With my wife set to deliver our first child in about 2 weeks, my recent expeditions have been limited to a ~ 20 mile radius of the house. Luckily, this includes some underfished medium-sized rivers that are loaded with brown bass. I joined my good friend Jim on Sunday morning for some light-tackle spin and fly fishing, and we were rewarded with consistent, if not fast, action.
We were on a “90/10” river, which to us means 90% dead water and 10% fishy water. With the water levels at seasonably low levels, we targetted any areas that were more that waist deep (3+ ft) and had modest current. The presence of wood or rock or shade from overhanging trees made all the difference.
All of these fish, 14-16″, came to hand on either spinnerbaits, brown/red-fleck tubes, or some of Jim’s homemade flies that he calls “the sherrif” for reasons that will become obvious once you see the fly in the last pic. All of this during 2 hours in the middle of a bluebird day, on a 1 mile stretch of river that we shared with only an osprey.
Here’s the first fish of the day, about 5 casts into the trip.
