Refuge on the fly - keeping it interesting.

Well I wasn't planning on fishing today.  I have a busy weekend of fishing planned for Labor Day so I didn't want to push my luck with my family.  BUT, as it turns out the weather is not looking good for the weekend so I decided not chance it and go when I could...TODAY!  Having had some luck at Felsenthal this week I knew the fish were there.  However, I wanted a change...3 days in the same area, same temperatures, same presentations.  I decided I needed to mix it up, since this trip was on the fly, might as well bring my 5wt.  Plus I need all the practice I can get with the fly rod.

Long story short:  I started with a frugal frog popper, tied on to 5ft of 8lb fluorocarbon leader.  Made a couple presentations and caught a few blue gills.  Casting a fly from a kayak in 90F is too much work for blue gills.  I decided to tie on a streamer.  First cast, caught a lily pad.  Next cast a tree.  Next cast my fly line got tangled in my rudder.  Just about done with the fly for today when I saw a fishylookn spot and made a "ok" presentation.  The streamer landed with a thunder and my fly line looked like six "S"s stacked on top of each other.  I got a take but no fish...too much slack in my line.  I guess I needed to get warmed up b/c after a few more fails I started getting the hang of it.  My presentations were close enough...about 1-2 feet from the cypress trees.  And then it happened, hard take and nice fight.

At that moment I figured out that the fly better be in the 1-2 foot range of the trees, other wise the bass weren't interested.  No chasing today...better be close.  My thoughts...well this is gonna be fun.  Spent the rest of the day trying to get close, but mostly ended up in the tree or the vegetation surrounding the tree.  It was great practice and I was certainly doing something different...chasing down my fly from the many tree branches overhanging my targets, GREAT FUN!  But the hard work was rewarded a couple more times.

The good news was I didn't lose any fly's despite my best efforts to place them high in the trees.  I spent the better part of the day making technical presentations from a moving kayak.  And I brought a few bass to the net.  Getting out of your comfort zone takes more effort but I feel like a better angler b/c of it.

Now I need to get this blog published before my wife gets home from work and thinks I spent the entire day goofing off...fishing is hard work I tell you.