Bass On The Fly

I've been wanting to fish Bass on the Fly since it's inception and there's always been a conflict.  Ted Warren does an excellent job on putting on this event, and the many sponsors are generous.  And it's for a great cause - Reel Recovery.  So I was very excited about making it this year.  And after a rough weekend at Paddlepalooza, a chance for some redemption!

This was my first trip ever to Lake Fork.  And while I've fished several lakes in east Texas, I discovered this is NOT one of the Piney Hills Lakes.  Rather it's a prairie lake much like Lewisville and Grapevine.  From what I researched, the best types of flies and colors were different also.

So I decided to leave on Thursday to get acquainted with Fork.  Not that it helped...  the wind was 25-30 out of the north when I arrived.  And it stayed that way on Friday.  But I was able to figure out a pattern for the bass and one for the bream.  Even one for the crappie, although that wasn't a target species for this event.

Friday afternoon got things going and there were a number of activities.  The Bream Fly Contest began at 3pm and ended at 6pm and had 14 participants.  Several went out in boats and kayaks, but I did my fishing from the bank at Lake Fork Marina and caught several big bream, of which 3 measured at 9 inches.  Eric Dilts came in 2nd with 8.5 inches.

Saturday was the main event and there were about 30 participants in each of the two divisions (kayak and boat).  I went with a Boogle Bug frog-colored popper early and landed 3 nice bass in the first two hours, largest was 19.5 inches.  An hour later, I switched to an olive Y2K Bugger and lost a bass probably 11-12 inches.  That would turn out to be my only disappointment of the day.  After that, it went dead cold.  I managed to catch a big bream on the Y2KB, so I pulled out my bream rod and proceeded to work that bed for about 40 bream, none of which was smaller than 8 inches!

Got back to the launch and talked to some commie anglers who had come in.  One boat had one good bass, and another had one dink bass.  So now I'm thinking I might have a real shot at winning this event.  Turns out that despite very tough conditions on the lake - barometer was off the scale!!! - some good catches were made by the fly guys.  I ended up 3rd in Kayak Bass, only 6 inches out of first place.  But well enough to get into the money (5 places awarded).   My big bass was 2nd place, and my big bream (for Saturday's pool) took 1st place.

Later, I also took 1st place in the Distance Casting Contest after Russell Husted and I had a "Cast Off" since we both  tied for longest distance in the contest.  And I won a Simms Boat Bag as a door prize.

A few observations about Lake Fork...
1.  I plan to go back soon.  It's only 4 hours away.  The fish are big for their length and fight like hell.
2.  I catch lots of 8 and 9-inch bream in the Kisatchie lakes, but Fork bream this length are totally different.  They're shaped like dinner plates and at least 2 inches thick.  Landing them on a 5-weight almost requires a gaff!
3.   What I said about bream - ditto for bass.  The smallest bass I landed in both "practice" and competition was 13.5 inches and was shaped like a damn football. 
4.  I won't be going on a weekend due to boat traffic.  Thursday afternoon and Friday morning were okay.  Friday afternoon was bad.  Saturday was insane. 
5.  It's a big lake but with many arms, and there are many good spots within a mile or less of a marina.  So except for boat traffic, it's kayak friendly.

So I did quite well for my first Bass on the Fly World Championship.  I might even go back next year.  Just kidding, I WILL go back next year.

Hodges Gardens

Since moving to central Louisiana, I've fished several area waters with large redear sunfish - otherwise known among us Cajuns as chiquapin (pronounced chick-a-pin). Maybe not as large as the four and five-pound giants that come out of Lake Havasu in Arizona, or Merritts Mill Pond in Florida, but large by Bayou State standards. I'm talking 10 to 12 inches in length.

Two of those don't require a boat. Anderson Pond near Pitkin and Hodges Gardens State Park near Florien. Both lakes are small, do not allow motorboat traffic and have large areas of clear bank. More in the realm of pond fishing than lake fishing.

On this day I went to Hodges. The wife enjoys the gardens and I get to go fishing. Win - win!

You can rent a jon boat with trolling motor, canoe or kayak. But I decided to do the bank thing. Not that I didn't mind spending the money, just that I was feeling lazy. I rigged up my 5-weight rod with a bass bug and my 4-weight with a size 14 Rosborough Hare's Ear until a tiny football indicator.

I started with the bass setup but managed only just one in two hours. The lake has a good number of bass, but once again a late spring cool front had pushed through and probably sent them deep. So I changed rigs.

No sooner than I cast the four-weight with the RHE, the tiny float plunged underneath and I set the hook. For a short time, I thought "maybe it's a bass". Turned out to be a 10-inch chiquapin. Turned it loose, then made another cast to the same area. Same result.

Each of these chinks was in the 10 to 11 inch range and full of fight. It was good to have brought the 4-weight rather than the 2-weight otherwise I would've needed a gaff to land them! Much to my wife's chagrin, I turned them all loose.

While it was a great day at the park, I received some sad news before leaving. Turns out that Hodges is on the list for possible closure due to state budget constraints. The Sabine and Vernon parish officials are working hard to prevent this.  They need the tourism dollars as much as I need my favorite redear bank fishing spot. 

