More messing in Esten

Even small guys are
hearty fighters.

Again, it was off to Esten for a few hours this evening.

Another fun night of top water bass. Pretty much the same as the last few nights. Lots of fish. a few decent ones. Lots of fun.

I stuck with top water GFC's again. I did try the full sink, but the results were less than impressive, and certainly less productive than the top water. Most of my fish came before 7pm. After that the fish were scattered and infrequent.

..........a bronze beauty. 

As I mentioned before, most often fish violently suck in the GFC, as opposed to crashing it like a popper. When they suck, the surface disruption is not great. Case in point, tonights fish of the night. A 3 1/2lb bruiser. I made my cast, and started fucking around with my smokes, and saw a little fish pluck at my fly. I put my smokes back in my pocket as it sucked at my fly again. It looked like my fly may have disappeared, so I set the hook.........and the freaking lake blew up! Love that. Certainly the biggest bass I have caught in that lake to date.

I have a buddy coming up to visit for the next while, so not sure how much fishing I will get in.

Oh, I almost forgot. May not be of import to most, but the last two outings saw me catch a couple of sunfish! Hadn't seen any till now.

More poppin' the top.

Golden on Esten.

It didn't look like I was going to get out. Forecasted thunderstorms did not show up until late afternoon. Around 6pm it cleared up, and I was on the water by 6:30.

BRONZE!

It was another great night on Esten Lake. Another night with just the fly rods. Another night of top water fun. The rain seem to have to turned the fish on. I probably caught as many fish in an hour and half of fishing as I did the previous night. Lost as many as well. One fish, I have to give credit to. He played me brilliantly. Immediately after hookset, he charged my pontoon. I could not strip in fast enough to keep tension. Then, with a good of slack line to play with, he made an incredible vertical launch that a missile would have been proud of. A 180 in the air had him diving straight back in on a trajectory an olympic diver would be envious of. Needless to say, the fish was rewarded for his effort. Hopefully, word of his victory doesn't spread to wide amongst the denizens of this lake. If every fish pulled off this maneuver with such efficiency I'd be catching a whole lot less fish.

Spent the night chucking the Green Fish Critter. Tried subsurface at a few random intervals, but not success.

Topwater Smallies.

Do these glasses make
my ash look big?

A nice change of pace tonight. For the first time in a long while I decided to check the surface with a fly. Proved to be a wise decision. Lots of fish, large and small.

When I first got there, a boat of four were pulling out of the water. They related a mediocre day. A couple of decent bass and a bunch of small ones. Pretty much the story of my last few outings on Esten.

Not sure why, but I decided to try topwater with a GFC. Again, I had two fly rods for the outing. A floater and a full sink. At first it was all little fish. But as the sun dipped in the sky, the fish started getting bigger. By the time the night ended, I had landed a respectable number of fish, with enough decent sized ones that I went home a satisfied angler. Also worth noting, I missed a good number of decent fish. Just not paying enough attention.

GFC.

Due to the design of the fly, rarely do the bass smash the fly as they would a popper. The normal take is more of a violent suck. Envision the surface disruption caused by a large brown sucking duns. Then amplify it by 10. At least. I tried the full sink in some likely spots, but it was no where near as productive as the GFC up top.

More messin' in Esten.

.............ate a Chamois Strip Minnow.

I headed out for some evening fishing on Esten again. Pretty much the middle ground of the last 2 nights. Tonight I left the casting gear home completely and went with two fly rigs. One with a floater, and one with full sink.

The full sink caught more fish today. But again, it was hardly red letter. Again, only one respectable fish, but a good number of smaller bass and a few more perch.

Fish Chowder with Dumplings. Made stock with the bones and
trimmings of a pike. Nothing gets wasted.

I fished a number of different flies tonight. Those three were the Chamois Strip Minnow, Green Fish Critter and the Rabbabou. All caught fish. The strip minnow caught the most, but the GFC caught the best. I had the thought a while back that it should work well with a sinking line. It would suspend of the bottom nicely. I took a decent fish as soon as I tied it on.

Think I might need a change in venue. It seems as though I am always rewarded when  I explore new waters. We shall see what tomorrow brings.

Esten again.

I put in a couple of hours flippering around Esten Lake tonight. I was hoping for a repeat of last nights affair, but it was not to be.

Not sure it was just me. I overheard some other anglers as we were all pulling out our watercraft at nights end and my numbers were higher. Since the lot of us seemed to be in the same boat, more or less, I'm guessing it had more to do with the fish.

It's not that I didn't catch fish. I did. The numbers were fewer, and only a couple of the bass were decent. I did catch my first perch in the lake..........so I know they are there, now I need to locate them in some numbers.

