Bass Opening

Got a chance to join a friend with a boat on his secret spot south of the city.  Turned out when we arrived, it was not so secret as there were many vehicles parked.  You will never know how secret your bass spot is until you arrive on Opening Day.   Mind you, with other species open, we are able to fish earlier and most of us do. With the clear water we have now with zebra mussels it is fairly easy to spot the spawning beds.  Ethical fishers will avoid them prior to Opening.   Speaking of ethics, one fellow and his wife were leaving as we arrived.  Go ahead and tell them his wife urged.  Look at this!  This is the biggest bass I've ever taken out of this lake!  He hauls up a five pound LM.  I thought about going over and asking him whether he knew if his fish was likely a 20+ year old fish.   As a newly minted senior myself, this is a touchy subject.   Regrettably, I did not.  It is bad enough that we drag these oldies out of their lair.  Far worse that we kill them, especially so close to home.  There cannot be many of them left.

We caught about 50 fish each, more than half of which were LM Bass.  Some of the others were like this Pumpkinseed, the largest I have ever caught.   All safely released.  Surface temperature around 79F which is OK for bass.   Danger temperature is around 90F.  My best flies were a Yellow Coney Leech and Mississippi Maiden on an intermediate line. John, of course, is not only an expert in making the Shit Fly but fishing it as well.  We were getting some action off of the surface.   Any fly that floats will do.   And I have plenty of "failed" trout flies in my collection.