Mardi Gras bassin'

In Louisiana, Mardi Gras is a holiday. My good friend Kevin "Doc" Andry is like me. We both love fly fishing from kayaks. And we both have the good sense to stay away from Mardi Gras festivities.

Doc does his own blog, "Kayak Fishing With Kevin", which has a fairly large following. It's my favorite, for sure. I knew if I invited him to come fish for Mardi Gras, he'd have material for his blog and I'd have material for my column in Louisiana Sportsman. Win - win!

Of course, that's all predicated on us catching fish. But when we fish together it seems God gives his blessings and we do quite well. He made the 3-hour drive to my house on Sunday evening, giving us two days of fishing.

I realize this is a pond blog, but the reason I'm posting here is because that first day was spent at nearby 70-acre Valentine Lake.  For all practical purposes, it's a really big pond and fishes as such. No motorboats are allowed, so kayakers love this place. Although the lake's fertility is fairly low, it has lots of submerged grass, deep stumps and artificial structure.  It also annually produces a few bass over 10 pounds.  The state's 2nd largest bass - 15.88 pounds - was caught here on conventional tackle.

What Doc and I were interested in was each getting a solid entry into the Bayou Coast Kayak Fishing Club's / Masseys Outfitters Fish Pix tournament. This is a year-long CPR event with a Fly Rod Division.

The morning started out great for me. Using a size 4 frog-colored Boogle Bug, and with the help of heavy cloud cover, I managed to get several bass in the 10-14 inch range to eat on top.  Then in the span of 10 minutes, I landed a 15 3/4" and a 16 1/2".

Doc was way behind, but catching up. His Crease Fly was getting some vicious strikes. I often joke that he's Louisiana's Crease Fly Ambassador. But on this day the joke was on me! I watched as he hooked and landed a solid 17-inch bass.

The wind was coming up, the storm clouds were gathering in advance of a front. The bite had slacked off completely. It was time to head back for some of my wife's famous gumbo and toast another fine day on the water. 

Want more, bigger fish? Act now!

Your pond doesn't produce big fish. Or lots of fish. Or both. There's potentially several reasons why. Let's address the most common.

If your soil has low pH, then probably your pond has low water hardness. You can use a pool kit to test, or bring a water sample to a pool supply dealer and let them test. If the hardess is less than 20 ppt calcium carbonate, then you have an issue.

Many years ago I took a pond management course and one of the first things I learned was that biggest impediment to fish production was low water hardness. Most community water coops define anything above 150 ppt as "hard". There are very few lakes in the country that measure over 100 ppt. One of those was False River near New Roads. At one time, it had one of the highest gamefish populations of any lake in America. The fly fishing on that lake was incredible. Due to environmental reasons, False River now gives false hope to anglers.

To get the hardness of a pond up, just add lime. Simple, right? Until you calculate the amount of lime required. For a 7-acre lake - like the one we had in our neighborhood - getting the hardness up from 20 ppt to 50 ppt required 8 tons of ag lime. Fortunately, ag lime in bulk is fairly inexpensive.  And if you have a little help from friends, delivering it into your lake can be done in a half-day.

However, timing and delivery method are extremely important. CaCO3 has very low solubility. It's also unusual in that its solubility decreases as the water temperature warms.  Another property is that carbon dioxide dissolves it readily. So... to get the maximum effect, the pond owner should apply lime in winter both directly to the pond in shallow water, or along it's banks. The spring rains - which contain moderate amounts of carbon dioxide - will help increase hardness even further.

With the 7-acre lake I mentioned, we undertook the project in early February. By late April, the water hardness was up to 40 ppt. At that time we went ahead with a fertilization. Let me make this clear: fertilizing a low hardness water does nothing for it. Period! Previous attempts at fertilizing this pond had no impact whatsoever.

After the liming - and the doubling of the hardness - the fertilizer worked miracles.  The pond color turned from dark yellow to a rich green. Within a year, the hardness had increased another 8 ppt and the bluegill and redears were big and thick. The shad population exploded. The bass took every advantage of all this protein and soon we had loads of multi-pound fish.

Now the liming and fertilization certainly made a big difference. But during this time we also undertook another project where we added vegetation and structure. The combination of all these things turned our neighborhood lake into a small fishing paradise! 

Bill Brown remembered

This past week we were very saddened to learn of the passing of Bill Brown. Bill was a longtime member of the Red Stick Fly Fishers, one of club member, one of it's most active members, and a good friend to all.  Over many years, he served in various positions on the club board, but most memorably as Warmwater Chair and Membership Chair. During his tenure as Membership Chair, he continually recruited new members such that our club maintained it's status as one of the largest fly clubs on the northern Gulf Coast. Equally as impressive was his dedication to our annual "Red Stick Day" event. His hard work and attention to details as a co-chairman of the Events Committee was reason for it's annual success.

Probably Bill's greatest contribution to our club - and even to the world of fly fishing - was his long-running series of "Eternal Novice" articles he wrote for "The Red Letter" newsletter. These were educational pieces often written in a storytelling format. It reflected his personal philosophy - one that many of us adopted - that in fly fishing, one never stops learning!