Hey Folks,
I had to go across “the pond” and that has taken the last 4 weeks.
I hadn’t caught a fish in a while and that’s too long. So, I am going to try to do something about that.
I don’t do lakes on Memorial Day or Labor Day; I will let you have those and then I will pick from the rest. These cooler, cloudy mornings have me anxious and with rain forecast for Thursday, it looks like Tuesday is it.
I take two rigs with me in the yak and I am going to go light – 4 wt. fly rod rigged for bream and a spinning rig for the anything else. I am planning on Lake Athens at daylight with report to follow:
My plan was to take advantage of early light with topwaters. That didn’t work. I used a Rebel (mid-size) on the spinning rig and a topwater popper on my 4 wt. fly rod. I started at daylight and I was the first to put in at Lake Athens. At 8:30 I had had two strikes and no catches, so I changed my plan.
I put on soft plastic with a 1/8 oz. weight, Texas rig on the spinning rig and on the fly rod I had live worm with a very small split shot and a light bobber. I was thinking I would cast for bass with the spinning rig and check for bream beds with the worm rig as I drifted along.
I hesitate even to tell you what happened; you’ll think I’m crazy. Here’s what happened; when I had a miss with my soft plastic, I would drift over and put out the live worm rig and get a bass catch with the 4 wt. fly rod, rigged for bream. Talk about fun – having a good bass, hooked well on a light fly rod! The two pictured would actually pull the kayak around. One other bass broke off. I did catch a better bass later on the soft plastic.
With the 4 wt. fly rod I had a day with three species caught – bass, bream and catfish. It was a great morning of fishing to have started out so slow. I went in to Athens for lunch and was safely home by one o’clock.
Till we put in again,
Michael
Michael Banks, DDS
Friends of the Neches River
606 Brookside Drive
Jacksonville, Texas 75766
903-586-1551
By: Michael Banks, DDS, Friends of the Neches River
