A Fine Day For A Birthday

A Fine Day For A Birthday

June 5, 2018 

“Birthdays - phooey! I don’t do birthdays!”
There are some people that always say this. Maybe you know someone like this
Each year, their birthday rolls around, and not only do they refuse to celebrate, but they won't even acknowledge its existence. 
I dunno, but we'd probably say they're in denial.
Or something. 

Well, lets, get one thing clear - I'm not one of them. 

My birthday was this week, and I took note of it.

The years are passing, you see, whether I like or not. 

I can't dodge or deny that, so I commemorate each one that gets behind me by trying to do something I like on my birthday. 

And for me, that's fishing!

So, I took the day off from work, and managed to get my lazy butt out of bed by 6:30 a.m.,... which turned out to be less painful than I imagined. 

I'm not retired yet, and I normally sleep in on days off. I really wanted to sleep.
The trick was to just get moving and outta the bedroom. With that done, it wasn't so bad... as long as I kept telling myself that.
So far, so good.

But it gets better.

To my pleasant surprise, the weather was cool, and overcast - fine enough for any 5th of June, but especially for a birthday. 

I realized my eyes weren't going to be seared outta my skull by the glare, and I might not be cooked like a shrimp on the barbie.

Woohoo! This was looking better all the time.

Nevertheless, I'm still frustrated about my hat...the hat I can't find. 

It's a floppy straw hat, but made from synthetic materials and it's foldable. 

I gave a whole $1 for it at a yard sale, and my wife hates it. 

That's right - it's cheap, and the wife thinks it's hideous.

Right there, that's a pretty special fishing hat.

And, as if those endearing qualities weren't enough, it also blocks the sun, while also being airy and cool.

Yessir, buddy. That's a good hat.

So, what happened to it? All I can guess is, I folded it up and stuck it somewhere ... and now I don't remember where. I hesitate to call that a senior moment, so I'd appreciate it if you don't either.

The alternative I came up with is, well, goofy, to say the least - a bright Day-Glo cap, with red-and-white skull bandanna. 

Lawrence of Arabia meets Old Dingbat in a float tube. 

Talk about HI-Visibility....

HIGH VISIBILITY

On a positive note, I'm sure my wife will hate it, too.

New Site, Minor Issue

The chosen location for my birthday outing was new to me. 

I discovered it a couple weeks ago, as I passed by on the highway. 

I've been that way many times, but never saw it until I pulled in that day. 

I looked it over and was impressed enough to put, "Adams Park," on my site list. 

Yes, you read that right - I have a list of fishing sites. 

Not long ago, I did a piece here on The PFnF Blog about systematizing how far one might travel to find decent fishing. Everyone is different, of course; some people will travel hours to wet a line. 

As for me, my normal limit is about 30 miles and less than an hour's drive time.
Adams Park is much better than that; it's only 13 minutes from home. So it makes the list. 

The site itself is tucked away next to a bridge - a small, private "pocket park," with clear and easy access. 

The site sports a couple of tables for picnic'ing, if you're into that.

It also has 2 shallow boat ramps, and parking for about 15 vehicles. It's clean, and kept up nicely. 

I wouldn't be inclined to launch a big, deep-water boat here, but its fine for jonboats, kayaks, and other shallow draft designs. 

This includes float tubes, naturally, and coincidentally, that's what I happened to have with me on my birthday. 

It is also on an arm off the main lake, so it receives clear, wind blown surge straight from the big water.

For all that, there are two drawbacks:

1. No toilet facilities 

2. It aint free. 

The lack of toilets is not that big a deal; other access facilities around the lake don't have them. 

But the fees... well. We're talking a whole $5 to park. 

This also includes ramp use, so that may be a bargain depending on how you look at it. Other private facilities around the lake charge a ramp fee, too, so that's not so unusual. 

But float tubers pride themselves on avoiding such fees whenever possible. After all we can carry our boats on our backs; we don't need no stinkin' ramp fees!

