First bass of the year...

[jbird]

I spent about 2 hours today at the private pond I fish sometimes. I started with a dry dragonfly nymph. I know it sounds strange but its a cool fly, i posted it in fly tying a few months ago. I caught 4 fish on the surface with it. I went to a wooly bugger when the surface fun quit and got another half dozen before they stopped biting it. I went thru alot of different flies, got some inquisitive looks by some fish but couldnt find the right fly. The jpig got 1 fish. The fish were pretty tempermental. They spooked very easy, but if they were laid up and comfortable, they ate pretty aggressivly. Finally, i put on a #12 black ant wet. They really liked this fly, I found a school of smaller 8-10" fish and as long as I kept my cast on the perimeter of the school, I could pick one off on every cast without spooking the rest of em.
Then I was walking down the bank and saw a large dark shape slowly moving toward me, I threw my little ant in front and just out from him, he turned and inhaled it, just like a good fish should. I fought this fish for a good while on my 5wt with my little reel playing its happy tune. I slid the fish onto shore, grabbed him by the lip and as I went for the camera, he houdini-ed right out of my hand and into the water...no picture...sorry.

I snapped a picture of the first couple smaller ones. The smaller fish are really pretty!

Oddly, every fish I landed held its mouth wide open the whole time out of the water, I've never seen them do that before.

Jay

[Darian]

Hmmmm,.... Black Bass..... On a Black Ant..... What size was the fly

[Adam Grace]

I also caught my first bass of this season today. After school I decided to abandon my homework for about 2 hours and visit my old neighborhood pond. I caught a few bass and bluegill using my fun little 7' 3wt rod. I caught a couple on a popper, but the wooly bugger was the most effective. These fish seamed sluggish, they wanted a slowr strip. The warmer weather has caused the bass to start spawning, I saw quite a few redds occupied by bass.

[MSP]

Good job you guys. Seems Bass and Brim are the only thing going right now. Those fish look like they just saw a ghost! I noticed they are both looking down also. Don't know what that means but this guy in my Bass Club years ago swore that if the eyes were looking up fish above them and if they were looking down fish below. I thought the guy was full of crap!

[jbird]

Darian

The ant was a #12 about 3/8" in length. Its head was a blacy beadhead, thorax black threat with a couple turns of black saddle and the abdomen was black dubbing.

Adam.

Good on you! sounds like we were rippin lips at the same time

Mike

99 out of 100 fish I've seen out of water are looking down. In fact the best way to tell if a fish is dead in a photo is if its eyes are level. I have photo'd some fish underwater and their eyes are level. Theres something about being out of water that makes em look down. Maybe they are anticipating being released.

Jay

[Hairstacker]

Man, that's a GREAT honey hole you got there Jay! What a great day!