Cats Saved the Day

4-19-15

I took a chance today going to the river. With the past few days of rain there was a good chance the river would be muddy. Its kinda early as is for the smallmouth to be active. Typically they don't start going good till the end of May. I was hoping to at least get into a few smallies and if nothing else it would be nice to make the first trip of the year to the my favorite water. After the hour run down the river I arrived right at my first hole as the sun was just creeping up over the horizon. The water was muddier than I would have liked but I was still fishable. It took a while to get anything going and only ended with 2 fish after thoroughly working this run over. A sandbass and a small spotted bass. I did break off a nice fish, I think it was a big striper but cant be for sure. He broke 12lb tippet at the strike. With the muddy water I should have had 15lb tippet on for as muddy as the water was there was no concern with the fish being leader shy. I moved on to another run and it was loaded up with channel cats. Catfish aren't the most common fish on a fly rod but in the spring when they start to spawn they become very aggressive and will readily hit a streamer. The smaller ones just kind of flop and roll on the end of your line but fish over 4-5 lbs put up a great fight. Wish I would have brought a string and kept a few to fry up. I ended up with a couple freshwater drum and one dink smallmouth. Overall it was a good day with about a dozen fish brought to hand by noon. A tip for fishing muddy water is to fish a fly that has a blade. George Glazeners Spinster or Henry Cowens Coyote, the vibration from the blade makes a huge difference in the fish being able to locate the fly in muddy water.

I've always liked the dorsal fin on white, hybrid,

and striped bass. 

One of several channel catfish from the day. 

The drum got in on the action also.