Post by reelteacher on Jul 29, 2008 14:59:25 GMT -5
Good Grief... My summer is almost over , school starts in a week and a half and the creeks are finally getting low and clear enough to fish. As Chad Miller said in his news letter, "August is my favorite month!" The water temperatures are in the mid 70's and rising. This means that the metabolism of the fish is getting higher and the fish must consume more food in order to maintain its present body weight. Well, this late in the season, not only do smallmouth need to maintain their body weight, they want to pack on the pounds for old man winter. The beautiful thing about August is that the fish eat pretty much night and day while food is available. However, this does not mean they are wanting big meals. They will be dining on minnows, crayfish, small frogs, damselflies and dragonflies, grasshoppers, and of course, those Japanese beetles.
Flies that work best imitate these food items in size and action. Flies that are allowed to swing in the current without a lot of weight will produce much better results than big, heavy, weighted flies that sink right to the bottom. Remember, the bass are hungry and aggressive, they will travel quite far to pick up food, if it looks like it's getting away.
Poppers and sliders are also excellent choices to use this time of year. There is something about the splashy pop of a surface bug that seems to just drive bass crazy. Don't be afraid to let the bug sit on the surface for 30 seconds or more as soon as it lands and then again after you've popped it two or three times. Bass will often swim underneath the popper and stare at it, waiting for it to move the slightest bit or contemplating to eat it or not. If you retreive the popper too fast, many times the bass will follow it all the way to the end of your pole. You didn't give it a long enough time to make the decision to eat it. The longer the popper is in the water, the better chance you have of enticing a strike. I know this sounds easy, believe me, it's not. Especially when you see all the other places in the stream a bass could be other than where your popper is. But have faith, make a good cast, and wait. Pop, pop, pop, and wait some more, and repeat and add a twitch here and there. Mix it up, don't let your retrieve be "robot-like". Then, HANG-ON... because the bass will strike when you least expect it. Usually this occurs when you are daydreaming about the next hole or a fish you just missed or your wife, girlfriend, whatever. It never fails. The bass seem to have a sixth sense that knows just when you are not paying attention. Then, it will leap all the way out of the water and rock your fly with a mighty smash... You'll be awakened from your slumber, give a giant yank on your rod with two hands, and the fly, which the bass has already spit out, will come sailing out of the water and up into the highest branch of a Sycamore tree behind you, never to be seen again. You'll be left dazed and confused, and probably cursing under your breath, if not out loud. This grim image has happened to me and my father personally over a hundred times. Usually, it's the largest bass of the year that are the best at this game. But, that's the joy of fishing... You just never know when "Jaws" attacks!
Good Luck.
Now, get out there and Fish! Hope to see you on the water soon.
Regards,
Dustin
Flies that work best imitate these food items in size and action. Flies that are allowed to swing in the current without a lot of weight will produce much better results than big, heavy, weighted flies that sink right to the bottom. Remember, the bass are hungry and aggressive, they will travel quite far to pick up food, if it looks like it's getting away.
Poppers and sliders are also excellent choices to use this time of year. There is something about the splashy pop of a surface bug that seems to just drive bass crazy. Don't be afraid to let the bug sit on the surface for 30 seconds or more as soon as it lands and then again after you've popped it two or three times. Bass will often swim underneath the popper and stare at it, waiting for it to move the slightest bit or contemplating to eat it or not. If you retreive the popper too fast, many times the bass will follow it all the way to the end of your pole. You didn't give it a long enough time to make the decision to eat it. The longer the popper is in the water, the better chance you have of enticing a strike. I know this sounds easy, believe me, it's not. Especially when you see all the other places in the stream a bass could be other than where your popper is. But have faith, make a good cast, and wait. Pop, pop, pop, and wait some more, and repeat and add a twitch here and there. Mix it up, don't let your retrieve be "robot-like". Then, HANG-ON... because the bass will strike when you least expect it. Usually this occurs when you are daydreaming about the next hole or a fish you just missed or your wife, girlfriend, whatever. It never fails. The bass seem to have a sixth sense that knows just when you are not paying attention. Then, it will leap all the way out of the water and rock your fly with a mighty smash... You'll be awakened from your slumber, give a giant yank on your rod with two hands, and the fly, which the bass has already spit out, will come sailing out of the water and up into the highest branch of a Sycamore tree behind you, never to be seen again. You'll be left dazed and confused, and probably cursing under your breath, if not out loud. This grim image has happened to me and my father personally over a hundred times. Usually, it's the largest bass of the year that are the best at this game. But, that's the joy of fishing... You just never know when "Jaws" attacks!
Good Luck.
Now, get out there and Fish! Hope to see you on the water soon.
Regards,
Dustin