few casts with that fly. It was an unpainted lead eye crawdad-like pattern with 2 rabbit strips as legs. Olive tinsel chenille for body. Rubber legs and a little flash. With rabbit strips located at tail of body, I think they may have contributed more to profile color than anything else.  I watched that fly while stripping it in the clear water. I tell ya, with that lead head and the chenille, that fly looked more like a thin baitfish imitation and almost translucent... delicate, thin and very vulnerable.
(Click on photos to see close-up images. Thanks for looking and please comment to let me know you were here! ~Twitch 9-5-15)





2 comments:

  1. I am reading and have been for 3 - - 4 -? years. I do wish tho that you were here a bit more often.
    Ol Alf in Bettendorf

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  2. Hi Al! Thanks so much for your comment! You don't know how much I appreciate it. I've been editing copy and laying out our HFFA (fly fishing club) newsletter for 1.5 years now. While my tenure with that will be up soon, it has taken up much of my free time...including away from my blog. But, it also is a bit challenging to write and post pictures when you don't know if there are readers/interest out there. So thanks so much for your comment! Hopefully, with fall and winter soon upon us, I hope I can do a little more... <><

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