ALWAYS talk to strangers

If you're a regular reader of mine, you know that for the past several weeks, I've been getting anonymous tips on different places to go fish around Peoria, IL.

Well the anonymous tipster invited me out to do some fishing.  So, without having any information other than a codename to call him by and a location, I headed out yesterday morning to take advantage of one of the few days off I have that will still be fishable this year.

Troy ended up being a pretty cool dude.  He's an avid fly fisherman, gave me quite a few flies to restock my almost bare fly box, and was happy to put me in position to catch the most fish all day.  Anybody willing to do all that earns my gratitude and trust. 

I've been asked to keep our location on the downlow but when we got to where we were going, we basically drifted smallish streamers under Thingamabobbers just a few feet from shore and it was only a few casts before I was able to scratch another goal off my list for the year.

A few casts later, yet another elusive smallie.

And so it went at this first spot, four smallmouth bass in a row.  Keep in mind that I might have caught 4 smallmouth bass in my entire life up to that point, the last being when I was 7 or 8 years old. 

After the fourth smallie, my indicator shot down again.  Only this time whatever it was on the other side didn't really move when I set the hook.  It sat there for a second and then started steadily stripping off line till he was about 30 yards out.  At that point, he'd let me reel him in until I could just see my leader and then "zeeeeeeeee" out another 10 yards or so.  This is the game we played for quite some time:




Action pictures courtesy of Troy.

 Finally, after 10 minutes or so, I was able to beach the monstrosity.

The biggest fish I've caught on the fly so far.

Caught another smallmouth shortly thereafter and then the bite died off so we moved along, casting as we went.  I'll let the rest of the pictures tell the rest of my story.

I don't know how I managed to take this picture upside down but whatevs yo.  I ended up with  9 total smallmouth of similar size.

First common carp on the fly!

Second common carp on the fly!  This one booked it off the bat, almost took me into my backing.

Troy caught a couple smallmouth, a grass carp about the size of mine and two catfish.  

So there you have it.  If someone you've never met anonymously offers to take you fishing, you better take them up on it.  

Thanks again to Troy, I appreciate the flies, the location, and all the tips you gave me.  I'm up for it again anytime.