The Mental Game

Yesterday, fish in mass headed to the surface, to sun. They'll do this "dead fish walking" thing at various times of the year for various reasons. With the same result-mission impossible, to catch.

I've found that given time when it's a sunning thing, once warmed a few may turn their attention to eating. I searched fly boxes, thought myself to a headache and exhaustion, and changed flies so many times yesterday I chewed up an 18 inch leader in about an hour via all the knots I tied and clipping tag ends. Jigs, scuds, nymphs, San Juan worms, San Juan worms downsized by clipping the body forward of the eye leaving only a tail...

Now and then, a bluegill or red ear would sip something from the calm surface. Switching leaders to a dry fly leader and subsequent dry fly entered my mind several times. But dry fly fishing on a calm lake is far different than on a stream. Moving your dry fly some is a reasonable tactic, but on a lake it still feels like you've bought the lottery ticket now waiting to win the half billion dollar lottery. Waiting essentially, for the one out of hundreds that finally got warm enough to eat, to come to your dry. Maybe I found my "patience limit".

Not everything they were sipping on the surface survives-some number of whatever it was sinks for whatever reason. So now I was looking intently at what it was they were sipping. The only things I could see, plant matter or unidentified as to if it was insects, was white. So, after an hour and a half of trying to fish what I was comfortable with and no takers, I tied this on. Gray-always a good color, winged-I wasn't too sure any wings were popping out on anything yet in 50 degree water-but while it seems that fish can be terribly discriminating about what you're presenting to them, once you're in the zone anything close will work. For example, while I think the wings were a deal kiler, everything else about this little gray winged nymph was a deal maker. It was game on.

So, while I was going to chase trout today, this task yesterday was so difficult I'm returning to this, my best red ear and second best bluegill lake today. Because I'm a glutton for punishment. If I'd have been on 'em from the git go yesterday, I'm sure I'd have opted for the more difficult trout, today.

Go figure.