MVL A Different Experience Than The Last

Biggest stocker of the day

After losing a 5 pound bass right at the boat on my last outing to MVL, I've been jonesing to get back on that water.  With the plan to hit it on Tuesday canceled, we hit again today.  When we arrived at the gate, Chul realized he had left his HOA card behind in his truck.  Great, I was in no mood to drive back and get his card.  So after getting a replacement at the office we finally hit the water.  First thing we noticed was the wind was blowing pretty hard and it was much cooler than last week.  I captained the boat to our favorite starting point as Chul rigged up.  We got there and although there was a lot of chop on the water I did notice a pig cruising just below us.  Drifting along this wall I saw above us an osprey with a trout in it's talons.  He stayed in this cove fishing hard with only one fish to show for our efforts.  I managed the dink bass and ate lunch before we headed out. 

The Highlight Of The Day

We moved across the lake to try to block the wind.  No matter where we went the wind would follow us.  Oddly it would drift us the opposite direction every time we moved.   Chul managed a bump that he missed so we moved on to the next spot.  Tired of the ubiquitous purple bugger, I switched to an ungodly creation I came up with the other night.  A Sili-legged monstrosity that  if it caught fish I would name "The Fugly S.O.B."  I only tried one in a tan/crayfish color and a few in purple.  Since dark colors weren't working out I choose the natural colored.   My rod went heavy and as I stripped line, I lost a real good fish.  I keep losing good one this month.  A few more casts I managed another dink bass that came off at the boat.  After that I managed a stock trout.  As I fought this trout Chul repositioned himself and his line in the direction I was fishing.  When he pulled his fly out of the water a 1.5 pound bass was chasing it.  Realizing it too late, Chul lifted his fly our of the water as the bass was ready to eat it.  Not his day. I managed another stocker after a few minutes.  We left this spot to another cove and tried our luck.  There we spoke with a rather well known gear bass fisherman and he moaned about losing a serious hog just minutes before, this guy had caught a bass over 14 pounds earlier this week and he said the one today was much bigger.  We fished this area and landed another stocker this one much bigger than the last two.  My fly was intended to be a bass fly and I'm catching stock trout.  S.O.B was supposed to mean "Slayer of Bass" looks like I'm going to have to rename it S.O.S.T. (Slayer of Stocked Trout).

Another Stocker with no dorsal fin.  Where's all the bass?

We moved on and I tried to get Chul on some fish but none were taking.  We even changed rigs in the hope of changing his luck.  He fished my prized T&T Helix 5wt and I fished his Sage One 5wt but even that didn't change his luck.  In fact his bad luck probably just rubbed off on me!  If that's true the next time I'm camp chef, I'm putting a laxative in his portions.  The day ended with Chul wrecking of the skunk.  This definitely was not what we expected considering last weeks outing.  What a shame.  I didn't come here for stockers.