A Big Dose of Gill Mania

[Bill Trussell]

Tuesday's fishing trip was one of those days when you say to yourself could it get any better. After arriving at the lake around 1:30 I proceeded to get all my gear and little Raider boat out of the truck and head to some of the out of
way fishing holes on our lake. As usual I was joined by a slue of other boats.
Then there was the endless groups of bank fisherman with their reels all
positioned on various places on the banks. So I was fortunate to be in good
company all afternoon. There were a number of obstacles I had to conquer before
I ever got started the main one being the wind. I try to always use the wind to
my advantage when fishing from a boat and today it seemed everywhere I trolled
on the lake the wind followed and switched directions opposite to my cast. Does
that wind statement sound familiar guys? Some days on the lake it just seems
like the wind has you pin pointed out and it is determined to disrupt any
casting you have in mind for that particular spot. So much for the wind factor,
on with the trip I started on the east of side of the lake around 2 p.m.,
fishing the 10 to 12 ft. deep clear water around weed beds. My 3 Wt. was the rod
choice with a number 12 popping bug black and dark green. I immediately landed 3
large bulls practically in successive cast down the bank. This was the same bug
my son-in-law
caught most of his big gills on last weekend. This bank was in the shade most of
the afternoon which made for some excellent takes on top. I continued looking
for shady banks with this same bug pattern until one take was so violent the
fish run deep and broke off in a brush pile. At that point I had 8 in the
cooler. I immediately switch to a similar pattern which slowed the hits. I was
getting movement under the popper but no takes. This proved to me color and
pattern is a factor when it comes to poppers. I decided to switch to the black
nymph gnat, which I used earlier this year. That day I had a lot of success with
it even in the sunlight. After fishing with it until sundown it proved its worth
helping me land an additional 10 more bulls. I was fishing it like a streamer
slowing moving it back to me. The takes were so awesome that I lost 3 gnats in
brush and another fish just broke off. With the sun nearly out of site for the
day I decided to try something one of my bloggers suggested last week. He told
me I could really land some nice bream using the Muddler Minnow size number 8.
It just so happened that I had one tie on my 5 Wt. 8 ½ ft. So on my way out and
I decided to fish one of the many tree top in the lake. With a few false casts I
made a good 50 ft. Muddler presentation. I twitched it slightly and bam the fish
was on and carried me in a semicircle on the other side of the boat. I managed
to finally land him after stripping line at my feet, and gently reaching down
and lifting him in the boat. I had my digital scales with me and he weighted in
at 13.8 oz. my largest ever on the fly. As I made my way to the landing I wanted
to make one more cast to the other tree top adjacent to the dock. With one cast
left I did a shoot cast in front of the tree top and within a few seconds a
large bull inhaled the Muddler and took off for deep water. I landed him and he
weighted in at 12.14 oz. my second largest bull ever. At that point I would have
gone to the depths of the lake after my Muddler Minnow if it had been hung. You
know in fishing there are always those trips you never forget; this was one of
those trips. I look back on the many, many fishing trips I’ve been on and this
was the best warm water fly fishing trip ever for me. By the way I WILL BE
BACK!!!!

To be filleted and put in the deep freeze. This lake is loaded with this size bluegills, becasue it is stocked each year with 100,000 bream 4" long. None of these bream were on beds. The water temp. was around 72.

These two bruts were on the Muddler. The thickness of their bodies added the weight and of course the richness of the water column. I knew blogging would help improve my fishing.