Bring on the BASS!!!

Last Tuesday Patrick and I and a few of the Stanislaus Fly Fishers hit the waters of Kistler Ranch again in search of the elusive large mouth bass or lets say the bass that eluded us last time. We jumped into the canoe around 4:30pm and headed across the pond. Patrick and I both tied on our own variation to the Marabou muddler and started fishing. (Picture below)

Within about a half an hour Patrick landed his first Bass. I was watching Patrick to see how he was working his fly when I saw the bass take the the fly off the surface. WOW...what an awesome sight! Patrick gave a nice hook set...FISH ON!! You should have heard us when I put the Bass in the net. We were like two kids in a candy store, We were "High Fiving" and celebrating! Another angler turned around and I think was expecting to see a "trophy" bass but no, just two guys getting excited about catching fish.

Well we finally calmed down and started fishing again. We headed to the far end of the pond and fished the weed line and open water. It was tough positioning the canoe because of the wind. We decided to just drift into the weeds and work the weed line instead of trying to fight the wind. We had a few takes but didn't get a bass to hold on.

We decided to get off the water for a bit and enjoy our burritos and beer before heading out again. We noticed a few of the anglers on the pond tossing some subsurface flies. I decided to tie on one of my "Crafty Shrimp" patterns. I tossed my fly out into open water and started stripping it in. After a few cast WHAM!...I had a bass on... and he came off...totally bummed. The bass fought for a bit then did a last ditch effort, pulled hard then was gone. It felt good to feel the bass on the other end even though I didn't land him. We fished for a while and still no real consistent action. We let the wind push us again into the weeds and worked some open pockets. Patrick was working the muddler in open water this time and hooked another bass. This one had a little more girth on him and put up a little better fight. We had the same reaction as the first one...lots of hoopin' & hollerin!"
I got the excitement again to put back on my muddler. There was a nice 3' opening in between all the weeds that I just knew a bass was holding. I tossed my fly right in the center(perfect cast) and let the rings settle before I made a soft tug on my line. The fly moved about 2" when a bass came and took my fly down. I felt the tug... I set the hook and the fight was ON...then it was off...I lost another one. I pulled him out of the heavy cover he was in and I thought for sure he was coming into the boat. Patrick had the net in hand but the bass spit my fly. Bass 2... Me... ZERO!

We kept working the same area and I had a few more takes and had another bass take my fly but this one came off right away. Patrick on the other hand was making perfect casts along the weed line when bass #3 took his fly. This was the last fish of the night.

Patrick with Bass #3 and a great sunset in the background!

Here is a great pic of the Sunset over the pond.

Well, even though I didn't get my picture taken with a bass, Patrick and I had an AWESOME time as always doing what we love to do...Fly Fish!! Our next outing will probably be back on the lower Stan so stay close because we'll be...
Back on the FLY!!