Reservoir White Bass and Wipers...Quick Weekend Fix

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.

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.

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.


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.




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.


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.

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.




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....