I’m not sure how things have been in your ‘neck’ of the woods…but here in southern Indiana we went from too cold and icy to way too much rain. The creeks (that hold smallies) went from too cold for any good fly fishing to water that has been too high and blown out for at least three weeks. This weekend (May 3rd) finally gave us a shot at getting out and casting for…and catching a few of the good spring smallies that are waking up from their slumber and looking for a meal to eat.
My buddy Frank stopped in and we quickly loaded up a couple of fly rods, waders, camera’s etc…and headed north on US 231 to Greencastle and the Big Walnut Creek. Big Walnut runs for many, many miles basically from east to west through Greencastle and continues westward until it eventually hits the White River.
The BW is a great little creek and fishes pretty good during most of the year. I love to fish it when the spring rains have increased the flow/volume. On this Sunday we had more water than usual and it was still a bit stained…which once again is a good thing as this allows the fly caster to get a little closer to the bigger fish.
I started off with a silver shad imitation tied on a size 6 hook…the first 45 minutes were bone dry. I decided to try yellow and on my 3rd cast I landed a big chunky 17 inch smallie. Yellow was indeed the color and the next two hours proved fruitful as I caught several more…one of which was also just a bit over 15 inches. The fish were very aggressive and made the takes…and the landing of the fish….quite exciting in the heavy current of the stream.
So…the bite is on. Get your gear tuned up and get going. Wade carefully and make sure to bring your camera along for those nice shots of that big fish.
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