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.