Wind & A Few Bluegills

by Herb S.
(Southwest Michigan)

Yesterday my fishing buddy, Marlin, his grown daughter Kelly and I went after bluegills on a big lake in his 17’ boat. We were bait fishing, they with spin-cast outfits and slip bobbers, and I with my Suntech FMX Keiryu Stiff 45. The bait du jour was wax worms. Mine were impaled on a #8 aberdeen hook below a 3/0 split shot on 5x tied to an 8# clear fluorocarbon line.

The overcast was nice, but the 15 to 20 mph wind wasn’t. Two anchors were necessary and even then we drifted some, dragging up wads of weed. Their bobbers and my line also took a beating by the wind, but my outfit was a great advantage, being able to raise and lower it to prospect at different depths and being so sensitive to bites. There weren’t a huge number of bites, however. As the fishing rags might say the 'gills were in a “negative mood”'. We released the 5 keepers in the live well. But it was the Suntech that caught the most, including quite a few half pints, further proving the rod’s sensitivity.

Despite the relatively poor results and fighting the wind, it was great to get out. Torrential rains in Michigan have really wiped out the early season. I’ve been trout fishing twice in a trout stream a two hour drive away, one weekend Trout Unlimited outing in Manistee County and once in my favorite local warm water stream when it was barely wadeable between deluges. Of all the many rivers in Manistee and Lake Counties, only one was wadeable at the time. However, to quote one of my favorite movie lines, we will endeavor to persevere.

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.

We've all had situations where seriously chewed up flies kept catching fish after fish after fish. It is no sin to tie flies that come off the vise looking seriously chewed up.