Flyling a Popping Bug (Just for Ken ROFL)

Ok... Rob & I hit the river about 4:00. He has not flipped much so I opted
to show him. He spanked me with a 4.5 and 3.8. I'll be putting pics of him
and his fish in the fishing with Bob rotation. While he was catching the big
fish of the outing I flipped a 3.5 LM and a pair of 1.75 pound small mouth.

When the light level started to drop I headed into one of the backwaters to
throw some topwater. I haned Rob my favorite popper and he managed one fish
on it. I picked up a flyrod and started throwing a popping bug. In fairly
short order I had missed a couple fish, and then I managed to hook up. It
was a rush. Only a 1.8 pound fish, but it was really exciting on a flyrod. I
took a picture of my accomplishment. It officially qualifies as a first and
a personal best. My first bass on the fly, and my biggest bass on a fly rod.
I caught one a little later that might be bigger. Since I didn't take a
picture of that one or weigh either one the one I took a picture of gets the
honors. I caught a total of five bass flycasting that popping bug, and
missed atleast 7 or 8. Its a totally different style of fishing. (very hard
on my arm after a while.)

I noticed as the light level started to drop I was having a hard time
casting with the flyrod so I picked up a bait caster with a large popper and
caught another right away, and then nothing for a long time. As the light
level changed again I picked up a frog and started working some matted grass
beds. A little 2 pounder quickly nailed it, and came to the boat.

Then it happened. A tiny little slurp and I set the hook on a log. Then the
log started swimming away. It was pulling so hard that it hurt my hand to
hold onto the rod. I thought I might have a big catfish until I felt the rod
almost jump out of my hand when it shook its head. I made three mistakes. I
got excited and tried to horse it out of the grass way to fast. That
probably caused it to jump. I let it jump, and then I was not ready to pull
it over when it did. It succeeded in backwashing my frog out of its mouth
when it fell back into the water, and the fight was over.

We fished a while longer, but good night vision can only make up for so much
dark.

Still an awesome afternoon, and a fair number of good fish, along with a new
PB and a new 1st. LOL.

Thanks for going with me Rob. It was fun sharing a boat with you.

I'll post the pics later.

Bob La Londe
www.YumaBassMan.com