Dropped

So, a couple of days ago, the air temp was 29. Currently...........a balmy 12. Didn't even think of going out. Would have been hard work that would unlikely get rewarded. Done that dance enough in the past.

A couple of days.

I probably shouldn't have said anything. The next day the temperature was lower by 5 or 6 degrees. Guess what the fish did? Or didn't do as the case maybe. That was the 7th. I took the 8th off to check out the property as the builder is just finishing up. On the 9th, the temps shot up. And guess what the fish did? Simple formula really. One of those cases where had I landed all the fish I had shots at it would have been stellar. I missed a bunch of big topwater strikes that really would have been nice to net. Still landed a half dozen or so bass ( and a few perch ), though only one was noteworthy. Still, better than nothing. At least the fish were active.

Stable.

When the weather wants to be nice and stable and seasonable norms, things are so much better. Today was the fourth day ( or so ) of a nice stable weather pattern. Yesterday I noted an improvement due to the stable weather, and today was even better.

Fish were just as happy to pound a surface offering as the were something drowned. At one point in a rather short period of time, I had two large bass smash my popper repeatedly, but the hook ups were for not. I was perplexed. After the initial strikes, I worked over the water and managed to get both fish to react. Still missed the hookset.  Sometime later I notice it wasn't popping right. When checking the fly, I found the leader was wrapped around the bend of the hook.............and my hooksets were just never going to work like that. Once I rectified that little bit of stupidity things worked much better.

Not Just Me.

Its not just me.

The bass have been less than playful as of late. The weather has been yoyo'ing up and down, and the fish have noticed.

Now, I had been second guessing myself a bit on recent outings. I was doing all the things that I thought should equate to success, but they weren't panning out. Why? Me? The fish? The weather? The planetary alignment? A butterfly flapping its wings in China???

I had to meet with my builder at the house recently. He is also a fly guy. I hate to say it, but I was a little happy when he started telling me that he was having to work for his fish lately. Hey! So, it's not me. He, like I, are both suspecting the weather. Makes the most sense.

We have had three days of high temps, with fairly stable weather, so I was hopeful for this evening. I wasn't disappointed. Things were definitely more active tonight. I hooked into a good number of bass, and some sizable ones. Had I landed them all, it would have been a stellar outing. As luck would have it, few fish actually made it to hand. Still, much better than things were.

Most of the fish were caught deep, on a muddler variant. Some fish were hooked up top, but the numbers were nowhere as good as subsurface.