Florida: Where The Winter Weather Doesn't Suck, But The Neighborhood Fishing Can Sometimes Be Questionable

Hit one of the neighborhood ponds yesterday morning. Broke out the Fenwick 5-weight and Pflueger Medalist reel and hopped on the bike hoping to get into a nice bass or two.

The weather was pretty glorious in the AM, apologies to rest of the country that is still dealing with the winter blues.

Now, I haven't really done any fishing yet this year. I went out briefly on New Year's, but didn't catch anything. So while I normally wouldn't take a photo of a dinky bream, this little one was actually my first fish of 2019. Man, it makes that small BoogleBug popper look huge.

I'll have to double check and see if February 23rd is the latest I've gone into the year before catching my first fish.

From there, the fishing was pretty slow. Unfortunately, I didn't get my first bass of the year. Instead, I caught a few more bluegill, and a mess of little crappie.

Those are crappie, albeit tiny ones, right? In the almost six years I've lived down here, I've never pulled one of these suckers from any of the neighborhood ponds. Caught a half dozen today. So that was a first, I guess...

I happened to like this photo of a different fish, because I unintentionally aligned the fountain feature in the pond with the top of its head, kind of makes it look like a whale spouting water. LOL.

Anyway, that was my Saturday morning. Messing around with panfish on a 5-weight, which honestly hardly bent under their extreme pulling power. 

Whatever... I was wearing shorts & a t-shirt in February. Still beats being stuck in the cold.

Glass (& Reels) Are Definitely Not Dead

"Pedal, pedal, pedal...
Man, this is taking much longer than it should... 
Are we there yet?"

There is this pond where I live that I drive by quite often. It's on my way to and from work each day, as well whenever I run errands that require I hop on I-95. It's a non-descript retention pond, "RP-79" I suppose is its android-like identity, and I've always wondered what sort of fish, be it species or quantity, lived there.

Passing it yet again on Friday after work, I finally made the resolution I'd go fish it this weekend. Decided to sneak the activity into my usual Saturday morning bike ride... about six miles to the pond and six miles back. No sweat. Until I started pedaling.

Sure, I go for rides more than double the distance regularly, however, they rarely have the anticipation of reaching uncharted (to me) water. Those six miles felt like twenty.

Finally reaching 79 at around 9:30 AM I found some shade, parked my bike, and strung up the trusty Cabela's CGR fiberglass 4-weight. It's on the short side for ponds at only six-and-a-half feet (I bought it for little trout streams), but it's one of my favorite rods to fish... especially when paired with a tiny Albright click & pawl reel that has also seen a lot of time on the water. I just couldn't leave the pair at home, they've both been with me since at least 2011.

See, I write about tenkara a lot on this blog, but I'm still a sucker for a medium to slow action fly rod and the sweet squeal of a stressed clicker reel. Glass & reels are definitely not dead to this fixed line angler.

Tying on my favorite "prospecting" fly, a tungsten bead black leech pattern, it took no more than a handful of casts to get into a nice Florida largemouth bass. It would prove to be the kind you should hold with two hands, as not to stress the jaw. If only I had planned the hands-free photo a little bit better. I should take some tips from Justin Carf... or perhaps not...

Working around the perimeter of the pond in a counter-clockwise fashion yielded quite a few more bass of the smaller variety, as well as a few bluegills & sunfish. It had been raining quite a bit the past week, so the grass around the pond was very high, and the ground was extra swampy. Cast... squish, squish, squish, squish... cast... squish, squish, squish, squish...

The far side of the pond was really quite messy, lots of weeds, algae, and other muck, so I decided to switch to a topwater "Booglebug" to try to sidestep the underwater hazards. A couple small bass fell victim to the fluorescent yellow popper.

While they say "slow and steady wins the race," it might not catch the fish. By 11:00 AM, with the sun high in the sky, the bite turned off pretty much for good. There was nothing I could do to coax any action at that point, which was a bit of a bummer, but could do nothing to take away from all of the earlier fun.

So with that, I disassembled the rod, stowed the reel and flies, swapped my trucker hat for a cycling helmet, and hopped back on my bike for the six-mile return that was ahead.

Satisfaction now replacing anticipation, the pedal home went by in a flash.

