Incredible Fishing!

Yesterday, my good friend Hutt gave me the invite to come out and fish his families new property out on the Harpeth River. They have 265 acres of prime hunting and fishing land. But we went out there with Hayes, Wyatt, Chandler, and Jack (different Jack than on the Caney). All good friends of mine in my grade and they also love to fish. We began fishing at about 2:15 pm with Wyatt and Hayes at the top of property, Jack and Chandler in the middle, and Hutt and I took the bottom section.

Hutt had warned me about the snakes and I knew they were there from past experiences with them on the Harpeth. But Hutt and I walked/climbed down the bank into the water and immediately there were Redeye Bass, Bluegill, and Gar swimming around frantically. Everybody else was spin fishing but my love for fly fishing has grown so much that I basically take a fly rod everywhere I go. So I tied on an olive Wooly Bugger and began casting at these fish. On my third cast I caught a little bluegill, and then another one, and another one, and another one. These bluegill were all over my Wooly Bugger which was actually pretty fun because I had a 7x tippet on and so it was a little bit of a fight. But really what I wanted to catch were the Redeye and Smallmouth. In the mean time, Hutt had already caught one bluegill and one small Redeye too. Of course in the first 15 minutes we saw three Copperhead Snakes too.

But we continued to walk through the water upstream catching all the bluegill in the world. And I then told Hutt that in order to help this stream prosper in Redeye and Smallmouth fishing, whenever anybody catches a "bigger" Bluegill, throw it up on the bank and let it die because the bigger bluegill can actually eat and will eat smaller fish like baby Redeye, minnows, and baby bluegill too. But then release the small bluegill we catch because that is also Smallmouth and Redeye and Largemouth food. But the reason for this is that bluegill really aren't a game fish, they might be fun to catch sometimes but they're so easy to catch that it gets old fast. But anyway, they aren't a game fish and the bigger bluegill are competing for food with the Smallmouth, Redeye, and Largemouth bass. So the less "big" bluegill are in the stream, the more food there will be for the Smallmouth, Redeye, and Largemouth bass and they will increase in size and in abundance.

Anyway, Hutt and I continued to wade upstream while Hutt was catching some Redeye and I was catching the bluegill. We probably had about 18 total fish in 45 minutes and finally we got up to where Jack and Chandler were. Jack and Chandler had caught a few bluegill but nothing else. But finally, I was fishing this one hole and I could see this Smallmouth chasing my fly, but he just wouldn't take it. He would chase it aggressively and then back off. I knew I just needed to keep the pressure on him and strip faster to get him. Finally, after about 15 casts at him, he absolutely demolished my fly and with 7x tippet it was a pretty awesome fight. This fish went nuts, jumping out of the water and splashing it was an awesome fight. Finally Hutt came and helped me land this fish and he/she was probably right at 1 lb. Which is a pretty good Smallmouth for a little stream like this. But it was an awesome day and to top it off I went to the Brantley Gilbert and Erich Church concert which was incredible.