Fishing was tough even with the new Big Bad Bass flies I was testing. During the morning only a few small fish were caught so decided to give the evening a try. Walked into a watershed lake at 6 PM and began working a weed line. Again, all I caught was a number of small to medium sized fish but nothing of size so moved on to another spot.
Did not get on the water again until 8 PM. By that time, the sun was low in the sky but still caught nothing. It was then that I noticed the bright full moon in the sky. Not sure how I missed that important detail and decided to stay until dark.
My first hit did not come until 9 PM. It was a powerful fish that ran the drag. When it got close to shore, I could see it was a large catfish. Once on shore it measured 27 inches long. Wow wasn’t expecting that on as fly. The cat tore up the rig, so I switched rods once it was back in the water rather than taking the time to re-tie.
Ten minutes later got another strong hit. Thought it was another big cat until a largemouth bass jumped out of the water and began stripping line off the reel. Got it on shore for a quick photo and back in the water. The bass was 17 inches long with a big girth, about 3.5 pounds.
By now it was getting hard to see and I still needed to walk out so thanked the Lord for a wonderful evening and hung it up for the day.
Both of these fish came from a spot I had fished earlier in the evening with no success. When the moon is full and bright, try fishing at night (or almost night)!
Glenn Personey
President
Bear River Tackle