I decided to fish LLELA(the Lake Lewisville dam) today after, well, anything. I had no idea what the fishing would be like down there since I haven't been down there since March. They were releasing a little water, around 200cfs, so there was a good bit of flow for me to deal with. I started walking downstream, plopping a fly into a pool every now and then. I really wasn't seeing much so I made a big move- all the way to the railroad bridge. I walked the mile long trail down to it and fished around it for a while. Caught a few bluegill right before I went under it then came to the other side. Then I saw something that interested me, a creek that dumped in another 70 or so feet downstream from me. I walked to it and saw some bluegill and bass holding on a big log in the water. The bank was pretty high up off the water so I couldn't hit it from that spot, so I started searching for a way to get down there.
I found a worn down trail, I don't even think it was a human made trail. Once it led me to the water I saw another ledge but this time some roots provided me a climb down spot. Then I looked beneath the surface and couldn't believe my eyes. Carp, Buffalo, River Carpsuckers, Blue suckers, Redhorses, and assorted other species scattered all around. I just sat there and stood amazed for a few minutes, watching from a clear vantage point at the vast number of fish below me. I then saw a target, a carp that was cruising really slowly, dropping down toward the bottom every now and then to pick up a possible food item. I made my first cast from 15 feet up the bank on that ledge. I dropped the fly in about 2 feet ahead of the fish. I really didn't expect much, maybe a look but no take, but the opposite happened. The fish saw the fly, picked up speed, and inhaled it. I set the hook, Fish ON!
The fish made a few nice runs and finally came to the net. The weird thing was none of the other fish spooked, I even had 2 more carp try to take the fly away from the fish! Turned out to be a nice little fish, an immaculate mid single that was very healthy.
I went right back to fishing. I had a few spook but ended up getting several more interested looks. Nothing for about 40 minutes, at least no takes that is. I didn't have much time down there since it was a 30 minute walk down and I needed to get back so I gave myself 10 more minutes and decided I'd call it a day after that was up. Then I saw a feeding buff pass by, stopping really close to me to feed. I stuck the fly down in it's path and the fish kept moving toward it. Once it was an inch from it, it's head went down again. I saw the fish directly on top of the fly, so I waited a crucial second. Then, a puff of mud went through it's gills. I knew it had the fly then. Hookset and Fish ON!
This was one of the rare occasions where the buff's fight was harder than the carp's fight by a long shot, it took several hard runs and nearly bent the hook straight! I had it in the net soon though, before my 10 minutes was up.
Not bad! This is the first buff on the fly I've caught from LLELA, so that made it even better!
It was time to walk back so I headed back toward the dam. The lighting was perfect for some pictures so I took out the DSLR and snapped a few random pics on the way back.
A great way to spend a Sunday afternoon, I'll definitely be back soon before it gets too cold!
Hit the library ponds today, caught a few too. Nice mix of bass, bluegill, and greenies before the storm hit. Caught all of them on a blue north fork nymph or a gray/olive clouser.
The secret spot has been pretty fussy this week. The fish are kind of off the feed from the high flows coming from all the rain. The carp want nothing to do with anything i'm presenting them but the buffs wanted to play. Landed 1 out of 3 hooked. Also hooked a carp but somehow it got off.
All I know about this spot right now is it's MUDDY! Ridiculously muddy, it's hard to walk without slipping. Also the weeds are really coming back, gonna have to whip out the machete next time I try to hit it, a few of my spots are getting clogged up with weeds.
This past weekend I did a 3 day session with Ryan and Erick at a lake that will remain a secret for a bit. It was pretty slow for almost the whole trip but we had enough jokes going that the session turned out OK, then with a final fish for me that changed everything.
It started with me showing up, semi lost and looking for a swim that suited me. Erick and Ryan wouldn't show up for another hour or two so I had some time to scout out the are we'd be fishing. I found an old abandoned boat ramp and cast out a marker float once I found a proper spot to set up a bivvy. First cast I marked 16 feet about 45 yards out. perfect. Set the brolly up and began getting all my crap sorted out.
Erick showed up around 7 and we quickly got out in the Diablo and set the marker floats. The Fishfinder on it finally works so I was able to set GPS coords on top of each of the markers so we could re-set them if any of them got moved for any reason(that happened a few times). We started baiting out huge amounts of stuff. Maize, cracked corn, hemp, tigers, boilies, range cubes, everything really. We knew we'd have hell with catfish so we didn't lay off baiting heavily. Soon we had rods in the water. Then the sequence we'd be following over the course of the weekend started to become clear. Catfish....catfish...catfish...another catfish....catfish...you get the point, THEY WERE RELENTLESS! we caught a ton of them, and none of them were decent sized, all were little eater channels, almost identical from fish to fish.
