Breaking the Skunk - Lunch Break Largemouth

[Chris_in_Louisiana 0]

For all the craziness of 2020, one benefit has been added time on the water.  Working from home 50% of the time has allowed for an unimaginable level of flexibility in my schedule, and, as a result, it has been rare for more than a week to pass without a decent fish on the end of my line.  Similarly, I've found myself back on the vise with increased regularity and began putting together a collection of step-by-step tutorials in my free time.  Overall, it has been a fun process and a silver lining to an otherwise bizarre year.

As the weather changed in mid-October and work became a bit more chaotic, I suddenly found myself in the midst of a 4+ week skunk.  I was still getting on the water occasionally, but the fish just weren't where I expected them.  I was still tying though and, at a minimum, made a point of testing out the flies I was creating for my tutorials.

That brings me to last Wednesday.  A "busy work from home" day, I decided to break after my morning meetings and test a few flies in the retention pond behind my house.  I had a stack of larger streamers I had tied the prior weekend and wanted to see how they looked in the water.

Dusting off my 7wt, I tied on a 5" purple Seaducer pattern I had used for one of step-by-step's on my blog and headed out back.

To my surprise, a decent bass swiped at the tail of my Seaducer on the very first cast.  Cursing at the missed opportunity, I cast to the same spot and was surprised to see the water explode.

Not a huge fish, it was clearly better than anything I had hooked into in quite a while and I pulled out my phone to snap a quick picture in case I wasn't able to get it up the embankment.

But as luck would have it, my hook set held and, after a brief battle, I was able to swing the 2-2.5 lbs bass up onto shore.

A quick pic, and I sent the little bucketmouth back on its way.

I spent another 20 fishless minutes testing out a few other patterns, but was content to begin my afternoon's work with the skunk finally broken.

 

Chris

 

 

[Mark Knapp 0]

Nice job.

[niveker 0]

Nice fly, nice fish Chris.  I've tied a few Seaducers in white & red or brown, but have not had much luck with them here in New England in freshwater.  Do you fish them on a sinking tip/line? 

[skeet3t 0]

Nice fish and looks like a success for the fly. Nice photos. Camera or phone?

Used to live in Shreveport, Louisiana. Wife and kids would meet me at a park at lunch. Mechanics from the local dealership would take their lunch break and fish the bayou. Caught crappie and bass all the time. Same with some guys in Florida. One guy caught a 9 lb bass out of a small pond behind the shop.

[mikechell 0]

Pretty fish.  I love the little ponds around here.  Unfortunately, every year, fewer and fewer of them are available to the public.

[Chris_in_Louisiana 0]

Thanks guys!

14 hours ago, niveker said:

Do you fish them on a sinking tip/line? 

I admittedly don't use this pattern with frequently, but when I do I use a floating line as I'm fishing shallower waters or over weeds.  As for the color, I have some red & white tied up to try on chain pickerel in the coming weeks.  This purple version was actually meant for redfish as I've read some guides in neighboring TX favor it when targeting reds on shallow flats.

 

12 hours ago, skeet3t said:

Nice fish and looks like a success for the fly. Nice photos. Camera or phone?

The fishing pictures were on my cell phone, but the fly picture was taken with an old Nikon dSLR and 90mm Macro Lens.

9 hours ago, mikechell said:

Pretty fish.  I love the little ponds around here.  Unfortunately, every year, fewer and fewer of them are available to the public.

I agree.  While there are still quite a few small public ponds in my area, they are generally overfished.  This little retention pond was dug as flood control when the subdivision I live in was built 12 years ago.  They stocked it with bass, crappie, bluegill and bullhead among other things, and it sat largely unmolested for a decade.  The result is a small pond that produces the occasional 14-15" crappie and bass pushing 10 lbs (though my personal best is ~4 lbs).

 

Thanks again guys.

Chris