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.

Fly Pattern: Chamois Strip Minnow?

So, this is the fly I came up with. Very very simple. I can see myself getting a lot of use out of it. Ties up in no time. You should be able to deduce its construction by looking at it.

As I keep saying, you can literally just tie chamois on a hook and it will catch fish. Whether or not the extras tiers add aid in effeciency I will leave for others to debate. I have a feeling that indeed they do, or I wouldn't bother. Without any better reference, I'll be referring to this as a Chamois Strip Minnow, or CSM in the future. As a caveat, with any new pattern I come up with, I always point out, just because I am not aware of it, does not mean this pattern does not already exist. If you have seen it before, drop me a line and let me know the particulars.