Bbl 8-27

[etaggart]

Got on the water early Saturday morning in Grout Bay and headed straight for the east side of the jetty. Picked up a few crappie on the fly en-route. Once there got a few bass nibbles and finally picked up my first of two small mouth bass about 7:30 - sorry, no pix - they were just over 1lb each. A handful of nibbles but not nearly the action from last Saturday. Clouds started forming about 9am and kept it cool. I decided to hang-up the bass gear once the wind picked up and cruised back with the fly rod looking for crappie or maybe a stray trout. Ended up hitting one right off the bat, so I kept working the area until about 10 then headed back to where I launched. Landed 3 trout (pix below), had a handful of trout hits, and landed about a dozen crappie.

Got home, washed the dog and watched an awesome hour-long lightning/thunderstorm with torrential rain and hail. Crazy how hard it rained. Started a handful of fires in the hills - all got under control quick.

I went back out to the west end about 4pm until sunset. Picked up 3 more trout, but generally slow action. I think the hard rain shut-down the late afternoon bite - or it was just me.

Yet another beautiful weekend in Big Bear.

Cheers,

Eric

325733257432576

[Kelster]

Sounds like you got off the water just in time.

[M@M]

Always fun! Dozen crappie and some trout....NICE!! Way better than I did last week...Any size on the crappie??........How does the water look this week?

[etaggart]

Most crappie were 8" or so. One was sizable - 11". I had one serious train of a hit in a heavy crappie spot but broke-off the fly. Not sure if it was a momma crappie or maybe a bass. Wish I would have seen it.

At another point I hooked into something that was a slow, heavy mover - thought it might be a carp (snagged one or two in the past - never in the mouth ;) ) Fly came off, stripped it in, and there were two HUGE carp scales - Guess he'll have a scar to show for wriggling out of a fly snag.

Water clarity was excellent - some floating pine pollen in still areas, lots of green junk floating around some of the weed areas. But, there were also some nice weedy areas where you could strip a fly through (or toss a worm) cleanly. Those were nice spots. Not nearly as much green slime as in past years.

E