Bass On Small Nymphs?

While night fishing this past weekend, I thought it would be fun to cast for some blue gill on light tackle so I tied on a size 14 bead head nymph I had tied up for pennsylvania trout on 5x tippet and started casting. A few decent sized panfish and perch came to hand, but then rock bass started hitting it. Now it was dark outside and this nymph had one strip of flashabou down the back but other than that it was a dark natural brown. The rock bass were slightly bigger than the panfish, but when 10 and 11 inch rock bass started hitting my nymph it was surprising. Then it happened. The line went tight and I set the hook. One splash and I knew this wasn't a panfish. There was a good bend in the rod and this was a heavy fish. It was dark so seeing the fish was difficult, but as it got closer I got a good look and it was a bass. I laid down on the dock, reached down and pulled a 15" smallmouth out of the water by the mouth. I was extremely surprised that a fish like this would take a small nymph, but the next day a large mouth came out from under the dock and hit the same sized nymph, while small bluegill chased streamers. Here are the pictures.

Sorry the picture is so dark but there was almost no light outside.

Summer Fishing

I have been to a bunch of states and a bunch of different rivers across the country fishing for different species of trout and although the trout fishing and steelhead is fun, fishing from a dock on a home lake is hard to beat. Hours seem to fly by casting off the end of a dock to feeding fish. Fishing from the heat of the day until the dark of the night is common throughout the summer, and my lake is special to me for a number of reasons. There aren't many situations where an angler can cast at numerous species of fish, but in one day this weekend I caught rock bass, smallmouth bass, largemouth bass, white bass, white and regular perch, pan fish, hooked up with carp, casted at gar, and watched a musky swim in and chase a perch down. All those species off of a dock. It is summer and there should be many posts this summer of fish taken on the lake. Stay tuned and tight lines.

Epoxy Baitfish

This is one of my newest patterns. I was in a bait shop getting hooks and some other things to incorporate in flies. I seem to find the best stuff in conventional bait shops. Anyways I saw one of the rapala jerk bait hard plastics that look like baitfish and dive and wiggle when reeled in and I decided to tie a fly like it. It works really well. It is heavy enough that on its own it sinks really slow. It twirls, dives and looks just like a injured baitfish. I like the color of the tubing, but you can paint the tubing or expoxy any color you want. Enjoy

Hook: Can be tied on any size, you will just have to change the size of the mylar tubing. This one is tied on a 4/0 orvis muskie hook

Thread: Black Ultra Thread

Materials: Mylar tubing, marabou, worm rattles, rattle eyes, epoxy, and a piece of plastic for the scoop

Tools: Scissors, Vise, Bobbin, Whip finish tool.

Step 1: Make a thread base

Step 2: tie in marabou as a tail. I used stiff fibers because of the length of this tail

Step 3: tie in flash on each side. Tie in peacock earl on top of the fly.

Step 4: Cut a tear drop shape out of the piece of plastic. Tie in the end to the underside of the fly so it makes a scoop.

Step 5: Slide the mylar tubing overtop the scoop and tie in the end of the tube down. Wrap the thread until it secures the tubing all the way up to behind the hook eye.

Step 6: Pull tubing toward the rear of the fly. When it gets to this point, put two metal worm rattles inside the tubing. Wrap the thread to the rear of the fly

Step 7: Tie down the end of the tubing at the rear of the fly. 5 raps should secure it.

Step 8: Whip finish. Apply epoxy to the sides of the fly and glue a rattle eye to each side of the fly. Cut a small hole in the eye but make sure it is still smaller than the rattle piece. It will make it a louder rattle

Finished flies in other sizes