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Fishing Fitness Footnotes:

• Date: 8/4/2018
• Current weight: 197 lbs ( -19 since start)
• Today: Aforementioned 12-mile bike ride
• Misc: Weight yo-yoed a bit during my recent vacation. Weighed 197 before I left, but 202 when I returned due to ample cruise-ship buffet & dessert lines. Took this week to get back to pre-vacation weight.

Better Late Than Never...

Sunday... was a pretty good day.

I finally got out fishing for the first time in 2018. Wow, that took a long time.

This was the first fish of the year, a pretty undersized and gnarly bass. Not certain if you can see but it's got some sort of wound on its back (underneath all the muck).

Regardless, the weather was really nice (a bit windy, but I'm not complaining), and I brought about a half dozen cookie-cutter bass to hand, with the random bluegill or two thrown in for good measure.

More importantly, Sunday was also Lilly's 12th birthday. And I only bury this at the bottom of the post because I don't think she likes Dad writing about her on the blog much anymore, but man I love this kid so much...

Happy Birthday Lilly!

Trout On The Brain, Bass On The Line

Hadn't fished the neighborhood ponds in a while, so went out last night to wet a line once the sun started getting low(er) in the sky. It had to be in the mid-90s yesterday, so I was hiding indoors most of the day.

Really wanted to catch a few fish, as I probably won't be able to do any fishing (or consistent blogging) for the next two weeks. It's all good though, the bass and bluegill cooperated to the tune of a baker's dozen, so it was a fun evening by the water.

I couldn't help notice how the small bass brought to hand reminded me a bit of catching rainbow trout. They're about the same size as the small stream rainbows I chase, both species like to jump and take flight, and as you're stripping that fly around underwater structure and see that "flash," you know it's game on. I think I just have trout on the brain...

Since this might be the last post for a bit, sure don't mind leaving these photos up for a while. Warmwater fish can be damn pretty too.

Fishing Forecast: Hot, Humid, & A Chance of Bass...

Got out for a little fishing the other night. It's been so hot and humid, I haven't been eager to sneak out to do much angling lately. It'd be one thing if I were in a trout stream, where when you reach down to handle your quarry, you're greeted by cool, refreshing, moving water. Instead, warm, stagnant ponds don't do much to re-energize after standing in the sun, ugh...

No worries though, with the proper amount of action, warmwater can be a lot of fun too, especially when fishing a light tenkara rod...

This was the first bass of about a half dozen...

The bluegill bycatch was in effect too...
Guess the mini-hopper was just too tempting...

Nice bend in the Dragontail Hellbender tenkara rod...

Brought this one out to cast a shadowy silhouette in the setting sun...

Tried a little video, excuse the excessive grunting, not sure what's up with that...

With a still of the same fish.  Big head, skinny body...but who's judging?

Will probably do a little more fishing this weekend, we'll see. Have actually been trying to get in a little better shape recently, so I'm taking to riding my bike and playing pickup basketball again. See, when I lived up North, it wasn't uncommon to put on a few extra pounds of "winter weight" when it was too cold to want to do anything outside. Here in Florida, it's the opposite, and the jeans are starting to feel a little tight.

More time on the court means less time on the ponds, but willing to make that trade if it helps drop a few pounds.

A Little Sunday Sink Tip Bass

Gonna post a fishing report here today, haven't done many of those lately, well...because I haven't been doing much fishing!

Really didn't go out for long on Sunday, about an hour and a half. Took Lilly to see the Jungle Book around noon (quite good BTW), and K.C. had a roller derby bout she had to leave for at 4:30, so it left a nice little window in between activities to wet a line.

Dink bass munching on a Clouser

Speaking of line, I fished with (gasp) my 6-weight rod and reel and not the tenkara setup for a change. I wanted to give the new Scientific Anglers Frequency sink-tip line I picked up to go chase shad & hybrid bass a test drive. Figure it'd work just fine for the largemouths in the pond near my house too.

Bass in the land of the sideways trees

As you can see above, I did catch a few bass. The first being the definition of dink bass, and the other more on the "medium" spectrum. The second bass did put a nice bend in the L.L. Bean Silver Ghost, and leapt out of the water a few times before coming to hand. Probably could have caught a mess of bluegill too, but I was fishing a Clouser minnow that was just a bit big for them to get a hold of, felt more than a few swipes in the shallows though.