The rodents were hounding me again. I am hoping we can come to some sort of compromise whereby I am allowed passage for fishing in their territory. Tonight the seemed less aggressive, but still very wary, keeping tabs on me. I see the pair at around 6pm. One will head up the western shoreline, while the other goes east. If this is not their standard foraging pattern, then I suspect they are setting up an ambush.

I tried to do a vid shoot today. Maybe the last time for a while. I ended up getting fuck all footage due to either camera or operator error, and ended up losing more fish than was worth it. Aggravating. If I had stuck with just shooting stills this post would have more eye candy than it does.

Fished the Rabbabou Streamer all night.

An Esten Epic.

After two nights off chasing Pike, I decided to fish the lake 30 yards north of the previous nights venue. This lake we do have a name for, its Esten. Upon arriving at the parking lot, I started talking with a couple of guys finishing for the day. The had caught one fish...........a really nice 10lb Northern. Nice fish.

Being my first time on the water, I spent alot of time getting a feel for the lake through my depth finder. When I eventually started fishing, I found the smallmouth in about 14' of water mixed in with the weeds. If I had landed everything I hooked tonight I would have felt like a damn hero. In one of those episodes that we fisherman are prone to, I managed to lose a half dozen nice bass one after the other to start the night off. No point in getting miffed about it, I just had to laugh. All of those fish were lost in the same patch of water.

That was a productive piece of aquatic real estate. Even after botching all those fish, I managed to come back 10 minutes later ( after changing flies in an attempt to get passed missed fish ) and hook and land a good number of fish. From 7pm til the end of the evening, if I could find tall weeds in 14' of water, I would find smallies. I also caught a good number of fish off a shoreline beaver hut. After leaving that area, I eventually came across the residents. Those two foul tempered rodents chased me out of the vicinity rather quickly when we encountered each other. One followed me for a while. 20 yards from in the weeds by the shore. For every foot I moved, so did he. Until eventually he hit the weed edge. I was looking at him, then he looked at me. We held each others gaze for an exaggerated moment, then he dove into the water, heading in my direction. I was out of there as fast as my flippers could take me.


It was flies all the way tonight. They were picking flies up like they had never seen them before. I used two flies. A size 6 Olive Bead Head Wooly Bugger, and a fly of my own design. The way I tie that is, like all my flies, really simple. Put on a beadhead. Tie in a marabou tail. Tie in the rabbit strip. Remember, it is going to be pulled over the back, so it should be tied in inverted. Tie in some marabou by its tip. Wrap forward and tie it in behind the bead head. Pull the rabbit strip forward over the back and tie in. Finish off. Done. Never seen this before, until something else happens along I am calling this a Rabbabou Streamer. It is pictured below, though tied differently than described. I am still working on how I like it tied best.

A pretty impressive first outing on Esten. I can see myself putting in more hours there in the future.

Rabbabou Streamer.

My standard fly rod setup on most outings is a 5 or 6 wt ( mostly five ) with a weight forward line. I use a 9' leader of 10lb whatevershandy. More often than not, my flies are weighted. The current reel I am using is a Basspro house brand. Hobbs Creek White River.

It is a large arbor reel that cost me a whopping 40$. Extra spool ( with a full sink I put on it ) another 20$. Lemme tell you, I have spent a lot more in the past and got a lot less. Being on a budget that could be termed beyond restrictive, I certainly appreciate the bang for the buck. I bought it as a backup/loaner originally. It has become my main reel, for a number of reasons. One big one is that if it happens to go overboard, I won't be out much. The drag has so far proven solid. I have it set pretty tight. I put the boots to fish pretty hard and so far I have had no issues what so ever. The only negative I have ever seen in any real review is it country of manufacture.............Korea.

More Pike.

......love smacking fish with my topwaters.

I hit Lake Nameunkown again this evening for a couple of hours. Figured there would be a good chance at a fish. I am still learning the lake..........plotting it out with my depth finder. I can't saw I am thrilled with what I have found. Yeah, I know there are good pike in there, but what I have seen for structure is almost non existent. The shoreline has a slope similar to the deep end of a pool in most places. So far the deepest trough I have discovered is 30'. Average depth 20 yards of shore is 20'. Surface temperature was reading at 75.

...............gator.

The fish I got was a few inches shorter, and a couple of pounds lighter than last nights fish, but still decent. It hit the same shallow running plug from last night. I had to spend sometime this afternoon extricating it from the net after last nights fishing. Yesterday evenings pike had it messed up in the mesh something wicked. I had to mash the barbs down and ended up replacing the treble hook. F'n hate trebles. Glad I took the time though. I love the action on this lure. Happened just after 7pm. Was the only fish, and only hit on the evening. Think I will go for something else tomorrow. Perch would be nice.

Pike Hunt.

.......weapon of choice.

My mother wanted a pike. We have been out of fish for a while. I haven't been out much at all lately. When I have, I have only been getting into bass..............which I am always reticent to cull. Usually, I will string up some of the better perch.......however, they just haven't been where I have.

