Lately I've been in a little of a funk. Work has been a little stressful and there is the possibility of a major life change in the works. Fishing hasn't been my first priority. When life seems hectic it makes me want to fish even more. When I am fishing I don't think about anything but the current moment. The weather has cooled some and I wanted to get on the water. There is a pond close by that I have been fishing recently but it hasn't been very good. Really I wanted to be in a river. My closest choices are the Neuse and the Haw. Neither river has been very kind in the bass dept. I figured what the heck and decided to make a short trip to the Haw.
The water level was perfect and it was very clear. I didn't see much fish activity but with in 5 min I had a decent largemouth on. It made the evening seem very promising. I hit various spots that I knew had to hold bass. I missed strikes here and there. I noticed some menacing clouds overhead and I knew rain was coming fast. My plan was to work the structure in a close area. I went about 10min with out any action what so ever. I had some bluegill playing with my fly but I never had anything of substantial size. This was my first time applying knowledge I was reluctant to use mostly because I didn't think of it myself. In the end the advice was right on and it paid off.
What was the advice? Use big flies and think about edges. Usually when I went for large mouth I was using what I thought were big flies. Poppers size 10 or 8. I was told that is way too small. The size I needed to use was at least a 4 or 2. To me that seemed monstrous for a largemouth. After catching that first bass on a sneaky pete and looking at what I thought was a big fly in the fish's mouth I realized that sz4 fly wasn't so big.
The clouds became more menacing but I continued to work edges and stayed at the edge of the storm. I had all the edgy advice put into action on a good spot. I made probably one of my best casts of the day, twitched the fly a couple times and heard the sweet sound of GULP! I could tell the fish was a pretty good size by how it bent my 8wt. When it jumped my heart really started racing. This was by far the biggest largemouth I had caught not only on the Haw but with a fly. It ran for some rocks and jumped few times showing me how dangerously close my sneaky pete was to coming out of its mouth. In the end the fish surrendered and I had my first good river bass. I played around with my video camera on this trip. I was lucky enough to get the whole thing on video. It's a few minutes in. The date in the beginning of the video is wrong. I was too lazy to change it.
Showing posts with label fly fishing the Haw River. Show all posts
Showing posts with label fly fishing the Haw River. Show all posts
Saturday, August 28, 2010
Thursday, May 27, 2010
Warm Day on the Haw
Weathermen can't predict exactly where thunderstorms will hit but they've been pretty accurate predicting the high temp for the day. This was my second time fishing the Haw and again my temp gauge in the car read 92 degrees. I saw a familiar car in the parking lot and I was happy to see my buddy Dave was already on the water. The water level had raised some since the last time I visited.
I met up with Dave and he informed me the fishing had been pretty slow. I tried the usual spots where I knew fish held and instantly had a sunfish hit my gulley fish fly. I wasn't targeting sunfish today, I was going for largemouth. I kept working water hitting pools here and there. The sunfish were in every piece of slack water. I also found I would have to start stripping before my fly even hit the water. If I didn't I would miss several strikes. The pools looked great but I couldn't seem to find bass.
As I went up stream I saw a section under a tree where I was positive a bass had to be. My assumption was right and on my first cast I pulled in my first Haw largemouth. The fish was only about 10 inches but I was really happy to finally catch one. The fishing started to warm up with the weather. I caught several sunfish and when I cast towards a pool near a downed tree something slammed my line. The fish swam away for a second then bee lined towards me. I could barely strip fast enough to stay ahead of it. It was about a foot away when I raised the rod and the fish swam as though it was trying to bury itself into the ground. I was starting to wonder if the fish was a bowfin or carp. It wasn't until the fishes head came up that I realized it was a catfish. This was the biggest one I have caught this year.
The fishing kept going with sunfish here and there. The wading was a little sketchy with the water being so murky. I decided to call it a day. When I turned around to go upstream I saw a view that was out of a dream.
The picture doesn't do it justice. It was topped off with a osprey flying by me with a good size fish. The bird was maybe 20ft away. It was a neat moment and one that will make me view the Haw a little more fondly.
