AAAHHHH..The Smell Of Fish On My Hands

That is right people after almost two months, I was finally able to get out and do some fishing.  Being slammed with orders is a good thing but it did take away from the fishing.  Mother Nature was no help either.  It seemed like every time I got caught up and was able to fish it had either just rained, was raining currently or about to unload very shortly.  If it wasn't raining, it was 115 degrees with the heat index.  I just could not catch a break.  The rain coupled with the heat index here in Maryland makes it easy to see why I have such a love hate relationship with Mother Nature.  For me, this is the best time of year as well.  It is a time to wet wade with a pair of old shorts and my wading boots throwing poppers(our speciality) and foam flies like the Monocacy Bumble Bee well into the evening.  It is the time of year I look forward to (fishing wise) and one that holds enough memories to tide me over through the dead of winter. As we all know, I am a die hard warm water fly fisherman.  My favorite type of water are small streams.  My favorite fish is the smallie followed by the red eyed rock, crappie and long eared sunfish.  Nothing beats the take of a smallie on top water.  They are such an explosive fish.  Given that I have a liking for small streams, they tend to be what I fish mainly.  Therefore when it rains, I get screwed.  I typically fish the Monocacy River in and around Frederick.  It is not a great river by any stretch of the imagination.  It has been abused, polluted and mistreated for years.  Some areas see tremendous fishing pressure with people taking fish and using bad manners (more on that in another post).  Despite all that, I believe it can be and is an underrated smallmouth fishery and what some would call my home waters.

Greg and I did some texting back and forth on Sunday and decided to hit our usual spot in our pursuit for some smallies, red eyed rocks, crappie and long ears on Monday 07/30/2012.  I met him and his son around 1445 hours.  The weather had cooled some what and there was a slight breeze.  I think it went down to the low 80s which is really awesome fishing wise.  By the time I got there, they were already fishing.  They told me that top water wasn't working but that the Road Kills were killing.  So I tied on a white and black Road Kill and went to work.  I had decided the night before to continue rocking it old school with the 7 foot 5/6wt Eagle Claw Featherlight.  I am so glad that I did.  What a great rod.  My only two gripes would be that the casting is a tad harder and that the rod pieces tend to come apart easily.  Other than those, it is an awesome rod.  I am a convert for sure.  I can't wait to buy more fiberglass rods.  I just need to get another job to afford them and all the other fly fishing crap I need (read want).

Over the course of the next five hours, we put some serious bends in our rods.  Many times we had double and triple hookups.  The fishing was spot on.  The fish were serious about the Road Kills.  After about 15 or so fish, they mangled by white and black one so I switched to a purple and black one.  Greg had been using white and black, all white and orange while his son had been using chartreuse, purple and black and orange. The colors really didn't seem to matter.  It was so great to be out on the water.  It was even better to be catching fish and spending time with friends.  Now that I am down to just two orders, I will be doing more posts and more fishing.

I managed to catch 63 of these.  They really are a beautiful fish

I only managed to catch 1 of these 

I did manage two smallies with this being the biggest one 

Purple and Black battered Road Kill that took over 50 fish 

I also landed 1 bluegill and three warmouth but I didn't take another photos of them.  All in all it was a great day and I can't wait to get back on the water for some more fiberglass action.  I am back baby!