This one was an inch short of my best SM of the year.  I know it is exactly 19 inches because that is the length of my net opening.   Most of the time I don't use the net even though it is made of the soft rubber.  But when they get big, sometimes they get a bit frisky when they finally see what's up.   Must be pretty scary to see this super large loon with flippers and dark rubber body.  Got one more this size and several in the 2# range.  Again, we were at one of these so-called private lakes.  Part of the lake has public land bordering it.  We didn't use that access but walked along a large boundary between two properties.    I started up with a dry line thinking that since I had a long leader and a weighted fly in around 10 FOW, I should be getting down sufficiently but my partner had landed three fish to my none with his #3 sink, I switched to my #4 sink and started to catch right away.  Again, fly is not that important, but depth and presentation does.
Surface temp is 72F.  It is getting time to go trouting!  That is what I prefer to do.  Fishing for bass is pretty easy.  In the words of the late Brian Graves, "If you're not catching bass, you're not in the water".  Flyfishing for trout takes much more skill and you get to use all those tiny flies you've been making all winter in weird and wonderful ways.

Fishing the big M again last evening at a spot well known to OFS members.  This time we were in our tubes but the best fishing was at the foot of the rapids which means we could have waded and done just as well.  Fishing wasn't as good as recent trips here by my partner.  It could have had something to do with a short rain we had the previous day.  I have noted over the years that the Mississippi doesn't fish as well after a rain and sometimes needs a few days to "clean" out.  It could be the effluent from the cow pastures which border the river or the unmentionables coming from towns and houses along the way.   Or someone could have been there before us and scared them off or worse.  I got this 20 inch SM with my favorite fly, the MM (which my readers should know all about by now).  It turned out to be the only fly that worked consistently.  Nothing was coming to the surface even though there was a Hex hatch later in the evening.  My partner got an 18 incher in the bay that I just had left.  This is my largest SM of the year.  They are certainly more fun than LM although this guy didn't do much dancing. 

Fishing the M  again but this time it takes a bit of a paddle to get to the 'good spot'.  On the way, one passes what might seem ideal bass territory: nice weed cover, overhanging branches, submerged logs, you name it.  On a lake, one would spend the day casting into such.  The only trouble is, SM bass don't like it.  Nothing, it seems is there (and I can't even blame the dastardly Bass Tournaments).   SM like moving water.  Maybe if these waters contained more LM bass, I wouldn't have to work so hard to get some good fishing.  The evening before I had to paddle about 1 km to get to some shallows with faster water and missed out on a (at least) three pounder.  It was on long enough for me to get a good look.  Got a few 12 inchers. Six fish in 2 hours of  ain't bad and almost half that time was spend paddling.  I was using my new 3wt Sharkskin line.  Man does it fly! But it is a bit noisy as it rubs against the steel.  10 ft leader with Brown Coney Leech: copper wire body, rabbit strip.

 I started off at 1PM so I have the time to get twice as far to an even better spot. (BTW, there is no way, I'm telling you where this spot is) After an hour of slugging away in my Sportspal canoe, I'm finally there and I can't keep them off.  It is a fish a cast but a good headwind keeps pushing me around as any canoeist will tell you, wind is the enemy......not great for casting either. After losing my net fish inside twice, I managed to get this picture.   So I decided to get out of the wind and wade.  I put on my wading boots but since is so shallow I keep my pants on.  Of course, my foot gets caught in the gunnel and I fall into the water.  Little did I know that the cell was in my pocket, so to date I have lost two cellphones to falling in water.  Even after all these years, I still haven't learned to take the time to do things properly (and I had my trunks).   But the fishing made up for it. 

Four of us met at our favorite bass lake two hours north of the city.  In order to have the kind of fishing we all should have everywhere, you now have to fish private waters.  People will have to learn that we cannot be harvesting fish so close to the fourth largest urban area in Canada!  There should also be a ban on Bass Tournaments where fish are kept for weigh ins.  Fish transported in "live wells" and released hours later in some other location induces unnecessary stress and in some cases unacceptable mortality. Proper catch and release procedures need to be followed with none of this "lipping" the bass vertically for a picture.  If fishers are lamenting the lessening of their fishery, they have only themselves to blame.  The Ministry is also not off the hook.  Massive education is the only solution.  And new much more restrictive regulations.  It wouldn't hurt to have a few more COs out there dispensing tickets.

Fishing was not as good as a month ago in terms of numbers but the size was great and better than last year.  I've been hearing this on the chat lines as well.   I landed at least six LM in the 19 to 21 inch range and ten more between 17 to 19 inches.  They are deeper at this time of year.  Most were caught with a #4 sink line in 12 to 15 FOW.   The Mississippi Maiden was my best fly.  I didn't bother to change to another fly although I did try some dries on my other rod to little success.   Dennis caught many of his on a brown and black WB.  The fly is not as important as getting it down to where they are.  I caught less than half casting to shore and slowly retrieving.  I did catch several small bass casting to shore which was different from a few weeks previously.  This was proof to me that the larger bass had moved to deeper water. The smaller bass felt OK to go after our flies.  Before, they would have been attacked. Best fishing was trolling along the dropoff.   Sorry no pictures.  I forgot my camera.

I got a report that there was some great fishing on the Missisisippi.  Won't tell you where but if you can find some places where not many fishers go and near the base of rapids, you should do well.