I met up with Dave and he informed me the fishing had been pretty slow. I tried the usual spots where I knew fish held and instantly had a sunfish hit my gulley fish fly. I wasn't targeting sunfish today, I was going for largemouth. I kept working water hitting pools here and there. The sunfish were in every piece of slack water. I also found I would have to start stripping before my fly even hit the water. If I didn't I would miss several strikes. The pools looked great but I couldn't seem to find bass.
As I went up stream I saw a section under a tree where I was positive a bass had to be. My assumption was right and on my first cast I pulled in my first Haw largemouth. The fish was only about 10 inches but I was really happy to finally catch one. The fishing started to warm up with the weather. I caught several sunfish and when I cast towards a pool near a downed tree something slammed my line. The fish swam away for a second then bee lined towards me. I could barely strip fast enough to stay ahead of it. It was about a foot away when I raised the rod and the fish swam as though it was trying to bury itself into the ground. I was starting to wonder if the fish was a bowfin or carp. It wasn't until the fishes head came up that I realized it was a catfish. This was the biggest one I have caught this year.
The fishing kept going with sunfish here and there. The wading was a little sketchy with the water being so murky. I decided to call it a day. When I turned around to go upstream I saw a view that was out of a dream.
The picture doesn't do it justice. It was topped off with a osprey flying by me with a good size fish. The bird was maybe 20ft away. It was a neat moment and one that will make me view the Haw a little more fondly.
Sunday, April 11, 2010
Finally Landed One
After the Triangle Fly Fishers Haw River Cleanup I decided to do a little fishing. Not really expecting much I tossed my black bead head wooly bugger under a tree. Gave it a few strips and felt some tension. The fish didn't tug hard at first but then it was like it woke up and started to peel off line.
The water was brown and the visibility was horrible. All I could see was my line pointing at the water and zigzagging as the fish headed to deeper water. I knew it was either a carp or a catfish. I let the fish run then remembered how I"ve lost plenty of fish before by letting them run too far. They eventually get caught on a tree or some log and you have to snap the line. After about 100ft of running I grabbed the line and tested the Orvis 8wt. It held fine and the the fish did some interesting things. Went straight towards the bank so fast I thought it was gonna fly out of the water and land on shore. Stopped like a dime about 6inches away then headed for deep water again. It kept doing this over and over and each time it inched closer. The fish rolled about a foot away and I could see from the mustard shimmer that it was a carp.
I finally horsed it towards me and like all of my other carp landing attempts the fish made a last ditch effort run right as my hand was grabbing for it. Usually this is about the same time my tippet or knot snaps.
Luckily it held and the fish came to hand.
Sorry no glory photos, I just removed the bugger and the fish had enough in him to splash me and swim off on his own. I have to thank my buddy for taking the pics while the whole thing was going on. Usually when I'm fishing I never have any pictures of "me" actually fishing. =)
The water was brown and the visibility was horrible. All I could see was my line pointing at the water and zigzagging as the fish headed to deeper water. I knew it was either a carp or a catfish. I let the fish run then remembered how I"ve lost plenty of fish before by letting them run too far. They eventually get caught on a tree or some log and you have to snap the line. After about 100ft of running I grabbed the line and tested the Orvis 8wt. It held fine and the the fish did some interesting things. Went straight towards the bank so fast I thought it was gonna fly out of the water and land on shore. Stopped like a dime about 6inches away then headed for deep water again. It kept doing this over and over and each time it inched closer. The fish rolled about a foot away and I could see from the mustard shimmer that it was a carp.
I finally horsed it towards me and like all of my other carp landing attempts the fish made a last ditch effort run right as my hand was grabbing for it. Usually this is about the same time my tippet or knot snaps.
Luckily it held and the fish came to hand.
Sorry no glory photos, I just removed the bugger and the fish had enough in him to splash me and swim off on his own. I have to thank my buddy for taking the pics while the whole thing was going on. Usually when I'm fishing I never have any pictures of "me" actually fishing. =)
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