Mitch and I hit Roosevelt yesterday in our separate boats. He wanted to try the Salt end and I wanted to hit midlake with some new patterns and techniques. I saw and talked with a couple guys I knew that had been on the lake for several days. They mentioned how the fishing had turned off the past two days so I was ready for a tough day. Turns out the morning bite for me was good. I landed 12-13, the best went 18″+, a spawned out female. I caught pretty much everything off deep ledges fishing from flats. Most were slots and unders. Mitch showed up late morning and he had done about the same…..actually I think I had him by a fish or two and I know I had big fish.
Well, that’s when the bass gods decided to change things up a bit. The clouds started to roll in and the sun disappeared. A nice chop was on the water…perfect conditions to bring the bass up a bit to greet my tasty flies, right? Wrong, I managed to catch one fish the rest of the afternoon for 5 hours. Mitch continued to catch at least 50 (honestly). The guy went on a terror with a Fluke. The fish had moved up into the tree tops and just sat there. He would throw his Fluke and leave it motionless forever and WHAM! I tried to do the same thing with a floating line and my big Foxheads…nada!
Whenever the fish get inactive I have a tough time simulating some of his bites. I have an idea for the next time it happens. This is what makes it so much fun (I tell myself) ….it’s figuring out what can be done with a flyrod that hasn’t been done. And it’s constant… seems like there’s always something new to try and figure out.