Bass Attack

I had a great trip with Mark Levock yesterday on the flats of Ray Roberts. The weather was less than cooperative with 10-15 mph sustained winds (that kept changing direction just enough to be annoying) and high cloud cover that did not burn off until after noon. We made the most of the conditions and searched for tails, "muds", and bubbles in shallow water just off the edge of the grass.

One thing that stood out was the number of bass that were in shallow - and I mean SHALLOW. I believe these fish are up chasing Hex nymphs that are beginning to hatch. Mark caught two nice bass (both around 2 - 2.5 lbs.) that hit Snap Dragons without a moment's hesitation. The second bass he caught was in a gang of 6 bass that were scouring some flooded grass in about 8 inches of water. When he made the cast, there was actually a large piece of grass on his fly - clearly visible as it landed and he began to strip it in front of the small school. It didn't matter as the first fish accelerated and nabbed it. I've never seen that many "large" bass so close together in such shallow water!

Carp were up feeding aggressively as well; as a matter of fact, the first carp that Mark caught was about as "active" a take as you can get from a carp. This fish turned and nailed a fly 10-12" away after coming out of a small mud it was creating. The carp then proceeded to burn all the fly line off Mark's reel as it headed across the flat.