Weird Day Fishing

After pounding away at the computer trying to get an overdue issue of my magazine out, I had to get out of the house. A fresh blanket of snow about 2 inces deep greeted me this morning, good for my son to build a snowman before it melted. One quick stop at our new flyshop to get some flies and I was on my way to a local lake.This lake is a little bit of a hike to get to, and I figured I'd probably be alone.

Fresh car tracks in the snow dampered my hopes a little, but when I got to the end of the road there was nobody parked there. Off I go hiking to the lake. Upon arrival, I was again disappointed. This time by the water clarity. Seems the lake was turning over.

This is when a strange turn of events starts.At the first place I stop, on a rock ledge above the lake, I notice some movement on the ground. I couldn't believe my eyes... A Canadian Bunny Leech! I had heard of such a find, but never expected to see one at --------d Lake!

This fly was in pristine condition as you can see from the picture, and being that the lake was a pea soup color I thought my olive bugger would not stand out enough. So I am ashamed to admit that I tied on the monstrosity of a leech to see what would happen.

I walked the rock ledges of the shoreline keeping an eye out for cruising fish. Yeah right. The visibility was a little better than a foot. So I fished and walked and took pictures of a flower and headed back towards the trail to go home. On my last cast in the lake, a mink came out and gave me a dirty look as it swam by. He must have figured that I was one of the Canadians that had been there before.

Another small lake borders the trail out. I've only seen carp in this lake, and being that I still wanted to catch a fish (carp or not), I looked for signs of movement in the water. Sure enough I spot a carp and toss the Canadian Leech at it. This carp was smart, he swam up and looked at the fly, but didn't eat. I moved a little ways down the lake and blind cast to the other shore. Fish On! It fealt heavy, but didn't fight that well. When it got closer, I was stunned to see a sizeable Largemouth Bass. This was odd.The water Temperature was 42 degrees. A little cold for bass to be aggressive, but being that bass are from the south, this bass must have seen the Canadian Leech and took it upon himself to rid his lake of the filth. What a good fish. I took some pictures and sent him on his way.

The day ended up being quite an experience, even though the trout didn't cooperate.