It was tough fishing today. It was defined by a thousand casts in 6 hours for 4 hits and 4 fish. A day like today reminds me that fishing is not just the ten minutes of actually hooking and playing a fish. Fishing is the whole process of getting the boat ready, tying the right flies, getting up early and driving, having the right rods and lines for the conditions and being healthy enough to stand for six hours flailing your arms in the air with force. It is complicated and I wonder how old I will be when I can’t physically do this. So many fish to catch and so little time.

The wind was light today. I anticipated some topwater action this morning and I got to the lake at day break. I would have been earlier but they closed a section of 152 and the detour added an half hour. I was the 15th boat to check in at 6:00 am. When I got to the ramp, there was a boat in need of a battery jump. I tried to jump it off my trolling motor but it didn’t have enough cranking power. Fortunately another boat came along and they used my jumper cables to finally get their boat running. Unfortunatly, I missed the morning bite.

I decided to try Lone Oak Bay with topwater. Most of the 15 boats from Basalt launch were fishing Portuguese Bay. I did see what I thought were striper boils in Lone Oak Bay. I got on top of them but they turned out to be American Shad. It was exciting at least chasing them and casting to them.

I didn’t see any flyfishermen all day. After zero fish in Portuguese Bay, I fished the south shoreline and then headed over to Romero where I caught my first two fish. Last week I caught a few there and saw lots of fish on the Panoptics Livescope. I picked up two in the corner working the rocks. It’s especially frustrating seeing all the fish swimming around the bottom in 30 feet of water with the Livescope while not hooking fish. In the old days, it was enough to think I just couldnt find the fish. With the livescope, it’s more about weather they are on the bite since you can see the fish actually go to the fly and reject it. It’s almost like selective trout! I actually went to lighter leaders and tiny flies today but couldn’t figure it out. A boat near me was fishing cut anchovies on the bottom from an anchored boat and actually caught a few.

I fished the trash racks for a couple hours. The pumps weren’t on and the fish were absent. From there I went to the Bay of Pigs. With the lake down about 40 percent, the bay of pigs is about 10 feet deep. I fished the flats with no bites and fished the Dam around Guardrail and picked up another two fish. It was very hard to stay frosty with the action so slow. THere are still tons of huge fish in the Bay of Pigs along the Dam. I can see them with the Livescope everywhere. They really like structure and hang under bushes and along rocks and depressions right on the bottom. I tried dredging for them with big flies and even tried to drop shot them. When they dont want to eat, they dont eat.
Hopefully they will start eating soon getting ready for winter.

I had a chance to play with a new Super Telephoto lens on the Panny Gh5. I recently got a good deal on a PANASONIC LUMIX G Leica DG Vario-Elmar Professional Lens, 100-400MM, F4.0-6.3 ASPH, MIRRORLESS Micro Four Thirds. This lens is the equivalent of an 800mm lens. Here is a shots I took all the way out.