It's Pickin' Up!

My first of the season!

The season is getting going- better late than never. After record flooding and fairly high water levels in many Vermont streams and rivers things are finally pulling back together. More importantly- the fish are on!

I headed down to "the Creek" and found it surprisingly uncrowded. Very nice to see but indeed unusual for the past year or so. I did see one guy and quickly realized it was Tyler from Classic Outfitters. Just before I went over to talk to him I hooked up with my first smallmouth of the season- a spunky 18" hen with a round belly full of eggs. Pretty sweet!

Tyler "swinging" for gar

As I walked down to see what Tyler was up to, he said "Do you have any gar flies?" and pointed to a 3 foot fish in shallow water. He had it slash at a Zonker a couple of times but it stopped responding to it. I set him up with a Clouser I had that I thought might get the fish interested. I should know better and carry gar flies with me- this isn't the first time I have seen these critters around in May.  Despite my help the gar wouldn't eat. 

My first MC smallmouth this year (not the last!)

I got another nice fish- this one 19.5", a Master Class smallie! Just what I was after! After a couple of photos she went back in. My guess is that she was about 3 lbs or so. This fish is what a lot of guys will tell you is a "5 pounder". Five pound fish can be found but they are a rarity to be honest and they are usually at least 22" or 23" long.

I got into another fish close to where the first one came from. Another gorgeous fish at 17" and it jumped quite a bit. Not two minutes after releasing that fish I had a bump... I thought it was a small fish when it first showed until it tail walked over a branch... this was a good one! It went in the air a couple of times and I brought it in. Another fat female but this one was a bit longer- 20.5"! This fish was pushing 4 lbs too. Very pleased about that!

That is a piggy! (I do mean the fish)

I told Tyler what I was doing and showed him the technique I was using to get their attention but for whatever reason they weren't responding for him. He did get a couple of nice bass on Sunday but sometimes these early fish can be fickle with color and presentation. The first fish that show up are female and they can be a bit more difficult than the males. They have a preference for different flies than the later fish do. If you want to find out what those flies are you will just have to hire me to take you out!

And so it begins....

Weird Day

Trophy brookies in that?  Yessir!

It was a strange day on the water and by the end of the day all I could think of was a quote from Ghostbusters adding in my own quotes to it:

"Huge brookies in ditches, suckers taking Clousers, largemouth in fast water, cats and dogs living together..... mass hysteria!"

That about sums it up. Kevin and I did a float and ran into some exceptionally large brook trout in a place they really should not have been. Very cool to see, but weird, very weird.

Suckers eating minnows?

Then we hit a Lake Champlain trib in Northern Vermont. Kevin put on a big ol' chartreuse and white Clouser minnow and I had on a big olive cone head zonker. He was at the head of a pool and hooked up within 5 minutes. Awesome!  As I ran over to it to see what it was it didn't look at all like the bass we were looking for. Sure enough, it wasn't. It was a big ol' white sucker that latched onto his Clouser. Cool catch, but a sucker on a Clouser..... weird...  The fish was 18", had warty protuberances on it, and was spilling milt. A spawning male. 

Where did this come from?

Not long after that I was standing in the same spot slowly working back my fly and something hits it. I got a look pretty early on and it looked very bass like and it was..... but not a smallie- a largemouth in fast water. Good sized fish, 18", but not what I expected.... weird.....

Kevin got a 12" fallfish then walked down to water I had been fishing and hooked up again with that Clouser. This time it was a smallie- a fat 17" lady.  Females come in first so things are just starting. 

This makes sense!

I managed to hook into and lose something and that was pretty much then end of getting into fish. Seeing how high up the lake was on this trib..... weird....   seeing how high the lake is..... weird..... Kevin outfished me 3 to 1.... weird (not really, but had to say it!)

And I should have some big news this week- a pending state record!  More about that when it goes through!

Apparently I was fishing with a pregnant man too!