Topwater Delight

This week's chemistry lesson is that when you mix a YUM Money Hound with a milfoil mat on Lake Guntersville during late October the result is an explosion - or, more accurately, multiple explosions. The chemistry instructor was Lawrence Taylor, PR Director for YUM Bait Company. Taylor reported a seriously worn thumb after three days of research.

Autumn Splendor

The water feels brisk on bare legs at first light. It’s invigorating, as is the moisture on your face from a light fog that rests in the river gorge. Sunrays will burn off the fog, but no time soon. It takes a while for the sun to get over the mountains. You tie on a black Bugger to strip through pools while the light remains low. You’re buddy opts for a Tellico and a Pheasant Tail dropper. As the day progresses, you’ll both likely switch to attractor dry flies or surface terrestrials, rigged with small nymphs beneath them.

You hope for a big wild brown trout, fully lit in its spawning colors. Fall is the lone time that the kings of your favorite stream’s biggest holes abandon their deep, snag-tangled lies. They likewise abandon a bit of their normal wariness at this time. Because browns favor deep, dark runs but spawn over shallow gravel bars they spend a lot of time moving during the fall. This creates rare opportunities to sight-cast to specific large fish but also increases your chances of spooking a memorable brown.

While you hope for a trophy brown, the day’s success by no means hinges on one. Rainbows will be abundant and active. Plus, fish or no fish, autumn is an amazing time to be astream in Appalachia. Crayola-bright reds, golds and oranges light up hardwoods while rhododendrons hold fast to deep greens. Streams run clear, but with a bronzed tone that’s unique to fall and comes from the breaking down of countless leaves.

Another autumn virtue is the final opportunity of the year to travel light – unencumbered by waders or extra clothes that become necessary through the winter. A fleece top or light wading jacket sometimes feels good in the fall, but nothing heavier is generally needed.

Ant patterns, both wet and dry, produce a lot of trout during fall, as do beetle and ‘hopper imitations. A Chernobyl Ant is a great pattern for big brown trout. Highly buoyant, it’s also a great fly to dangle a dropper beneath. Trout will begin most mornings low in the water column, and actually you can catch fish on small, buggy nymphs all day long. Fish typically will begin looking up with the warming of the day, however, making a dry fly/nymph combo doubly efficient.

Don’t get set on covering miles of stream during the fall. Work slowly and enjoy the season. Work runs from all angles, and make a study of your surroundings, watching for ants drifting downstream, crawfish in the water, trout following your flies and other clues. Finally, work EVERYTHING before you step into it. A big brown can be anywhere during the fall, and one careless step is all it takes to send the fish of a lifetime scurrying for cover.

Next stop, Guntersville!

This week, I'm in the office, writing fish stories, so there really aren't any new tales to tell. Next week, though, I'll be at Lake Guntersville, and the big bass the make the big lake famous should be looking up and busting baits on the surface. I'm especially excited about fishing Guntersville's legendary grass beds with the new YUM Money Hound, which walks like a Zara Spook but can be rigged totally weedless, and the new Money Frog, which I'm told does some serious kicking as it moves across the top. Stay tuned!

Big Pier, Little Fish, Big Time

Doug Markham and I had a big time today catching little fish from a big pier in Venice, Florida. We started out throwing spoons and shrimp imitations with hopes of catching mackerel, trout or other "sport fish." But when the bigger fish cooperated neither for us nor the local anglers - some of whom appeared knowledgeable and well equipped - we bought a box of squid, tied up some small bottom rigs and dropped our baits for whatever wanted to bite. Our best customers were yellowtail jack, which pretty much bit as soon as the bait found the bottom, but we also wrangled in a few pinfish and a couple ladyfish. We didn't catch any giants, but we sure had fun with a simple brand of Gulf pier fishing that reminded me a lot of the fishing I did while growing up in Clearwater.

Wow, Part II

Two days after doing battle with Boca Grande's giant jewfish, I got another opportunity to slip out onto the water, and soon after hooked into my first tarpon. Forty minutes later, the silver-sided fish, which Capt. Robert Moore estimated to weigh about 80 pounds, was finally boatside. I was was exhilarated, exhausted and amazed by the tarpon's combined strength, speed, stamina and acrobatics. I'm also amazed by the fish-filled and and beautiful waters of Charlotte Harbor and have been extremely impressed by the waterside city of Punta Gorda.

Wow

"That's a puppy!" Capt. Chris O'Neill of Tail Chaser Charter Service said about my first jewfish of the morning, laughing as he unhooked a 75-pounder at boat side and watched it slipped away. I guess it was a pup, compared to the 500, 600- and 700-pound fish that O'Neill sometimes catches, but it sure didn't feel small when I set the hook. I didn't manage one of the absolute giants. My biggest was 175 pounds or so (all estimation as no fish are removed from the water). But even that one almost yanked me out of the boat. Jeff Strane of Tampa, who helped keep me in my seat, caught one that likely weighed 250 pounds.

The trip, which was based in Boca Grande, was a fabulous prelude into the Southeastern Outdoor Press Association conference, which begins tomorrow in Punta Gorda.

More fish tails and maybe a bit more about what's cool and new to follow.