Sometimes Life is Good

[John H]

Sometimes life is good and sometimes it isn't. When you are lucky enough to catch a nice bass and a nice striper in the same day it is good. I got a five pound largemouth early this morning and got a good sequence of release photos. Later I caught a striper that was about ten pounds. I had seen a ten inch bass follow my fly and was trying to tease him up when the striper came up, got the fly and headed back down. He towed me out to the middle of the slough where I got him in the net but in the process of getting the camera ready he slipped out of the net, shook the fly loose and thrashed his way out of the thumb grip I had on his lip. Quite an escape. He is at the bottom of the slough right now laughing and bragging to his buddies about how he put a quality move on some chump in a kayak and got away clean. He is not wrong. I probably need to get a bigger net or a stronger thumb. I am having a surgery next week so life will not be good for a while after that but hopefully by April I will be on my feet and able to do some boat fishing. We'll see.

The thrashed but effective fly.

http://i.imgur.com/4IZ0Z7T.jpg (https://imgur.com/4IZ0Z7T)



The Largemouth Release

http://i.imgur.com/MNrGBJh.jpg (https://imgur.com/MNrGBJh)

http://i.imgur.com/8q4cRod.jpg (https://imgur.com/8q4cRod)

http://i.imgur.com/ZLQ60H8.jpg (https://imgur.com/ZLQ60H8)

http://i.imgur.com/G08j4gy.jpg (https://imgur.com/G08j4gy)

http://i.imgur.com/yvF4lQU.jpg (https://imgur.com/yvF4lQU)

http://i.imgur.com/gQJFTVQ.jpg (https://imgur.com/gQJFTVQ)

[Darian]

Nice Black Bass release photos. Too bad about the Striper but it was gonna be released anyway. Sorry to hear about the surgery. Hope it's nothing serious....

[John H]

I feel like I should be happy with just catching the fish but I like to get a weight or a length and a photo. I need to work on getting over that. I do have the image in my mind of the striper coming up and grabbing the fly that was hanging a foot below the surface right in front of me. That is enough. The spot I caught him in I used to fish but never caught anything. I gave up on it and stopped fishing it. Last week there was a fish rolling there so I fished it and caught four. That was the only reason I tried it this time. I also saw a sturgeon cruise by. That was quite a sight. Four or five feet long.

[guido]

Nice Fish and photos! Good luck with the surgery!

[Tony Buzolich]

John,
Wiggling that fly around on the surface near or next to the boat is called "the Delta Dangle" and happens enough that guys have given it a name.
Hope your surgery goes well, it will. Tony

[lee s.]

Definitely going to miss your reports John.
Get well!
....lee s.