A Milestone: Ready to Buy Foam Spiders

I'm putting together a plan to get away for a whole day to fish a smallmouth river. It looks like it won't happen until the weekend, though. So I grabbed a couple of hours and went back to Yellowwood Lake for the evening.

I went to the south end and climbed the dam.

The water looked good, and there was plenty of room to cast. I fished dry and I fished wet. I fished small and I fished big.

In two hours I got two swirls at the fly, but I couldn't tell whether they were small fry or decent fish. I might have given up, but the whole time there were sporadic rises of good fish all around. It looked like some bigger bluegill, and one or two splashy rises that were too big for bluegill.

I hoped that with the coming of dusk I might get a chance at some of those risers, and that's what happened. As the light waned the rises increased and moved closer to the bank. I was fishing a greased muddler and got a hit and miss. It was clearly a bluegill; I could hear the distinctive pop. I tied on a smaller dry.

On a slow, steady strip I finally hooked up. It was a very nice bluegill, the kind that makes you think about bringing a stringer next time.

I caught it on a mayfly pattern. I pondered the significance of that for awhile. I decided it felt like a moment of connection between my Washington past and my Indiana future. It was further evidence that a transition is taking place. I think I'm ready to put the trout flies away (until I can head to Michigan) and go out and buy some foam spiders again. (Do they still sell them in a three-pack, black, white and green? I hope so.)

There was another milestone: my first bass on a fly this time around in Indiana. This little guy also sucked in the mayfly.

I was happy to have a bass, any bass, but I tied on a big muddler again on the off chance that I could find a large largemouth. Wouldn't you know it, this time it brought an even bigger bluegill.

I called it a night, well satisfied with what I had seen. Maybe next time I'll wait and get there at dusk. But, then again....

You know how it is: I think I'll get there at the same time and keep trying to figure out how to get those big gills to hit a fly in full daylight.