Nevertheless, I called it a birthday present to myself, and pony'd up the Lincoln... in the interests of the blog and the sport, of course.

Clear Water

Walk-in Launch

The Fishing

Over the last weekend, my pre-birthday excursion didn't go so well. In not-unusual fashion I got out pretty late in the day, and couldn't buy a bite. 

Put another way, I was roasted by the sun, blinded by the glare, and try as I might, I was ignored and laughed at by the fish.

But, my birthday trip was, well... better.

For starters, the water here is different than the bath-tub backwater I was in previously.
It's clear, it's freshened by wind and there are plenty of weeds growing. The bottom is hard and not inclined to be mucky.
The sky was also overcast, yet bright, and the bluegill were both plentiful and willing.

I found no real monsters here, but the fish were consistently average. And every bluegill aficionado will tell you that's just fine, as long as they are biting.

Of some interest... or maybe some disappointment... was that I caught not one bass. A lot of minnows were being chased, and with all the weeds, docks, and sloping points around the site, I was confident my favorite bucktail, "The Dixie Finn," would do the trick. 
I expected at least a few buck bass.

One of the nice things about float tubes is they are thread-the-needle fishing platforms. They're slow, but they let you fish hands free, and you can dissect an area methodically. Every pocket, stick up, and bit of downed wood can be fished from a float tube. 
Actually, you may as well do that, because you aren't going anywhere fast.

So that's just what did. I plied the whole area with bucktail streamers, poppers, sliders, woollies, and sundry other flies... to no avail.

But I wasn't mad - I'm a bluegill fly-rodder first and foremost. Catching lots of those is my pleasure.

Anything else is icing on an already great birthday cake.

The Flies - Good, Bad, and Ugly

The picture below shows all the flies I tried that day. 

                         

Used and Abused

The fly holder is an iPhone clip-case; I just added a foam backing where you impale a fly when you take it off your line.
I can affix it most anywhere with the strong spring clip and it stays put. The latching ears and edge railing that formerly held a cell phone now act to protect the flies from being knocked loose.

At the end of every fishing session, its a handy record of what worked and what didn't.

Looking it over, you'll see about everything represented, from flies for the surface, down to the bottom.

This next foto shows the "killing flies" - the ones that did most of the work. 

                                  

The "killing flies"

The term, "killing fly," is an old term that comes from England, and it just sticks with me. In today's "catch and release" culture, using a term like 'killing flies' may be off-putting to some. But I like it... and I practice catch and release most of the time. 

From left to right, the killing flies are:

- Skip Morris SMP

This was new to me. I've known about them but this was the first time I used them. I'll tie more; they caught plenty of fish.

- Wapsi #10 Popper (Old Faithful)

I've used this very popper for over a year, and it was swallowed by a big bluegill today. It's been repaired and refurbished, and it's still going strong... I call it "Old Faithful" for good reason.

- Mink and Pheasant nymph
This is a hybrid version of the "Casual Dress," using mink for the tail, body and thorax. Instead of ostrich for the head, I added a hackle collar of pheasant. It's pretty ragged by days end, but this one was still catching fish when I left.

- Briminator

At some point, I'll tie on a Briminator; it's inevitable. 

Why? Because they catch fish.

If you don't use them, it's time to change that.

- Bead head Sinking Spider

This little bug got more strikes than catches - I think the fish snatch at the dangling legs. But it was a busy fly, whenever it was tied on.

- Soft Hackle (center front)

A simple fly, thrown together from some black poly "fur" and a badger hackle. The poly was once a yarn of some kind; I found it in the gutter and teased it out into a furry dubbing.

If I were to give a ranking to these, it would look like this:

1. Mink and Pheasant

2. The SMP

3. The Briminator

The Mink and Pheasant was the flat out workhorse; it accounted for more fish than any other.

All in all, it was pretty good day for a birthday. I look forward to the next one.

Thanks and Tight Lines,

David

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