We all started to get hungry and made some stuff to eat, I made some rigs, and it got kind of quiet. Then, we had our first idea of the trip. Fire.
Erick gathered up some stuff and we poured lighter fluid on it. Fire.
It cured our boredom for a few minutes, then we kind of lost interest. Sometime during the first night Erick hung an empty beer bottle on my scale as a "scale cover". It remained there almost till the end of the trip. Several catfish were caught then finally we went to sleep. Until 6, that is, when the boat ramp opened and bass boats started pouring in like ants.
We made some food, recasted, and boated out some bait. This looked like it was going to be another day of catfish and random shenanigans. Which it was, of course.
The first was Ryan's little mud mishap. Yeah, he got stuck a little bit in East Texas's famous mud.
Because of the mud pit here, we have named this swim "the tide pool swim", which may confuse a lot of people when the lake comes back to normal level, where this pool will be 9 feet underwater.
The next thing we did was the catfish fillet contest, which we never really determined a winner because we all sucked. We at least got some edible meat out of the deal and made a nice dinner.
Our pattern contined too, Catfish...catfish...catfish...catfish. It felt like a waste. We weren't seeing anything as far as fish crashing or anything. We kept thinking it would pick up, but it never really did what we wanted it to.
Just when we thought we had been past the worst, the weather forecast said it was going to rain on us sometime that night, so we spent a good 2 hours cleaning everything around our swims up for the rain, which never came. We cooked the catfish, which was pretty good., and sat down and waited for the fish to come. As darkness fell we heard a sound out toward Erick's marker. Sploosh. A fish crashed. Finally they were here....not really. We heard some other crashes through the night but then never found our hookbaits.
That night was lazier than the first. It was spent searching stuff on Youtube, reeling in catfish, and chasing Nutria down the bank.
Yes, Nutria
We were asleep by 1, and I was up first at 6.
Now the next morning was not really what we expected. I knew nothing would really come together at the last moment like we had wished but I could wish that SOMETHING might happen. That something did.
I reeled in and recasted all 3 of my rods. I casted the middle rod last and got it bang on my marker, within 5 feet to the right of it, I was tightening the line to set the indicator when I started getting catfishy feeling twitches. I kept tightening and the marker moved, I was mad. I knew I hadn't come close to the marker so maybe it drifted or something. I dragged the kayak in the water and paddled out, my rod in one hand, paddle in the other. When I got to the marker something happened. It wasn't connected. At all. It had a fish on it. The bow of the boat swung around back toward open water and the fish began pulling. I slapped the water to wake Ryan and Erick up and yelled "Fish on!". Ryan got up and stretched a little but. He was confused to why I was in the kayak, if I had a fish on, or really what the hell I was doing in the first place. Soon he had the answer, as the fish surfaced and I yelled my observations- "High 30, possibly 40! It's a Buff!" At this point I start stressing. This fish is way over my PB, i'm in a kayak, I only have 1 open hand to paddle with, and I'm 40 yards from the bank. A solution worked itself out and I started the long one handed paddle back to shore. Erick and Ryan waited there with the net, and upon my arrival Erick slipped the net under the fish. WICKED!
Onto the mat. This was a big fish, and a buff at that. Very unexpected. Onto the scale, and the weight is 38lbs 10oz, a new PB and also a water body PB for me. Awesome!
Awesome as it gets.
After the release I just laid back down and tried to calm down. FINALLY a buff PB break, upping my PB from 26-10 to 38-10. Greatness.
We cooked breakfast and began packing to leave. We scouted a few more areas, found a large amount of petrified wood, and I finally got a chance to pull out the camera for some action shots- Distance casting with a 4oz distance lead.
Yeah, Get that proper form down!
That's it!
Perfect!
That's about it for this session, stay tuned for another awesome session in a few weeks!
haven't posted in a while! Got all caught up with school. Got some great stuff going up tomorrow from this past weekend's session in East Texas with Ryan and Erick. I broke my PB buff, upped it to a beast of a 38lber right when we thought the session was over.
Got the fishfinder in the Diablo to work finally! I'm going to be fishing out of it a ton now. The bubbles on Grapevine should be fishing good right now, I'll go check that out this week sometime.
Fishing's really great right now for all species, so I should really start posting! haha
