Things were a lot slower than I expected in the afternoon.  I was casting poppers for a good hour and a half without much luck.  The water was actually quite warm, probably even a bit out of the comfort zone for bass, so this was likely the issue.

I gave up on the poppers and went subsurface with an angora bugger and things started to pick up a bit.  Landed a pike, a couple largemouth bass and a few small overzealous baby bass.  Nothing spectacular, but better than nothing.

As evening approached and the temps cooled a bit and the sun started to set, I ditched the bugger and went back to poppers… again, no luck.  As a last-ditch effort, I thought I’d try tying on a smaller terrestrial fly and twitching it on the surface.  A few minutes in, I made a cast close to shore; I’m guessing in about a foot of water.  One twitch and I saw something subtly gulp my fly down.  I thought it was either another tiny bass or a bluegill – sure looked like it from the delicate take.  Then it ran straight at my tube… fast.  I was stripping line as fast as I could to keep tension on and I knew then that I was into a better fish.  This nice largemouth was the result:

Nice largemouth bass taken on a little terrestrial before dark.

To be honest, I’ve fished this water a few times before and never been overly impressed with it.  Had I not caught this just before heading in, I likely wouldn’t have been too excited to come back.  I know they’re in there now though, so I’ll definitely be back to find more of these in the near future!

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