Warmwater Bonanza: Bass, Bluegills and a Bowfin

Better late than never, I finally got the canoe out last week. Our older son was thrilled to get on the water and we paddled straight for the southeast corner of the lake, which features a nice drop-off and plenty of weed beds. We caught a medium-sized largemouth bass from the weeds on a silver spinner followed by a bowfin. In case you're wondering, bowfin are native to the US as well as southern Canada. They are the only surviving species of an order of ancient fish, having swim bladders that function as primitive lungs. They regularly come to the surface to gulp air and favor weedy, shallow fringes, just like largemouth bass. They eat smaller fish, which explains why this particular bowfin went for my spinner.

I thought that I had caught a pike because the bowfin shot out of the weeds, rolled over on striking the lure and immediately starting jumping and thrashing. It was about two feet long and bent over double on itself when it jumped. Pretty feisty little pike, right? Wrong. When I landed the fish I realized what I had. So, how do you hold a bowfin? I wasn't about to stick my thumb in its mouth like a bass, so I decided to grab it like a pike, behind the gills. That worked about long enough to get the hook out of his mouth, when he really went nuts and I lost my grip on him. Hence, no pictures of my first bowfin.

We did locate a nice school of pumpkinseed bluegills a little later. They were in shallow water and ready to take flies. I recently cleaned up my oldest 4-weight trout rod and replaced the line, so I gave that a shot. You can see the handle of it in the picture of my son with the bass. The new line (it is actually an old one that I got on clearance years ago as a spare) was just the ticket and that old outfit casts better than ever. We caught some pumpkinseeds on a little fuzzy nymph then retired for the day. I'm getting anxious for autumn so that I can get the old 4-weight out on a trout stream.

Posted Access and Wading Angler's Rights

There is a spot about a mile from my parent's house in southern Indiana where I like to go fishing. It is at the intersection of Brandywine Creek and County Road 100 North in rural Shelby County. There is a modern bridge as well as the remains of an old bridge, which is where folks have parked to fish the creek for years.

Perhaps I have built up this fishing hole in my own mind over the years simply because it was always close to home and easily accessible. After all, it is only a warmwater creek flowing through mostly flat farmland. Cautious wading and mindful presentations would produce smallmouth bass from Brandywine, though the majority of the catch usually consisted of bluegills, redears and rock bass. There are certainly better waters in Indiana, but this is where my stream-angling education began in 1985, when my brother and I were finally big enough to ride our bikes down to the creek and wade by ourselves. It is where we stepped into the water, leaving behind bank-fishing and boat rides to become part of the environment where the fish live.

Last week I was saddened to find that my old fishing hole has now been posted with "No Trespassing" signs, like many other easily-accessed sites in the area. I was initially angry, but I quickly understood why landowners would post access points. After all, nearly every one of these spots has become a garbage dump for pop cans, beer bottles, styrofoam bait containers and wads of monofilament. It is not uncommon to find the remains of old campfires, piles of cigarette butts and even condoms.

I guess that these once-popular fishing holes have really become magnets for people who refuse to accept responsibility for themselves. If access rights were solely about fishing we would have a better argument in favor of wading these waters. After all, why should an angler be denied the right to use a natural resource at the whim of an adjacent landowner? But these access points have become something else. The folks who leave these kinds of messes behind might dip a line in the water, but fishing is probably second to their desire to have a good time and leave the mess for somebody else to clean up.

Whether we use fly rods, spinning gear or bait, real anglers are conscious of our impact on the environment. We don't leave behind messes and we don't do things to threaten the resources that we enjoy. If you are a true angler then pick up after yourself. The next water that gets posted might be your favorite spot, and if the people who own that access have put up with the kind of messes I have seen, I don't blame them one bit for posting it.

Simple Fly Fishing Leaders

Leaders for fly fishing can be complicated, but there is no need to get technical when you are casting heavy or large flies such as those used to catch warmwater fish. Unlike trout, bass and pike are not exactly leader-shy, so you don't have to worry about landing them on ultra-light tippets.

The leader follows the fly line, and the fly follows the leader.

Rather than purchase manufactured knotless, tapered leaders, try making your own. All you need is a spool of heavy monofilament, I use 30 pound-test Suffix Elite, and a couple of spools of lighter line. The 30-pound test will form the butt of the leader and the lighter line is the tippet. You should make the butt about two-thirds the length of the leader, and the tippet one-third. This will ensure that the fly turns over. For subsurface presentations I use 14 pound-test fluorocarbon, which sinks and is practically invisible underwater. For top-water presentations I use 8 pound-test monofilament. If you attach the thinner tippet material to the butt with an Albright knot, the tippet will break before the knot.

Custom leaders with a fluorocarbon tippet are perfect for casting and presenting Clouser Minnows.

If you are fishing a stream or river with heavy flies, try a simple length of fluorocarbon. Cut a piece that is about twice as long as the water depth. The thin material cuts through the water and will allow your fly to get down in a hurry. Don't worry too much about casting a heavy fly on a leader with no butt. When you cast heavy flies, you are really lobbing them more than you are "fly casting" anyway. Unless you try to cast it like a trout fly, your leader will straighten out.

Monofilament leader material is the right choice for top-water bass bugs.

 These simple leaders will get you through most warmwater fly-fishing situations. They are durable and, best of all, inexpensive. You can easily drop $3 or $4 on a manufactured leader, yet a few spools of monofilament and fluorocarbon will produce more leaders than you will probably use in an entire year. Try it out sometime.

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This largemouth bass was lurking in the weeds--the perfect place to use a bass bug.
 

Grandpa Perk's Fishing Lures

A Vamp on the left, a Wounded Spook on the right. The brochure is a Florida fishing guide from 1990. The licenses are from Indiana, circa 1980 and 1981.

I was fortunate enough to have known all of my grandparents very well. In fact, my grandmother Patty Perkinson is still living in Shelbyville and doing well. My grandfather, Robert Perkinson, passed away in 2008. On one of our visits he gave me his old tackle box, which was filled with all sorts of old lures, a couple of reels and a collection of the random odds-and-ends that all fishermen acquire over the years.

A Heddon Wounded Spook, designed to float on its side and imitate a struggling baitfish. One of my favorite topwater lures to this day is the Heddon Torpedo, which features spinning propellers like the Spook.

A few years ago I cleaned up some of the hooks and tied them into flies, which I gave to family members as Christmas presents. The tackle box has sat untouched on the back porch for a long time since, but I decided that I should give these old lures a chance to get wet again. After a Father's Day filled with bluegill fishing with my older son off the dock behind our house, I tied on the Spook and Vamp for another swim. I did not catch anything, and only tossed each lure a couple of times, but they both work well in the water and appear no worse for the wear after many, many years.

The Vamp resting on a 1980 Indiana fishing license.
 

 I must admit that I was a little worried about losing the lures, so I used wire leaders to fend off any pike that might take the bait. Since both lures float, my backup plan was to swim out to get them if I lost one due to a busted swivel or broken line.

The Wounded Spook on a 1981 Indiana fishing license.

It was fun to see those old lures on the water after so many years. I think that my concern was unwarranted, however. As sure as I'm sitting here right now, I know that, had a monster pike stolen one of these lures, Perk would just look down from heaven, chuckle quietly and take a long draw of Half-and-Half from his favorite pipe.

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