"Dream" Lake

As I mentioned in my last post, (Click Here To Read It) , there is a certain little lake near where I grew up that my Grandpa and I would frequent back in the mid-1980s. It was right in front of everyone, yet I don't remember seeing anyone else fish it back then, and I know I haven't seen anyone fish it since then. Back in the 80s it was full of scrappy little largemouth bass which averaged about 10 inches long. We caught a few that were bigger than that, but not many, and a few smaller ones too. But most of them were right around the 10 inch mark, and there were a lot of them.

I was hoping to find a bunch of these...

We had a great time fishing there, my Grandpa and me. We probably brought my older sister with some of the time, and maybe even my mom, too, but all of my memories are just my Grandpa and me, catching bass after bass on hot, sunny days.

That was 30+ years ago. My Grandpa has been gone for almost 25 years, and despite driving past this lake thousands of times since the last time I fished there, I hadn't really considered stopping to fish until recently. But for the past several months I've been thinking... Could all of those 10-inch-long bass have grown up to become 10 pound bass? Could those 10 pound bass have had babies and grandbabies and great-grandbabies which have also grown up to be 10 pounders? Perhaps!

Finally my curiosity got the best of me. I sneaked away from work yesterday and stopped my car on the busy road that abuts the lake. It looked fishy, but there was no sign of fish. I rigged up my 8' 4-weight Unstructured Glass rod and tied on a silver Wooly Bugger. If something was in there, I was sure it couldn't resist a Wooly Bugger.

It looks fishy, doesn't it?

I stood along the side of the lake, just off the road, and scanned the water for a sign of life. Suddenly, there was something swimming around, just out of reach of my longest cast. It was a small, dark fishy looking thing, probably the great-great-great-grandbaby of the bass I caught so many years ago, I told myself.  I quickly got my fly in the water and made several fruitless casts. But then another fishy form appeared a little bit closer. I made a cast that was too far to the right. No good. I made another cast that was too far to the left. No good.

Then I made a cast pretty much right on the nose of whatever it was that was swimming around out there, and bang! I excitedly pulled in line, hoping to see a bright green bass dangling from my Bugger. But no, it was not a bass at all. It was not a sunfish. It was a feisty little bullhead; I think it's the first one I've caught on a fly... When I looked back at the lake, there were dozens of bullheads about the same size as the one I caught, swimming around, eating bugs off the surface of the lake.

I have an appreciation for bullheads, having kept two of them in my aquarium for several years. I think they are about the best aquarium fish you could want, requiring little maintenance and even less attention. But, I was hoping to catch some enormous bass on this fishing trip, so a lake full of bullheads did not bring about a sense of excitement. In fact, it made me want to go back to work. So much for this "dream" lake...Maybe I'll try it again in another 30 years...