White Bass and Dogwood Blooms

The old timers say when the Dogwoods bloom the White Bass should be making their annual spawning run into the creek arms of our lakes.  The thing is, the white bass have been running off and on for a couple of weeks.....WEEKS before the dog-woods.  I'll take the Al Gore side and totally blame this on global warming.  Either way this is a HUGE thing in my neck of the woods. 

 The trout parks have "Opening Morning" we have White Bass and as a fly fisherman I CAN'T WAIT until this time of year, not only for some of the coolest fighting fish that are in CRAZY numbers but some of the looks that a fly fisherman gets as he starts waving that long rod around.  Inevitably there are several people that will tell a fly fisherman "Hey, you know they ain't not trout in this here water" (spoken in a rough hick accent as I embrace and reflect on my own hick accent) a simple nod is all they need. 

But the greatest thing about this is the White's tend to bite a fly quicker than a lot of stuff that they will be throwing, minus live bait (usually) so when a fly fisherman comes along and starts to out-fish them they have 2 choices;

1. Accept the fly fisherman even though he looks like an idiot waving that lawng (read that as long, again with a hick accent) rod around and strike up conversation.

2. Start whispering to his buddy and rumiging through his tackle box trying to find that perfect lure that will either start catching fish or one that he could throw at said fly fisherman.

More times than not it is #1 that is chosen and they start to ask questions.  "How long did it take you to learn how to do that" and saying "I didn't know you could catch anything but trout on them fly rods."  Needless to say it is an amusing time with a BUNCH of really good people.

Oh yeah, the fish are kind of fun to catch too.

I forgot how much I hate wading with a stringer....