3.16.16. Night by Fly by:Steve

     

      We've been waiting on a weather window to try some night fly fishing around a lighted bridge. For this I recently tied some sparsely dressed Clousers to imitate the spearing we've seen schooling in the bay. I wanted a fly that would make a dark impression in the water, so I tied one with a little green wool that Alexi's wife had spun, and another, a deer hair Clouser in black and blue over chartreuse. When we got around to it, I fished a handful of patterns, but these thinly tied Clousers were the only that produced.

      Bass and spearing were visible tight to the bridge along the shadow line, though when I drifted into the open while changing flies, or tying on new leader, I could hear pops and splashy rises nearby. Spearing, charmed by the aura of my headlamp, flicked and hovered on the surface, orbiting my boat. Despite the presence of feeding fish, catching was not consistent. Flyrodding from the kayak, has some inherent challenges to work out, often casts were off target, and more than a few times I put fish down with sloppy presentations, or drifted over top of them while untangling the coils of line in my lap. Fish in these situations require finesse: they do not need to move far to eat, nor is there any advantage in their doing so, with a minimal expenditure of energy they use the deflection of current, and the concealment provided by the bridge to easily ambush their prey which are lost in the allure of light.

       Using an anchor was one solution, the current was drawing me toward the bridge from the direction I wanted to cast from, into my slack fly line, and into where I was casting to. Running my anchor line off the stern I can cast the whole area in front of me without snagging the rope, or having to fight a fish around it. I have a long enough anchor line so I can drop it and let myself drift to where I want to cast from, then secure the line. Also, as you can see from the first picture, fighting a fish off anchor ends me up under a low bridge with all kinds of hazards to a nine foot rod, with line all over my deck, while posing for a dumb picture. So as usual there are angles to figure out before we get it right.