Bingo!

Day three-trying to put a guide trip together. Back to the lake a new state record bluegill resides. Packed a few flies for use on a spinning reel. No info if the girl I'm guiding, fly fishes. The guides on Taneycomo fish with a spinning rod 75% of the time-with flies on the end. It's always perfect if you can spot a tattletale fish-one that rushes to various degrees at what you drop on them. They're usually "at your feet", so a good study medium. After an hour and fifteen minutes and never finding flies OR spinning jigs the tattletale fish would eat, and four fish (less than the gauge to stay) I abandoned said lake and headed to the one I was rapid firing bluegill on fly rods a couple weeks ago.

Bald cypress-east side of this lake has half a dozen patches of bald cypress. The otherwise very citified looking, well groomed, dog walkers paradise lake, has bald cypress patches. Little patches of nightmares in an otherwise rainbows and kittens fishing environment. And no one fishes them! Honestly, I get why!

Fish are tucked near the intersection of the bald cypress roots and the bank, which has an eroded undercut. They're literally at your feet. And baffling how many big bluegill will be an area the size circled. But, there is no traditional casting. Hanging 3-6 feet of line from the rod tip, then pulling out about another 3 feet and pinching it between your thumb and forefinger and pulling it away from your body is the start of a "cast". A little swinging motion and with any luck, that loading the rod to assist getting the lure out there, and letting go of that additional three feet of line can result in casts up to 9 feet. Constant line pinching and pulling line is required because there is no lifting of the rod, if you want to stay out of the cypress leaves. Setting a hook is a no go, due to cypress branches as low as your knees. Remember, lifting the rod tip for any reason...is a no go. Bald cypress leaves are very annoying. No matter what you catch in them and at no matter what angle, or how mild, they own the rod tip, the fishing line, the fly, the lure. Catching a fish in this area requires perfect pressure to guide it out to more open water for the final fight-and possibly, finally, a hook set! With any luck, and some skill, that pressure guiding the fish out of the roots and from under the branches may slowly drive the hook point into their mouth. If something goes awry, imagine the spring loaded effect of up to 9 feet of fishing line and lure threading through the cypress leaves 20 ways to Sunday.

A lightning bolt too close for comfort ended my quest for bluegill number 40. The bluegill in this lake have improved in size substantially, the last few years. Seven inches are regular-an inch over what seems to be the standard of ..."5 to 6 inch bluegill for good fishing." And that 39-I pulled from cypress roots in about 2 1/2 hours. These are "guidable fish". But, I was in the branches about a dozen times. Even with all of my "expertise" and "professionalism". That's my next concern for my Monday client. If she's pretty inexperienced handling a rod, I think I've set her up for a day of frustration she'll never forget! But I ain't got nuttin' else, right now! I suppose the more important qualifying questions to her is, "Do you want to fish? Or do you want to catch fish?

Welcome to my fishing world. Where visions of "rainbows and kittens fishing" is a reality check more akin to this.