Flysoup
This time of year the sunfish family, our local inhabitants, are sensing the need for winter food. It is as if they know that after the HOT summer months, like we have had this year they had better be putting on some weight for the winter
You will find them crashing a fly rather than just flipping at it like they do in the spring. The Sunfish family includes the perch like bluegill, longears and greens
Shell crackers and of course the bass both spotted and black, smallmouth and largemouth. They will be feeding even after the sun is up and until after the sun has set.
This is the time of the year I enjoy the long rod for casting a popper to a lily pad or along the edge of a grass bed. If the fly rod is your weapon you will find that the fish are active and are not bashful. The air temperature has cooled so as not to cause you to drip all over. The quite time in the morning and late evening is still a time to spend with a friend just simply casting along the shore. It is a good time to introduce the younger ones or first timers to the fun of fly fishing. The fish will be easier to convince that what you are casting to them is a good meal.
What to use in not as important as it is in the summer. This time of year there is almost nothing that a Bluegill will not try. From a Dalberg diver on a #2 hook or an elk hair caddis tied on a #14. I have done well on rabbit leach strips with spun deer hair heads and foam poppers. I think the best might be the "Miss Prissy" popper in green with the white rubber legs. I get mine at Wal Mart for $1.50 each.
There is one other fly that we call a "shoe fly" some call them "flip-flop flies" These are made out of plugs cut from the beach sandals. Wrap the hook with thread. Split the plug. Use super glue to hold the foam on the hook, add some feathers or rubber legs to the hook and you have a great fly. Tough and they come in many colors. In the morning and late evening, I still like a black fly and in the bright day I will use a bright colored fly. Big flies will get a bass to leave the cover in a charge that will startle you. Crashing on a popper that has set still too long for him to stand. This will usually happen when you stop for a drink or to look the other direction. Some time when you have a loop of line around a weed or the fly line drifts under a lily pad. WHAM! Water flies and your heart jumps to fighting rhythm. Tain't that why you spend time on the water fly fishing. It is for me. I love the fight.
The cooler weather brings on the colors of fall. The bright reds of the sumac and the rusty red of the red oaks. The yellows and oranges of the end of summer will be found. This year with the drought and extreme temperatures of this past summer I think we will be ready for the cooler days. We did set some records this year. Longest time with out measurable rain and all the late in–the–year high temperatures. These have caused the lakes to be lower that in many a year. Flows in the river have been maintained at or maybe just below the minimum flows. This has defiantly hurt the river fishing reducing the oxygen in the water. The lack of water as made the fish more skittish. The lakes have been lowered to try to keep the river flowing. We in the Palo Pinto area have had it somewhat easier that those just east of us. Many could not launch their boats all summer.
So what does this do to the fishing. Well besides the weed cover that is so abundant, we have a more concentrated food source. The weed beds have given shelter to the fish and keep the microseism that the fish feed on all summer close at hand. If you go looking for fish this fall look along the weed beds and where there is a change in the bottom like a log or fallen tree. The place where there is a drop-off, a rock sticking up from the bottom anything that makes the bottom different. Don't for get the boathouses and docks. These are the areas to cast around.
Keep an eye peeled for fish breaking the surface. The stripers will be feeding on the shad and force them to the surface. Often the birds will show the way as was said in Herman Melville's "Moby Dick" " The Birds Captain. The birds will show the way". Here you will only have to cast over the school and retrieve with some speed to convince the big fish to take. Just DO NOT charge up to the school. You will have to drift or use the electric trolling motor so as not to put the school down.
Last week I was fishing the lily pads for some big bass I found them but do to the area they were in they did often win the battle by entangling the fly line or leader around the stems. I broke off as many as I caught. Nice big bass fat from the summer feed but full of fight planning on a long winter of reduced feed. Of course this is Texas and our winters are not as bad and some to the north and fishing will be good all winter long.
Thinking of winter fishing brings up the stocked trout that the Texas Parks and Wildlife stock just below the Possum Kingdom Dam or "Shepherd's Dam" as it should be called. Where highway 16 crosses the Brazos River is a trout stocking area. Here you will find the fly fishermen of the area and from the Dallas Ft. Worth metroplex getting their fly rods out and enjoying the stocked trout of the PK area. More on that the next time. Stocking starts in late November. Right now give a time for the great fall fishing here in this area.