I'm sorry that I didn't take more pictures, and the ones that I did are sort of on the sucky side. One of the fun things going around the internet these days is people freaking out if you hold a bass of any substance anyway except with two hands or vertically from the jaw, or happen to lay it in the grass next to your rod for scale.

No more than 10 degrees, bring your protractors

I get it, and I'm cool with it, but until perhaps I figure out a tripod solution, pictures of bass will probably be on the lame side. I don't even catch big bass, but I'd rather have bad pics than be virtually tarred and feathered by the internet fish handling police. Those folks are vicious.

In any event, hope you all got out fishing this past weekend, perhaps even more than an hour and a half. Seems like the weather is turning everywhere across the country (except maybe in parts of the Rockies), so time to stop tying and start fishing.

The Freaks Come Out At Night - Tenkara at Dusk

Hadn't fished too much over the holidays, so I decided to hit the neighborhood ponds at dusk last night to squeeze in about an hour or so fishing session.

Wasn't having much luck with the normal tactics, so waited until the sun went down and switched over to some leech patterns, hoping the bass would become a bit more active in the dark. Fortunately, it seemed to be what the bass were looking for, as the activity picked up and I brought about 8 or 9 to hand of all shapes & sizes, and probably lost 3 or 4 during the fight.

Small

Medium

I missed out on a really nice bass, that I'm kind of kicking myself for not landing. I survived the initial run and head shakes, but when it dove deep I thought I had a tippet or knot failure - but it just kicked my hook.

Next time I suppose, at least I know where it lives!

Large

Pardon the photography, it was taken with my phone in the dark. My phone doesn't really care for the dark.

Gear Used:

• DRAGONtail Tenkara HELLbender zoom rod (390/340)
• 12.5' Moonlit Fly Fishing Oudachi furled tenkara line
• 4' White River 5x mono tippet
• Driftless Angler Size 10 Tungsten Blood Leech

Ebisu - Don't Call It A Comeback

I had forgotten how much fun the (discontinued) Tenkara USA Ebisu rod is to fish with.

Yeah, it's a little bit heavier than some of the 12 foot-ish rods that I've been using these days, but it slings a real nice line quite easily...from 3.5 level line to furled. I used them both yesterday.

The fish were pretty active, brought 20 to hand (give or take a few), mostly bass. It's a blast sight fishing small bass like the one in the first picture, the way they'll rush up out of nowhere to slam an offering on the drop. Had a few takes from some bigger bass too, the biggest broke me off as it darted toward the center of the pond upon hookset. I need to work on my knots.

Could have been more I suppose, but the one thing I've learned is that if the fishing is good...there's always another angler crowding your space...

Nice to sneak out for a few hours while everyone was crashing from the morning's sugar rush and get the Ebisu it back into the rotation. Weekends are far too short.

Dink Bass - Tenkara Edition

In lieu of a good post, check out this video of a little dink bass I caught yesterday.
Still trying to get a feel of where to position the GoPro when I'm wearing it...

One of these days I'll actually make a worthwhile edit. Or not.

Oh, and I guess while you're just clicking on random things, check out Fishlicker tees on Teespring... because who doesn't need a new fishing tee? I'm partial to this one, although there are a few others that are pretty sweet too...

Warmwater Fly Fishing Is Warming Up

Hadn't checked the neighborhood ponds in about a month, so I snuck out for an hour or so on Sunday. Happy to report the fish seem to be waking up from their winter slumber.

Saw quite a few large bass cruising the shallows and tons of active panfish. Was fortunate to bring about a dozen to hand as I quickly circled the pond's perimeter.

The bigger ones appear to be on the move too. I had a really nice sized largemouth come up to smash a fly on the fall...but it got me hung up in the dense weeds lining the bank. I had to break it off, I was using a tenkara rod and I didn't want to horse the fish out of the thick tangle of vegetation.

Here's a pic of a little one though...you know...just zoom in to get a similar effect.

Sight fishing these dinks was actually a blast, each racing up to slam the fly as soon as it hit the water.

