Back on the water!

[Billy]

Blessed with a very cold but sunny day on one of my favorite ponds.

I started out with a red simiseal leech off an aqualux. The first strike was super delicate and I just sort of felt the weight of a fish.

Nice silver bullet to the net:



After that I picked up another fish off an indicator but then struggled a bit. I went to a green jig craw and picked up 3 more fish before an absolute toad broke me off. As an experiment I went to a brown jig craw and picked up several more fish. It was clear they liked brown a little better.



Then I got into a bigger fish. I guessed this slab around 26 inches. One hell of a fight too:



They just dont get much better:



Cheers to me:



At this point I couldn't feel my toes much. I went to shore to warm up and immediatly was into fish after fish on a small olive jig below an indicator:



Tony the tiger makes an appearance:



Might be time to try some blue colors in my craw flies:



The day was really a tail of two halfs. The streamer bite and the indicator bite. A big jig craw and a small olive jig just got it done.

I felt a little rusty but the fish didn't seem to care:



A day to remember for sure:



Can't wait to get back out!
Billy

 

[goinoregon]

Blessed with a very cold but sunny day on one of my favorite ponds.

I started out with a red simiseal leech off an aqualux. The first strike was super delicate and I just sort of felt the weight of a fish.

Nice silver bullet to the net:

View attachment 178437

After that I picked up another fish off an indicator but then struggled a bit. I went to a green jig craw and picked up 3 more fish before an absolute toad broke me off. As an experiment I went to a brown jig craw and picked up several more fish. It was clear they liked brown a little better.

View attachment 178451

Then I got into a bigger fish. I guessed this slab around 26 inches. One hell of a fight too:

View attachment 178456

They just dont get much better:

View attachment 178457

Cheers to me:

View attachment 178452

At this point I couldn't feel my toes much. I went to shore to warm up and immediatly was into fish after fish on a small olive jig below an indicator:

View attachment 178460

Tony the tiger makes an appearance:

View attachment 178454

Might be time to try some blue colors in my craw flies:

View attachment 178453

The day was really a tail of two halfs. The streamer bite and the indicator bite. A big jig craw and a small olive jig just got it done.

I felt a little rusty but the fish didn't seem to care:

View attachment 178436

A day to remember for sure:

View attachment 178439

Can't wait to get back out!
Billy

nice. those guys are a load. jealous.

 

[Bambooflyguy]

Great day Billy!!

 

[2MANY]

Billy, if I can call you that, nice work!!!
I'm an athletic free wave fan.
I've never seen cheers.
How is it?

Wife said I'm an idiot and thats a koozie.
Cheers!

 

[Billy]

Billy, if I can call you that, nice work!!!
I'm an athletic free wave fan.
I've never seen cheers.
How is it?

Wife said I'm an idiot and thats a koozie.
Cheers!

Not a koozie! I liked it. Nice crisp IPA flavor.

 

[2MANY]

I've been telling her for years I'm NOT an idiot (open to interpretation).
Congrats on the fish.

 

[Northern]

Whoa! What a spectacular day, Billy
That had to feel good this deep in winter!

 

[O clarkii lewisi]

Cringe time for fish, with Billy back at it! Strong work! Curious if the craw shells turn blueish after being out of the water or have you seen live ones of that color?

 

[Billy]

Cringe time for fish, with Billy back at it! Strong work! Curious if the craw shells turn blueish after being out of the water or have you seen live ones of that color?

I haven't seen any blue ones but I know black and blue is a very popular color for bass guys with early season jig bites....might be a fun experiment to try some different colors

 

[Scott Salzer]

Excellent, Billy! What a day! Thanks for sharing - I’m jealous.

 

[Brian in OR.]

Nicely done.... Why do you think you had success with the small green leach under the bobber but they preferred the brown over the green streamer ? How deep do you think the fish were?

 

[Matt B]

I’m waiting for Billy to post a poor results trip report one of these days. Unless they just never happen. Ha

The native Signal Crayfish were supposedly named for the light blue patches on their claws. I suspect sun bleaching had something to do with that one’s appearance but there’s all kinds of ranges of coloration in individual animals as we all know from fish.

 

[Billy]

Nicely done.... Why do you think you had success with the small green leach under the bobber but they preferred the brown over the green streamer ? How deep do you think the fish were?

Great questions Brian! As far as the color the green craw took me awhile to get fish and the brown was like flipping a switch.

It is possible that the water warmed and the fish simply turned on. Part of why I got so cold was I wanted to keep fishing and didn't want to go to shore because brown was working.

As far as the small jig in years past @troutpocket and I have found this bite before. It's a down wind slot/pocket that forms. It's got slightly deeper water and the fish seem to stack in it and go into a feeding frenzy. Only about 4-5 feet deep. I was casting up wind into the shallow and when it drifted over the lip into slightly deeper water down the indicator went.

As to the bug I came up with it one day for this specfic lake but it doesn't really look like anything specific. Just juicy when wet. In the future I'll do something more durable then goose biots for tail. Just a food fly I guess. Size 12.

The small jig:



The craw:





Billy

 

[dep]

awesome job fella.
early spring treat!

 

[Shawn Seeger]

Great questions Brian! As far as the color the green craw took me awhile to get fish and the brown was like flipping a switch.

It is possible that the water warmed and the fish simply turned on. Part of why I got so cold was I wanted to keep fishing and didn't want to go to shore because brown was working.

As far as the small jig in years past @troutpocket and I have found this bite before. It's a down wind slot/pocket that forms. It's got slightly deeper water and the fish seem to stack in it and go into a feeding frenzy. Only about 4-5 feet deep. I was casting up wind into the shallow and when it drifted over the lip into slightly deeper water down the indicator went.

As to the bug I came up with it one day for this specfic lake but it doesn't really look like anything specific. Just juicy when wet. In the future I'll do something more durable then goose biots for tail. Just a food fly I guess. Size 12.

The small jig:

View attachment 178505

The craw:

View attachment 178506



Billy

Have you ever put the small green jig on a leader and hung it in a glass of water to see what it looks like wet and maybe with a bit of up and down motion? Just curious... maybe a wet picture would shed some light.