Blooming Red Buds

Typically when the red buds are blooming the sandies are running up the creeks to spawn. White bass are early spring spawners. Schools of males migrate upstream to spawning areas as much as a month before females. There is no nest preparation. Spawning occurs either near the surface, or in mid-water. Running water with a gravel or rock substrate is preferred. If creeks aren't moving fast enough, whites will spawn over wind swept, rocky points where wave action mimics flowing water. Females rise to the surface and several males crowd around as the eggs and sperm are released. Large females sometimes release nearly a million small eggs during the spawning season. The eggs will sink to the bottom and become attached to rocks, hatching in 2-3 days. Newly hatched fry migrate downstream toward the reservoir, joining together in schools to seek food and protection.They feed on microorganism, advancing to insect larvae as they grow. By midsummer, they’re eating small shad and minnows. Shad continue to make up a large part of the diet as white bass mature into adults. In Texas,white bass typically grow to 8-9 inches in their first year.They seldom live more than five years or weigh more than 3.5 pounds.The state record, caught in 1977, weighed 5 pounds, 9 ounces and measured 20.75 inches. 

You’ll know when the white bass run is on by the pink blooms on red bud trees
and the cars and trucks lining the roadsides at river crossings.

One of the many sand bass caught this morning.

Slow Start to Spring

Its kinda hard to come back with anything of any magnitude after last weeks Lahontans. Today was going to be even more difficult with the 20 mph north winds and 20 degree drop in temps from just a few days ago. We've had some warm days this spring, mostly during the week when I'm working and unable to fish. The weekends have been cursed with high winds and coldfronts. Hopefully spring will be in full swing in the next few weeks and the fishing will improve as the weather stabilizes with more consistent warming weather. Fished for 15-20 minutes and turned a couple small bass. The cold north wind drove me off the water to the warmth of visiting with the family the rest of the afternoon.

Lahontan Unicorn

Had a great trip up on Pyramid Lake fishing with Rob Anderson. We fished a number of different beaches and never really had any problems with the crowds, there where several beaches we pretty much had all to ourselves. I had a great time fishing with Rob and would highly recommend him. I learned several fish catching tips and tricks that I look forward to using on my local waters. I'll let the pictures do the rest of the talking. Enjoy! :-)

First Lahontan

Chromed out Lahontan

Beautiful fish 

Super clear water

Lahontan Cutthroat

Rob with a pretty fish

Rob doubled over on a Lahontan

11 lbs 14oz

What an Awesome Fish

Took 2nd place in the 9th Anuual 

Hook, Line & Sinker, Ken Hembree Classic

The fish was placed in a plastic tub full of water and was weighed and released back into the lake in under 15 minutes, he swam away with plenty of kick. 

Kings Kinky Muddler

Jonny King designed this fly and posted the below tutorial on Stripersonline. This is an awesome pattern and thought I would share it. Orvis and most the big name flyshops carry this fly. The tan and white will make an awesome finger mullet pattern for the coast this fall.

 

Here are some tips for forming the head of the Kinky Muddler out of Kinky Fiber. I'll use a generic blue-over-white baitfish with a craft fur tail for an example, but as mentioned, you can use bucktail, zonker strips, saddles, synthetics or anything you'd like. The key is to build width in the head not so much by hi or lo-tying, as in Genty's method (which works great) but to "V" tie the material as shown. Speeds up building the head lots.

Tail assembly ready for the head to be tied:

Invert the fly in the vise, and tie some white SF Flash Blend (Kinky Fiber plus Angel Hair) crossways on the shank with the fibers on the nearside of the shank laying back towards the bend, and the forward facing fibers on the far side of the shank:

Fold the forward facing fibers back on the FAR SIDE of the shank and trap with a few thread wraps, creating a "V" of fibers surrounding the bend:

Flip the fly over, wrap forward a few wraps and do the same thing on top of the shank, creating a V on top with the blue SFFB and building width into the head:

Fill the shank with V ties top and bottom until just near the eye, but then, for the last tie right at the eye, tie white on bottom and blue on top straight, no V, and attach both colors before posting back.

Use your thumbnail to spread each color 180 degrees top and bottom, force the fibers back Hollow Fleye style, and post with a final dam of thread in front. Note that I haven't worried about pre-tapering anything, the lumps inside the body (now covered up by the fibers), or the total mess the fly looks like:

Now, to start the trimming process, squeeze the head top and bottom with the thumb and forefinger, which fans out the fibers, and trim the sides to the smooth outlines of a baitfish. Then do the same thing by squeezing the fly side-to-side to fan the fibers up and down, allowing you to trim top and bottom and create a V-shaped belly and a rounded topside:

Finish shaping the head, glue on eyes (I like dome eyes for this pattern) and you're done. Note that the head is wide, and little wider on top than on bottom, like a real mullet or other thick-bodied bait:

Tutorial "Hawg Tied"

This is a pretty easy fly to tie, a little time consuming due to the nature of spinning deer hair.

Materials
Hook- Gamakatsu 4/0
Thread- GSP 100
Deer Belly Hair
Boss Double Down Kicker Tail Trailer
Jig Skirt

The Hook is a Gamakatsu 4/0 Luck "E" Strike Perfet Worm Rig.

Sorry, I can't find a raw hook. Cut the lead off with some pliers.

Boss Double Down Kicker Tail Trailer

Materials

Tie in the jig skirt

Tie in the Boss Double Down Kicker Tail Trailer

Start spinning deer hair

Continue

Finished spinning

Start trimming

Finished 

Another Sketch

This weeks work. still need to make a few adjustments to it.