I think now that the temperatures are on the rise, it's time to venture outside the neighborhood ponds and try to find some legit largemouth action.

The First In What Will Surely Be A Hot Mess of Go Pro Video

One of the "perks" of being into fishing when none of your friends and family have any interest in it is that on holidays...be it birthdays, Christmas, you name it...they undoubtedly gift you with either Cabela's or Bass Pro Shops gift cards.  This holiday season was no exception, and my stack of plastic from Bass Pro was quite formidable.

I decided to spend that funny money on a GoPro.  4 Silver to be exact.  Not that I'm going to make awesome videos or anything, just because I was kicking myself that I didn't take more video out in Colorado last year, and I didn't want to repeat that wherever I went to fish this year.  Plus, I can mount the sucker on my kayak, or Lilly's bike, or K.C.'s roller derby helmet or whatever...

Long story short, I snuck out to fish for like an hour and a half yesterday.  The weather was nice, but pretty breezy.  Caught a few fish, and goofed around with the GoPro for a bit too.  No sick edits here...ain't nobody got time for dat...but this is a quick video of a bass I caught on the tenkara rod yesterday...


Note to self - hold the damn fish closer to the camera next time...

Leave The Fly Rods At Home

I fished from the wooden pier that's near my house yesterday.
Like with a spinning rod and bait and all that stuff.
Crazy, right?  I know, it's been a while...

I didn't catch anything, but that's OK...nobody else out there was having any luck either.
Honestly, it's the first time I brought a rod, so I don't even know what I'm supposed to catch there...
Probably donkeytail scuttlebutt...or a bespectacled marlin...or Apalachicola seahorses...I'm pretty sure they're all native to these waters.

I'll take the skunk...I can think of far worse places to be the first week of January.

First Fish of 2015

I didn't get out on New Year's Day, but had to take a few minutes yesterday to catch a fish to wash the skunk off of 2015.

Now it wasn't the biggest fish...or the most dramatic fight, but I used some PicMonkey magic to certainly make it the most fabulous...

Hell yeah.  Who says fly fishing isn't hardcore?

Oh, I Fish (Sometimes)

This is a fishing blog...right?
Yeah, but my last "fishing report" post was in October...  Wow.  Pathetic.

It hasn't been that I haven't been fishing, it's just that the outings have all been kind of pedestrian.  No big fish (no surprise), no exotic locales, and well...not really the best blog fodder.

But I did go fishing yesterday, and here's a post really uninspiring post about it.
(Sorry if you happened to see these pictures on Instagram yesterday).

So it was something like 80 degrees here in north Florida yesterday.  Sunny, with a little breeze, I apologize in advance to those of you suffering through much colder temperatures (although from what I can tell from social media, most places in the country seem to be sort of warm themselves).

I thought I'd take the bike for a ride and hit one of the neighborhood ponds on the outskirts of our development.  I brought the tenkara rod, the 6-weight (in case I ran into big bass or carp), and my Vedavoo sling pack...because I rarely fish without it.

When I got to the pond, the first thing I saw was a big splash into the water with my peripheral vision. Not thinking much of it, I went to rigging up the Tenkara USA Sato and walk the perimeter of the pond to see if I could coax out any bass from the edges of the shoreline weeds.

About 5 minutes into fishing, I saw a log in the water.  But it wasn't a log.  It was a 4-ish foot long alligator.  Oh.  That's new.

Now I knew it wasn't going to do anything to me...and it didn't...as I walked around the pond it seemed to swim in the opposite direction most of the day, hence the horrible photo.

Unfortunately, that was kind of the highlight of the fishing for the day.  I picked out about a dozen bluegill while walking around the pond, but the fishing was really slow.  I do thank the fishing gods for bluegill though, because when all else fails...

I saw some bass, but they just weren't interested in my offerings.  I even strung up the 6-weight and launched some flies toward the middle of the pond (you know, 50+ feet out where tenkara doesn't travel nicely), just to see if anything basstastic was lurking in the depths...besides more alligators.  No dice...other than some bluegill bycatch.

That was really it.  Nothing much to really write about, and aside from the gator, it was pretty representative of the last month or two's fishing.  It's all good though.  2015 is right around the corner, and I've got some things in the works...

Anyone know anything good about Calgary, Alberta?