............destined for the pot.

My mother has been asking for a pike for a while. Sole reason being, Pike makes excellent fish stock. Better than any other fish we've tried. So, my aim was to get one one on the stringer. We don't waste anything. If its  not on the fillets, its trimmings in a bag, and the rest for stock. To that end, a wonderful website for recipes is Hank Shaws award winning 'Hunter-Angler-Gardener-Cook' He is a James Beard award winner for his blog. For trimmings, recipes like his Laotion Fish Balls or German Fish Meatballs  are amazing. His recipes have all proven to be beyond delectable. The website is http://honest-food.net/. A standard here is grilled fish with his Avocado Salsa, or Basil Vinaigrette.

Wish I could tell you the name of the lake I fished. I don't know it. It does not appear named on maps. It does have a name.............the guy who told me it was a pike lake also gave me the name.........but I cannot recall it at this time. It was my first time on the waterway. As far as I know, it is only pike in the lake.......so like Porridge in that respect. What is really nice, is that it is sheltered from the ( as of late ) prevailing winds.
In the pic below you can see a mirror surface on the water. 30 yards in front of me is Esten Lake. It had a ton of chop on it. So much so that I wouldn't have gone out on it.

Grilled Pike w/Avocado Salsa, Indian Pilau rice and
sauteed yellow beans.

I was only out for a few hours, as usual. It was not an action packed event. I saw one fish crush something on the surface. Another blew up on my topwater but missed it. Third time was the charm though and it was a decent fish of 29" and 6 1/4 pounds. I took it on one of my plugs. Truth is, it is a failed popper. An early make that I missed the proportions on. However, it works great as a shallow retrieve plug, swimming 6 - 12" under the surface with great side to side minnowish action. This was the first fish caught on it. A number of large fish had blown up on it in the past, but failed to get pinned.

Time off.

Too much pain, so no fishing. Sorry.

EL, EL, ON.

.....this mid-lake rock is pretty cool.

I was eager to get back out on to Elliot Lake. Yesterday had been great, and I was hoping for more.

Not sure if its just this year, and or my luck, but there is pretty much always a wind when I've been out. Not a big fan of the wind. Certainly makes for much more work in the pontoon boat. We have also been getting rain almost daily. Although none hit the ground as far as I know, a system did move in threatening a down pour and create some strong winds. Enough to chase me off the lake early. Elliot is not like Horne. Its a much larger waterway. No way I want to get stuck out there in a storm. As it was, staring at the fish finder allowed the cloud cover to get right on top of me before I noticed it.

.......drop shot fish.

Not big, but thanks for playing.

I wanted to try a sinking line today, to see what I could get. Answer was....not much. I got a couple of fish, but conditions were different from yesterday. The fish were not where the had been the day before. A day earlier, and I suspect the sinking line would have worked wonders.
Things started off slow. I was probably out for an hour or so before I got my first fish. A smaller sized smallie. I caught a couple of those to start things off. It was a lot slower than I had anticipated. Not until around 7 oclock did the fishing pick up.

Quality fish.

10-12' was the ticket today.
Chamois Strip Minnow.

At that point, I had positioned myself within a quick dash of the shore where I put in. Yesterday, I had some hits and took a small fish in this area. Figured it was worth checking out. Worked out well. I caught a number of quality fish working a weed line edge in about 10 -12' of water. One fish.............was real big. If it was a bass........I would have liked to have gotten it onto scales. It was not long of a hookup. Long enough for me to say 'holy fuck this fish is big' and start to worry about the logistics of landing it before it popped the hook.
The shittier the weather got, the better the fishing was. In the end, I could see rain coming down in the distance and bailed. It was also bloody cold.

.......big ass bass.

The fly rod proved to be more effective today, despite my ill advised venture with the sinking line. When I started working the 10-12' depth, I switched back to a floater and had immediate success. I fished Yellow Clouser and a bead head Olive Wooly Bugger as well as a Chamois Strip Minnow. The old reliable bugger managed the best fish of the day.

Elliot Lake

I have been meaning to get onto to Elliot Lake for a little while now. Being a much larger water, I have been reticent to put my toon on it in inclimate weather. Things were looking less rainy, though somewhat colder than I would prefer, so I took a kick around for a few hours tonight. Glad I did.

Turned out to be one of the better outings of the year. Caught big bass, caught small bass, caught them in between. Got them on the fly, got them on spin gear. Got them on the surface, got them below. Got them in deep, got them in shallow. T'was a blast.

On the spin side of things, I got the evening started with some nice fish drop-shotting in about 25' of water. When I saw a fish busting bait on the surface, I switched to topwater. I put the popper about 5' beyond its rise, and took it first cast.

Got a lot of fish on the fly as well. The yellow Clouser minnow was the only fly I fished today. Was no need to change up.