Fish Did Their Part, We Did Not

Luc awarded with a 3.5 pound LMB after making a great cast in less than ideal conditions.

I had to decline two different invitations to fish this weekend- one to the wild trout section of the Kern and another to the East Walker.  I really wanted to get on a trout stream, its been too long and with the local waters in a critical state I was bummed I could not get on some trout.  So when Luc invited me to fish Canyon Lake once again I jumped at the chance.  Luc the Jedi Master last weekend had an epic topwater bite.  His popper was producing bass including a four pounder, every half dozen to dozen casts until the sun started hitting the water.  So today I was hoping for some of the same. 

The first bass of the day a 2pounder

I awoke just before 4am and made the hour drive to Canyon Lake to meet Luc at his house at 5am.  We were on the water within minutes and headed to the east side of the lake.  Luc is a topwater fanatic and we planned to fish poppers as long as we could find shade.  Within the first few minutes, I casted to a clump of grass and I was distracted by a swirl six feet in front of my fly when a swirl came just under my popper.  Again my topwater misfortune continues and I was too slow to react.  This season I've yet to get a bass on topwater yet despite having more than my fair share of blowups.   Luc was the first to get one a bass, a two pounder. 

My three pounder, finally a bass on topwater

On the next section I made my cast and as I popped my fly I moved, for whatever reasons, my attention away from the fly as I continued to pop the fly my line went heavy.  Instinctually I lifted the rod and set the hook and the rod came alive.  Fish on!  Of course my first fish this year on topwater would be from dumb luck and not from skill (or lack of skill).  The bass gulped the fly from beneath and inhaled it.  I brought it in and it was a very respectable three pounds.  I can't recall within these drifts how many bass we missed but it was a handful.  We moved to a deeper point on the lake and I casted where Luc suggested and after a few pops of the fly I had a blow up.  Focused I managed to get finally get a truly legit bass on topwater.  This fish was smaller but I didn't care.  Getting bass on topwater is the name of the game.

Another for Luc

We made our way deeper in the eastside.  I managed another fish around two pounds.  And Luc also had another.  We continued to miss several more.  By this time the fog was letting up and the sun began poking through.  It was now a race to find shaded portions of lake. 

Fog starting to wear off

The next hour or so we kept missing fish.  Eventually after so dead time without any action I switched earlier than planned to my five weight with a sinking line.  I was getting tired of casting the 8 weight and an air resistant popper.  Luc joined me and we started half heartedly to tempt a bass from the deeps.  I had a few short strikes but could not get one on nor could Luc.  The clouds began blocking the sun and we switched back to the poppers.  As we moved back into a cove we fished earlier, Luc made a great cast in a pocket just under a dock wire, under a tree and surrounded by a submerged log.  All the sudden I heard a violent thrash of water I moved my eyes to look and Luc was on.  He managed to turn the fish away from trouble and I helped land the 3.5 pound bass.  We quit not long after that around 10:30.  All in all it was a good day and between the two of us we had at least twenty blowups.  Unfortunately we didn't do our part even though the fish were cooperating with topwater.  Despite the fact we were sucking we had a great time.

 

Water temps were 78 degrees.  Fog in the morning and pleasant when we left at 10:30 although it was staring to get hot.