I took David from the new tackle shop in town out to do a bit of bassin’ in the stretch of river below my aunt’s farm. We should have got there a little earlier, but it was a good warm night anyway. David was using small lures, while I opted for the fly rod (#8 GL3 borrowed off Andrew). I stood back for a while and pointed out where and how to cast – David had a few small fish follow his lure in up at the very start of the hole, but nothing big. He had a big explosion behind the lure just above the main snag which scared the hell out of him - priceless reaction. He was not casting terribly well - the first or second cast to each snag has to be right up against or under it, otherwise you are wasting your time - and that was probably why he didn’t get any fish from the main spots. While he was plugging away, I had a cast over to the rocks below the main snag with a prototype cicada fly, tied out of an earplug I got from work. It cast like a brick (must be very wind resistant) but lands with an attractive ‘plop’. I let it sit for a while, then slowly twitched it back away from the rocks. Nothing. It absorbed a bit of water, so the next cast was like casting a lead brick! It landed with a plop, and I left it there while I pointed out a spot for David to cast. Crash!! I spun around to see a huge boil where my fly had been and lifted the 8 weight into a hefty fish, which proceeded to motor towards the main snag. I put a lot of side-strain on and managed to just turn it before it busted me (and my wrist!) off under the tangle of tree roots. After a few more strong runs, I landed a fantastic 3lb fish (around 44cm), with the fly stuck right in it’s top jaw – the stinger style hook paid big dividends that time.
Didn’t raise any more fish to the fly, or any other fly for that matter, which suggests that more improvements have to be made to make this an effective bass fly. David had a few more boils behind his lure, but didn’t get any hookups.
Andrew Susani