I had almost reached my destination when lightning blazed across the distant sky and thunder boomed through the dark.
“Maybe it won’t come this way,” I thought hopefully, plus it was only a few more miles.
A little further on, bolts of lightning blasted the nearby countryside and rain started coming in sheets.
“So much for last night’s weather forecast of partly cloudy with 20 percent chance of rain.”
Too late to turn back now, so I pulled into a nearby barn to wait it out.
Eventually the rain tapered off and the rain had cooled things down, so I decided to give it a shot. Fishing started out slowly with no fish in the first pool and two fish in the second.
Conditions were not ideal. The rain had stained the water and it was already 9 AM. By all counts the best fishing was already over. Then the wind picked up and put a light chop on the water and there was still cloud cover blocking the sun.
More fish were in the third pool and the bass started biting.
By 11:30 AM I had landed five medium-sized bass, one crappie, one 17 inch catfish and a bunch of large bluegill and green sunfish. Not bad considering how things started.
The purpose of the trip was to test out a new experimental Bear River fly. The fish were hitting the pattern, the wind was cool and there was a chop on the water, so I decided to keep going and fish the last pool, despite the late hour in the day.
I flipped the fly near the far shore and popped the bubble three times before pausing to let the fly sink. As soon as I re-started the retrieve, a large bass hammered the fly and started peeling line off of the reel before diving into the weeds.
‘No way this fish is getting away without a picture,’ so I waded in and slowly pulled it up through the weeds until a net could be eased underneath. Then I did a mad scramble for the camera and captured a couple of shots before easing the fish back into the river.
The bass was 20 inches long and weighed 5 pounds.
For great fishing, the wind is your friend and so are Bear River flies!
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