Look Closely - that is NOT a lure, it is a real Bluegill.

Well it is at least a fish, although it may have been just born last week. I wasn't totally "skunked", caught this big'n and only two weeds this morning. I was more excited about not catching more weeds than I was to catch the itty bitty fish. I would guess that I made in excess of 100 casts or so, and at least 6 of those casts were pretty good. Not a great batting average, but it is getting better.

I witnessed 'a hatch' this morning, utterly amazing. We arrived at about 6:20 AM, just a little on the cool side, with no wind at all. We checked around for any 'signs', but there was no activity from bugs or fish. So I started out with a small popper, then went to a black ant, NOTHING. Then all of a sudden I look along the edge of the water again and there was an abundance of small tan colored 'gnat looking guys' flying around, they had not been visible when we first arrived. I tried to 'match the hatch' and tied on a fly that was as close to what was hovering over the water as I had in my little fly box, and on the third cast, caught this smallish fellow. Had a couple of others on - but wasn't able to pull them in. Within half an hour all the little bugs were gone, and so were the Bluegills! Fascinating!! (Oh Yeah, they are really tough to filet at this size - just kidding!)