Monday, May 11, 2015

Reservoir White Bass and Wipers...Quick Weekend Fix

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For the second weekend in a row I somehow ended up hanging around the house instead of sitting around a campfire on a river somewhere. There aren't many things that'll keep me from a fishing trip...but Mothers Day and celebrating it with my Grandma and Mom happens to be one of those things. That being said , even I have my limitations as to the length of time I can go without a flyrod in my hand and still maintain my (in)sanity. I'd heard rumors of the white bass and hybrids starting to be caught by a few fishermen on a local reservoir recently and with little more than a few hours to play with on Saturday morning decided it was worth the short 30 minute drive over to check it out.
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Joe and I hopped in the truck around 8:00 and after a quick stop for a cup of coffee we were headed West. The morning was cloudy , with a slight drizzle in the air when we reached our destination and started the trek down to the water.
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There were a half dozen or so other fishermen already on the dam but from what I could tell they were all stationary and more than likely crappie fishing. On my last outing for white bass the fly of choice had been a Thunder Creek Minnow and seeing as it was still affixed to the leader on my spey rod that was the fly I started off the day with again.
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We started at one end of the dam and started working our way towards the other side , jumping around crappie fishermen as we came to them and generally just getting lots of strange looks from folks wondering what that guy was doing with the 12 foot spray-pole. In all fairness , if you could have seen my casting you would have been staring as well , I'm still learning this spey casting thing.
While the fishing wasn't red hot by any means we ended up catching half a dozen fish in the two hours we were there , with two of them being 4-5 pound wipers.
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Still not big fish as far as wipers go , but for this lake they were definitely respectable fish and better yet they put one heck of a bend in the seven weight.
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Once the sun started to break out from behind the clouds and warm things up the Saturday crowd began to arrive in earnest , what I like to call "fair weather fishermen". I figured the sun breaking through would put a halt to my bite anyway so Joe and I headed back to the truck and let the bucket brigade have it for the rest of the day.
Sunday morning I had even less time to work with but just couldn't help myself , Joe and I piled back in the truck and headed out again just before 7:00. A light fog greeted us as we made our way down to the lake , and seeing as it was Mother's Day , a few less fishermen as well.
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We hit a couple of the areas that we had success the previous morning and managed to pick up a few more fish. No nice wipers today though unfortunately , four or five white bass and one small sauger were the extent of our catch.
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Still a great way to spend a few early morning hours with my best fishing bud , and now that we know the fish are starting to move in I have a feeling we'll be back sooner than later. Until next time....
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17 comments:

  1. i just adore your fishing buddy!!

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    1. I'm pretty sure if it wasn't for Joe I'd lose the five readers that frequent my blog!!

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  2. Wonderful shots. Fishing is a very good hobby. It was nice to see a small fish inside the mouth of the big one.

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    1. Thanks for the comments...glad you enjoyed the photos.

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  3. I've tied and used thunder creek shiners for steelhead, pretty effective. Fun catching white bass on the fly rod. they fight pretty frisky in open water. Some of them are good size. Nice!

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    1. This year was my first chance to tie and use a Thunder Creek Minnow ,I've been impressed. Easy to tie and ,although they don't look like much, the fish seem to like the profile. It's hard to beat white bass or hybrids on the fly for sure!

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  4. What a fishing buddy you have.
    Joe your tops.

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    1. Just having Joe along can make a less than stellar fishing (catching ) trip a near perfect day. He's one of a kind for sure!

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  5. Can't wait for you to post a video of your new found casting technique.
    Dave

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    1. Coming to a You-Tube station near you soon...Fat Guy Spey Casting (with a bonus track on how to remove a 1/0 Gama hook from the back of your head)

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  6. Great shots Jeff and I think you've made Joe a star.

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    1. Thanks Howard...Story of my life right there , I do all the work and someone else gets famous for it!!

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  7. That's really cool! Wipers sure are fun on flies. Yours appear to average a bit bigger than ours. Great-looking flies, too!

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  8. That's really cool! Wipers sure are fun on flies. Yours appear to average a bit bigger than ours. Great-looking flies, too!

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    1. Thanks Dave....hybrids are right up there with smallmouth and brown trout as one of my favorite fish for sure. Id say the lake I was fishing just had a couple of good year classes , I caught plenty of smaller fish too but enough of those bigger ones to make it a great time.

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  10. Great pictures, and very inspiring trip report! :)

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