Fly fished the Delta for a few hours this morning out of the inflatable kayak. Arrived just before the outgoing tide hit bottom, so took my time stringing up a new 7 wt. rod I bought at Kiene's that I was fishing for the first time. The weather was very pleasant with hardly a breeze, but it just didn’t seem like a topwater striper day today, so I decided to fish topwater for largemouth bass instead. Thus, I tied on one of my size 2 deer hair green/yellow frog divers and started working the edges of the weedlines bordering shallow flats like this:
I was perhaps a little too relaxed in the inflatable, as it wasn't long at all before a topwater explosion startled me and caused me to pull the fly away from a good fish. I resolved to pay a little more attention and it wasn’t long afterward that I got a solid take after a couple of strips and I was able to break in my new rod properly on this guy that was just shy of 15”:
He put up a great fight and I thought he was bigger, probably because this new rod is just a tad softer than the rod I normally use. This, of course, just made the catching all the more fun. One thing I really appreciated about this slightly softer feel was that I was making smoother, more gentle presentations than I normally do with the other rod. As it stands, I am very happy with my purchase.
As it turned out, it was a good day and I enjoyed fairly consistent topwater action throughout the session, with most of the fish once again in the 14” – 16” range with a few smaller ones thrown in as well. They all came on the edges of weedlines bordering shallow flats. I employed a constant, medium-speed retrieve, where I let the bug dive and then, the moment it surfaced, I made it dive again, and so on. Here’s a few more pictures of some of the fish I caught today:
I left the frog diver tied on for the entire time until I got back to the car and, I must say, I have developed solid confidence in this pattern -- based on this trip and the last few, it has earned a permanent place in my bug box. Also, the Delta once again showed me why this is my favorite time of the year to be on it.
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