Fishing In Tough Conditions

by Herb S.
(Southwest Michigan)

A few days ago I hit my favorite warm water stream. An extremely rainy spring and early summer had raised the river to unfishable depths but it had come down enough to wade with caution a couple of weeks ago. Since then we had one heavy rain which I hoped didn’t do much damage. I was wrong. The water was still quite deep and very cloudy…and 84 degrees!

From experience I knew the weed growth at this time of year was going to make mid-stream fishing difficult and figured fish would be holding in the weedless spots along the banks under overhanging branches. So I came armed with my Nissin Fine Mode Kosansui 320. Its 10’3” length is perfect for side casting under foliage. The line was 8’ of 6# Stren Gold monofilament with 2+’ of 5X tippet. After fishing for quite a while and going through several fly changes I put on a #10 bead head Coachman streamer (red wool tail, peacock body, white sparkle yarn wing) and that did the business. Five bluegills in the 7 to 7 ½” range and a small rock bass weren’t much but after slogging through weeds in waist deep water for a couple of hours it was enough and I was happy to have done that well.

Happy fishing,
Herb

“The bitterness of poor quality remains long after the sweetness of low price is forgotten” - Benjamin Franklin

"Be sure in casting, that your fly fall first into the water, for if the line fall first, it scares or frightens the fish..." -
Col. Robert Venables 1662

As age slows my pace, I will become more like the heron.