White Rock Fun

We went out to the lake this evening and had a little luck.

I only saw a few fish, but we were able to catch em!

A lucky fish to be caught by someone so pretty!

This is one of the biggest Green Sunfish I have ever caught! Wahoo!

Skunked @ White Rock

Emalie and I made it out to White Rock Lake after I got off work. We set up in our usual spot, the water, for the most part was fairly clear until you got closer to some over hanging dogwoods. I noticed a number of undiscernible fish taking things off the surface, I am pretty sure they were small bass and sunfishes. This area has alot of grass carp but I usualy see them mucking on the bottom or cruising through, rarely on top. We began to cast and I had a few bites but nothing that was commited or that I could set quick enough. I really believe that with panfish you get alot of "test" bites that you never even feel. When they are being picky they nibble and spew pretty quick. We were about to give up when i tried one last cast in the direction of my favorite little sandbar, and I was lucky enough to catch this little guy.

After we packed up we went to look at houses!

Memorial Day @ Lake Fork

Having just recently fished here with my grandfather, I thought it would be fun to try it with Emalie...but in kayaks...........I couldn't have been more wrong!

I dont want to wallow in what made trying to kayak around Lake Fork a major suckfest, but lets just say that I had more fun fishing from the boat ramp. Where coincidentaly I caught my first and only fish of the day!

BOOSH!

Emalie's Slave

I have never worked so hard for one fish. Check out that ear flap!

So ends our Memorial Day Weekend Triumvirate of fishing!

Sunday @ Athens

So...Emalie and I have a guilty pleasure. When we are too tired, or don't want to go wading, or are just feeling like seeing some Alligator gars or eating some Mazzio's pizza, we head to the Texas Freshwater Fisheries Center in Athens. This place is awsome. Catch and release fishing, a great gift shop and interesting museum. If you get there early you can have a blast before the families arrive, and if you move back to some of the ponds farther into the complex, you probably won't have to share the fish at all! I know it isn't "real" fishing, but its fun and they have some nice bluegill, and all those Sharelunker bass.

Pretty in Pink

The hopper works!

Tasty

Fish...by Helmut-Lang

One of Emalie's

Biggun'

Bohemian Cat-raphsody

Saturday @ the Paluxy

Well memorial weekend was a blast!

On Saturday morning she and I droev down to the Paluxy, shrouded in rain as it was, and began wading up stream from the "Blue Hole" at Dinosaur Valley State Park. I felt like Frodo every time we passed the bend to leave behind the screaming children because the clouds would start to thunder and menace us. Seriously, every time we moved up stream it would start to rain and thunder! Like we were hitting an invisible tripwire in the river!

Well eventualy we did make it up to a section we had not visited before.

These guys love wooly boogers!

Parachute pants are comming back!

Thats what you drove so far for!!?

A lil bass is better than no bass

Sassy-lie

White Rockin'

Made it out to white rock after work to see if I could get some hookups......Lets just say I was successful. I got a great mixed bag of Greenies, Hybrids, Blues, and a couple Long Ear.....not to mention a bonus Crappie! I had to dodge angry looks from the bait-casters who were not catching anything but the floating 7-11 cups that litter the area. White Rock....nature in it's most pristine form!

Rage'n Long Ear

Blue Gill Gone Bad!?

Just saw this:

Japan in culinary offensive to stop spread of US fish
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2007/nov/26/japan.israel


I suggest they turn to the methods they used with godzilla...

Lunch break Flies

Just got back from my lunch break which I used to drop in on Shawn at the Orivs Dallas store. The wifey and I are heading to the Paluxy on saturday and I wanted some new flies to try out on the Greenies down that way.

Last time we were there it was a blast. The sheer number of carp, bass and Bluegill will amaze you. Its awsome to stand still in the water and see 5 foot gar cruise by. From what I could tell Green sunfish and Longears seem to be the predominant sunfishes in the river. Its cool to see a Greenie latch onto a woolly booger that a Bluegill would just peck at.

Here are a couple shots from our last trip to the Paluxy:

Hopefully the water is as low and as clear as it was last month!

I can't wait to take some pics of Emalie and her 4wt in action!

Lake Fork Thursday the 14th

Many of my earliest memories feature my grandfather prominantly. We used to go on excursions along St. Andrews bay when I would visit him and my grandmother in Florida. My memories are now mainly of the smell of the lawn, finding shells on the beach, a guy with a dead hammerhead shark in his truck, and grandpa taking me jigging with a cane pole. As anyone who has spent time in Florida knows, the blue gill are big! To me, when I was only 5 or 6, they seemed like Shamu. One of my earliest fishing memories is at a campground near a river somewhere in Florida. My grandfather had rigged up his trusty canepoles and Zebco, and we were pitching them into the slow water while mom boiled scallops. "Don't fish there!" Grandpa would say, as I walked over to a half submerged boat that someone had left to decay on the shore. Sure enough I wouldn't listen, and after pitching my lure into the empty boat I felt it immediatly go taut. I was rewarded for my disobediance with a fiercely fighting largemouth of a couple of pounds that had been trapped inside the boat after the water rose and then receded. Everytime we are together he retells that story.

He out fished me 10 to 1

Lake Fork has some amazing Blue Gill! Not to mention the Warmouth, Red Breast, and Long ears we caught. There is also a really pretty purple/blue variety of Blue Gill that I haven't seen anywhere else. I will try to get a pic of one when Emalie and I go back.

Bucket-o-Blues

Inaugeral Post

This is a blog about small fish, and the joy of catching them on the fly. As the title suggests, Blue Gill and their near relations are the primary topic. By no means do I harbor antipathy towards large testosterone dripping fish that churn the depths into foam, though I cannot say that they have ever motivated me to pick up a rod. It is a thrill to catch anything. I do not believe in trash fish. I enjoy watching a 3 inch sunfish stare down my nymph as much as I enjoy seeing a tarpon expode out of the waves. So I hope, that on the off chance that someone reads this, you enjoy it and come to appreciate the beauty and fun that Blues and other micro fish offer.