Opposite Day

April 4, 2023

With a successful last outing I was getting excited to head back to Canyon.  Luc offered up Monday but I could not make it so he asked if I could do Thursday.  So I accepted.  I've been on a Diamond Hair Streamer kick lately and I tied a few in a blugill coloration.  Within the first twenty or so casts I was on.  At first it did not register as a fish as the line simply went heavy with no reaction other than that.  I had thought I simply was dragging debris so I didn't fully commit to the strike.  Once I managed to pull it in more it finally gave some actual resistance.  Once it surfaced the bass spit the hook.  We were fishing a rather shallow section of the lake and just prior to hooking that fish I was contemplating on switching to my intermediate line for a slower retrieve but since I managed to get a reaction so early I kept with the fast sinking line.  I was reluctant to switch anyways as I was currently fishing my Orvis Helios 2 that has yet to break it's largemouth cherry.  It was Luc who managed remove the skunk off the boat with catfish after he switched to a chartreuse fly.

Fishing was slow but Luc managed a one every so often after switching colors and a slightly smaller fly. After noticing several schools of shad in the 1.5-2 inch range I decided to change to chartreuse and a smaller finesse game changer fly to match the hatch. 

I manage to foul hook one of those schooling shad so the gamechanger was a good representation at least in size.  It's been a while since his seen schools like that and it was a good sign.  All the ones we saw were circling around docks but once they move onto the shoreline it going to be game on especially with poppers.

I would fish the gamechanger for a while until I lost confidence in it when I had not gotten any reaction.  Switching to a Diamond Hair Streamer in a shad coloration I finally got bit.  The fish was no bigger than the handle to butt section of my Orvis 8wt and not worth taking a photo. At one section we could see shad being chased under some branches of a submerged brush.  I casted into the branches hanging up in the process once I plopped it off the overhang a bass exploded on it but I couldn't hook up.  Several casts later Luc would reenact the cast again and managed to hook up.  Fished to about noon with Luc getting the occassional fish here and there.  All in all a very slow outing.