Bait Blitz

[John H]

For the last month I have been looking for a good Berryessa bait blitz or at least just a little bait. It seems like the bait is late in showing up, but I did find some yesterday. I did my usual bobber fishing early in the shade and it was pretty good. When that petered out, I went looking for bait. I have looked a few times and found nothing, so I was not optimistic. I fished in the bait area for a while figuring I would run into the bait if it was around. I found a school of about 50 bass cruising and caught one out of it that spit up bait. I had not found any bait, but the bass had. Apparently, the bass are better at finding bait than I am. I knew there had to be bait nearby if the bass were loitering and spitting up it up. Sure enough, I found it pretty soon.

There were small packs of bass cruising around the bait area, but they did not like the clouser. I tried a few things, but the winner was the black leech hanging 8' under a bobber. They have people throwing every trick in the book at them all year and they get pretty good at spotting frauds but the small black fly gently falling and then slowly suspending must not look suspicious. Who knows what they are thinking but if a pack came by, I had a good chance seeing the bobber go down. I did see plenty of surface blitzes, but they disappear fast and can't really be chased. When I did get a clouser in one they bit it. The bait seems to attract all the good-sized bass, so you don't have to worry about catching a dinker.

That is how the search for bait went. The weekend will be a madhouse up there, so my plan is to lay low until next week and if the wind is friendly, continue the search.

[lee s.]

John,
A bunch of BG's that size would surely please us on our "ought" wt.
.....lee s.

[Rich Morrison]

Just a monster Bluegill. Fantastic!

[DLJeff]

Yeah, that bluegill is impressive! Those little guys fight above their weight class.

[John H]

I did not know the bluegill was such a popular fish. That one was probably not as big as it looks. I got one much bigger and took a picture but it was not as colorful so I did not post that one. It may have been an egg carrying female. I think they bite a lot and don’t get hooked because the fly is a little too big for them. I watched one grab the fly without getting the hook and drag the bobber under. Bass seem to not miss much on getting hooked. I think there is another small sunfish in there. Four inches long. Maybe a red ear sunfish. I used to have a poster of the Sunfish of North America. There were many species of bass on it. Bass variety in the southeast is kind of like cutthroat varieties used to be in the west - they get isolated in a drainage and a new species develops. Bluegill are way more popular here than seabirds.

[Rich Morrison]

I did not know the bluegill was such a popular fish. That one was probably not as big as it looks. I got one much bigger and took a picture but it was not as colorful so I did not post that one. It may have been an egg carrying female. I think they bite a lot and don’t get hooked because the fly is a little too big for them. I watched one grab the fly without getting the hook and drag the bobber under. Bass seem to not miss much on getting hooked. I think there is another small sunfish in there. Four inches long. Maybe a red ear sunfish. I used to have a poster of the Sunfish of North America. There were many species of bass on it. Bass variety in the southeast is kind of like cutthroat varieties used to be in the west - they get isolated in a drainage and a new species develops. Bluegill are way more popular here than seabirds.

Bluegill are great fun. I was stationed in Mississippi back in the day and used to fish for them with a fly rod all the time. The other sunfish could also be a pumpkinseed. The red ear are more pale and pumpkinseed have more colorful often orangeish body. Both are introduced species.

[DLJeff]

Total agreement Rich. When we lived in St Louis, the mantra was that when the dogwoods started to bloom, it was time to hit the bluegill ponds. Bluegill make a very distinctive sound when taking surface bait, kind of a popping kiss sound. Get a handful of little Sneaky Pete's or Bream Poppers. Watch for a rise and cast the popper into the rings. Let it sit, no movement until all the rings are gone, then twitch it just enough to make more rings and let it sit again. Bluegill often sit underneath and watch and watch and finally come up and suck it in. And like I said, they fight above their weight class, great fun.

[StevenB]

The smallies in Lake Siskiyou really like the minimal movement on poppers.

If you move the popper a lot they will ignore it,
but pop it once, let it sit, then a little pop and they will grab it.