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.

A day or so ago............

I was out one night a couple of days ago. Was another Esten Lake standard..........from what I can recall at this point. A LOT of boats out on the water. More on that day than all other days in combination. Last long weekend of the year maybe.

I`m sure if you look back through my posts, you`ll have noticed a previous mention of weeds in 14` of water. Generally, I will only see the tops of a few of the plants. Full growth starts a couple feet below. On all the lakes I have fished up here, I have consistently found fish....good fish..........in this type of aquatic structure.

Topwater was again very productive, and a sink not so much. And yea, once again I was just flippin out the GFC.

I also went exploring for something new. Found some good water and will be back there soon I hope. It was a follow up on a tip for some dry-fly trout water on the Little White.

Also of note, when on Esten last, I noticed Hex`s on the surface for the first time. I know I have lost my box of hex`s in the move. May have to get the tying bench
and wrap up a few.

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.