9-26-11

With the recent flooding..my usual jaunts are unfishable...It's forcing me to explore waters that are a bit further away. I'm still in search of a good fishable stream to slam some fall smallies, but so far everything looks like a muddy mess...So lakes have been the destination. I went to a new one today...not a very big lake, but crystal clear to it's max depth of 13 ft. I could see every fish in the water..Catching anything required 6 lb flouro tippet and long leaders...I've never really experienced leader shy bass before...Nothing in the monster range, but a good few hours of fishing, 6 perch all over 12 inches and fat and 4 large mouth, a few pickerel mixed in as well. My camera broke half way through the morning so I don't have many pics...

The bite shut down at about 10:30 am and I moved on. Lake number two..This lake and I have been doing battle for the last couple of weekends. It's a huge lake...I tend to stay in the shallow backwaters where I won't get run over by an out of control speed boat. I brought two set ups with me. There are carp in this lake the size of tree limbs. I started out searching for buckets, but by the time I found my first carp the bass rod got stowed and the hunting began. This was a learning experience to say the least. I found carp...lot's of carp...Sunbathing and cruising, not one feeder. They are rather amusing when sun bathing..They ride the current, turning side to ro side, almost looking like they are going to flip over. I tossed flies in front of them, dropped them, twitched them, drifted them, bounced them off of them...nothing...I spent 5 hours stalking carp that I could not get to eat. They were so uninterested in me that several actually swam up to my kayak, looked at it and went under me...at first it was a bit frustrating, watching all of these monsters and getting no response...then it was just amusing...Once the obsession kicked in it didn't matter that I wasn't catching any, I just needed to find more...So that was the day..quietly poling through the flats watching lazy fish sunbath...but it was a fun..humbling and relaxing..As I sit here and write this, my back and shoulders ache from paddling all day...I ponder..maybe the carp had the right idea...relaxing lazily on a beautiful day in the sun before the winter sets in.