Winter b*** - #18 fly

[Kent]

Fished a small private lake here in LaGrange yesterday with Carter Nelson. What a great day - spring weather & many fish. Caught big "Callaway-size" bluegill and numerous nice bass. Most fish were deep (6-14') and took my "rattle-bugger", Carter's sculpin, and a new jig-head fly he's tying.

Carter noticed several of the bluegill we caught spitting up little-bitty "bloodworms(?), so I tied a #18 black nymph on as a dropper off one of Carter's jig-flies and took our biggest b****of the day (about 13"). No, he wasn't huge, but relative to that #18 fly stuck in his lip he looked giant. All the fish came on slow, slow, slow retreives with coundown time. Some were oriented to the bank, shallow structure & dock pilings(but fairly deep), but the rest were on edge of what we guessed (from the surrounding terrain) to be creek channel.

Hooker, what are these "bloodworms"? Little nymphy worms, brownish-black, 1/4" or less, apparently in the mud of bottom. Mosquito larvae or what?

Kent
Flyfishing West GA & Beyond
http://kje.home.mindspring.com

[Hooker]

Gosh Kent,
Neat trip! You need to start your own warm water fly shop.
There are so many different types of nymphs and larvae in the mud now. Plus the temperature has probably got some of them emerging prematurly.
If I had to guess, they are probably either watersnipe larvae (Athericidae), or beetle larvae (Coleoptera).If they've got six legs, they are beetle larvae.

Hooker

[Hooker]

Go

[Loren]

Kent,

Can you recommend some flies or warm water sites for bass, bream, and especially crappie (a trip to Weis lake is coming up in a month)? I'd like recipes.

Loren

[Kent]

Loren -
My favorite warm-water fly is the foam popper, white, in large sizes (mainly warmer weather, tho). Otherwise, it depends on size of water. In small ponds & lakes, I like the weighted wooly-bugger usually in a sparkle peacock/green with black/olive/flashabou tail.

The clouser is my choice for larger lakes with lots of baitfish, usually in white or chartreuse/white. The clouser is also my second fly in small ponds after the wooly-bugger. (I don't fish for crappie much but often take them by accident with the clouser).

Other flies I use on a regular basis are sculpin patterns and weighted muddlers, Carter Nelson's rubber-legged dragon (which I'll have for sale via my web-site soon, tied by Carter himself), and a deer-hair tarantula (another warmer weather topwater - actually a trout fly originally that won Jackson Hole One Fly a coupla years back - see Orvis catalog).

Generally, this time of year, I think most of the larger trout-type nymphs and smaller baitfish imitations work well IF they're fished slower enough and deep enough. B****and most bream are very opportunistic feeders, and the presentation/location is usually more important than fly selection

[CHUNKER]

I know Weis is most known for its crappies,but for bream i do real well on black stonefly nymphs. Sizes 8&10.

[Loren]

Thanks everyone,

Lake Weiss is an annual trip. I go with one of the best crappie fishermen anywhere (Tommy Jones in Franklin). His Stratus is fitted with a bar of rod holders in the back. He uses two 12 ft crappie rods on the outside holders, two 9 ft rods and two 6 footers in the middle. We tie on jigs of different weights and colors and troll at constant speed over fish as seen on the finder. When we get a couple, we know pretty much what weight is needed to get to the depth of the fish and their favorite color dujour. After that it's fairly mechanical. I catch more fish on these trips than at any other time of the year. You could argue (and I wouldn't argue back that it's not very sportting, but hey, tis fun!

Loren