Do you love big bluegill?

Lower Illinois River, 3/21/2014

My other half had the kids out-of-state, visiting family in Michigan. That day was my day off, and I had a plan. I was going to leave long before sunrise, and try to arrive on-site about the time the sun came up. I was going to finally target Trout with a fly rod.

I actually arrived about 30 minutes after the sun came up. I grabbed my waders, put them on, then my fly vest, and strung up my new-to-me fiberglass 4wt. I walked down to the riverbank, and started looking. There were already several people fishing, and a few Trout on stringers. No one was fly-fishing, yet.

I had been told that several fly patterns would work. One of those was a Pheasant-tail nymph, which I quickly tied onto my tippet. I made a couple casts, then much to my surprise, got a quick tug from a fish! Unfortunately, I failed to connect.

I waded out a little further, headed for a gravel bar that looked to be about a foot deep, and I could see occasional fish swimming over it. Well, the gravel bar was that shallow, but getting there took me into waist-deep water, where I quickly learned that my waders had a leak, right in the crotch!

Still fishless, I started going through my fly boxes, trying to find something that the fish would eat. I got another bite on a Feather Body Soft Hackle, but again, no hookup. After about an hour and a half, I decided to go back to my vehicle, and switch out the fly gear for my spinning rod, and start using some powerbait, as I kept seeing people catch them on that.

About that time, some other fly-fishers showed up. We talked a bit, then got busy with fishing. I managed to get one bite, but again, no hookup. I’m beginning to doubt myself here…..

I decided to go back to the vehicle, and run out to Marval’s, a campground that has a general store that sells a few fly-fishing things. I wanted to buy some strike indicators. What I didn’t realize, is that when I did this, I left something on the riverbank…….

I managed to find the place, bought what I wanted, and a snack. Got a text message from my other half, but had to drive even closer to town to get any kind of cell signal for a call.

FINALLY, went back to where I had started, completely unaware of what I had left. The folks that were there originally had left. Completely new crowd. I ended up wading across the stream, and setting up at the tail of a riffle, and started casting to Trout just 20 feet away that were obviously eating something. I was suspecting Midges, as I had seen a couple, but couldn’t see any other insects. I tried several different patterns, Zebra Midges, a parachute-style tiny dry fly that I was hoping would imitate a hatching Midge, and a couple other classic dry fly patterns that used snowshoe rabbit’s foot hair for floatation. Nothing.

I was talking to one gent, and he said he had seen a few Mayflies. I realized I had a spent mayfly pattern that I had done to teach a pattern to me. It was a bit big for the original pattern, but it was close to the natural bug that the gent next to me had seen, so I gave it a whirl.

10 minutes later, I had a fish! Sweet! First Trout on-the-fly! A few minutes after that, a second one!

Well, shortly after that, I called it a day. Both Trout were released to fight another day. I now knew I had a few fly patterns that I needed to tie, should I return some day soon.

The next day, Saturday, I stopped off at the pond where I work. I wanted to see if any of the bass in there were feeling frisky. I grabbed my rod, then started looking for my tackle bag to grab a spinnerbait that was hot last year. Uh…….where’s my bag??? I looked all over the back, then checked the middle bench seat, and the front. Nothing. Ohhh…….CRAP!!! I must have left it on the riverbank the previous day! 24 hours later, and I know it’s gone. Dang.

All is not lost. Two years ago, some kid hopped up on Zanex decided to help himself to the same tackle bag. I had started replacing everything, when my wife called me to let me know the perp had been caught, and the PD had my tackle bag. I ended up returning all the lures, but decided to keep the replacement backpack.

I still have that backpack. And, luckily, many of the more costly items that I normally keep in that bag were not there. I lost the original bag, a plano box with a bunch of Crappie tube jigs, and another plano box with a little Trout and Panfish stuff. Some soft plastics, a big stringer, and ALL my floats!

Many of you know that I pour my own sinkers. I have those, ready to get, in my closet. I’ll need to tie some of my custom Crappie jigs to cover what I lost, but that is easy. I’ll probably have to assemble a few of my custom spinners as well.

Today, I spent $20 and got some other stuff, mainly tackle. Once I get everything assembled and into the Tackle Bag Mk. II, I should have about half of what I lost. Enough to cover how I normally fish for Panfish with lures/bait, Trout with lures/bait, and Crappie. Luckily, I did NOT lose my other tackle bag, which has plano boxes for Catfish, Trolling in my kayak, Stripers, and my LMB Spinner/jig box. My LMB crankbait box should be in my closet, as the last time I used it, I was in my kayak last Fall.