A Banner Day - by Clay Gill

Cruising along in an antique old aluminum v-bottom boat powered by an equally aged trolling motor on the transom, I asked Grover, (my three decade fishing buddy), what color the Dragonflies were that the Black Bass were attacking all across a sprawling brush country ranch lake. The Bass were jumping into the air for winged insects flying over the water. He looked at me, squinted, then said-“neon blue”. He was right. The insects were a glowing neon blue color. The Bass were cart wheeling into the air for these bugs as they skimmed the surface or landed on the surface film. It was that magic time in fall when Bass know winter approaches and the feed frenzy was on. There is no guesswork in the clockwork of this great combination.

Observing this Bass frenzy, Grover cast out a good tight loop with the best blue-bug imitation we could muster from our fly boxes. It vectored toward some dead trees standing in the water. The Gurgler pattern with a trailing buck tail looked reasonably like a Dragonfly. As the fly turned over on the leader during final decent, -three feet from touchdown, a two-pound Bass rocketed into the air and took the fly. Grover stated---“did you”------and grunted to set the hook. I replied “Ooohhh yeah! - I saw that”. You don't believe your eyes when you see this happen. It leaves you dumb-founded.

It went on all afternoon. Bass were taking anything noisy lying on the surface. Fish after healthy fish attacked the offerings. We tried similar ranch lakes nearby and it was the same situation. It has been like this since September. Top water action has ruled. Public and private waters in Texas offer some super action during autumn.

I hate to think it may end soon, but right now a cold north wind howls outside and signals the eleventh hour for summer activity. Tying by the fireplace will be consolation temporarily until action renews. It is a worthy past time to tide you over. And there is always those Rainbow Trout for the cold winter days. Who wants any down time?

No matter how you slice it, fishing makes you a kid again. It brings out the best in people. You just can’t beat it. On a warm fall day, if given a choice on freshwater fishing destinations, it’s no problem. We would most certainly opt to sling neon blue flies at those slap out crazy-leaping Bass. All things accounted for, life is way too short not to!