Tuesday, September 15, 2009

Numbers down, but quality up











I watched the New England Patriots post a come-from-behind win over feisty Buffalo on Monday Night Football. I noticed that Pat QB Tom Brady completed passes to eight different receivers.




I'm no NFL quarterback, but I caught fish on eight different flies today at Lake Manatee. It wasn't that the fish were hitting anything I cast. Quite the opposite; they were very finicky and would turn off a particular pattern quickly.




Wasn't a great day in terms on number, but it was when you consider the quality of fish. Of the 17 bluegill I caught, 15 were hand-sized. I caught five bass, with one pushing 3 pounds.




Most of the bluegill were along the hyacinths on the east side of Gilley Creek, a place that has been holding good numbers of panfish for the past three weeks. I had been catching bass there, but not today.




My bass came just east of the State Road 64 bridge. They were schooling up and busting minnows. All I had to do was drift until they started feeding, then move in close enough for a shot. All the bass came on 6-weight floating line and black popper.




The flies that accounted for the bluegill includeed the black popper, a white popper, smaller white popper, chartreuse popper, Myakka Minnow, FLY Nymph and Aunt Sara's Homely Daughter Nymph.




Fishing was slow overall, but quite enjoyable when you consider the quality of the fish caught.

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