Tuesday, June 29, 2010

Let's get small


Every guy wants some strange now and then. It's no different with fishermen. I catch hundreds of trout every year. That's not because I'm some super-flycaster. It's just that trout fishing is really good around here, and I fish a lot. Brook trout in mountain lakes are particularly easy to catch in vast quantities (my best day was 77.)

I don't like eating trout that much, so rarely keep any. But trout are the only game in town so I fish for them almost exclusively.

Last year, I heard about a lake about an hour away that contained smallmouth bass. In addition, I heard you could catch them on flies.

So I hit it this spring in a float tube. Bass bugs on the surface didn't work so I switched to woolly buggers and a sinking line. That worked and I caught six smallies that probably thought the brown bugger was a crayfish.

They fight harder than most fish and gave the six-weight rod a workout. Smallmouth also are beautiful fish. Every one has different markings, but they all have red eyes. I kept a couple for dinner, and they were fine table fare compared to trout.
Some strange is good now and then.