Again, looks like we need some new pictures / stories so I'll post Part II of the "Schoolie Chronicles"
... If you have yet to see Part I it can be found:
here
... after that first night of fishing needless to say I was intrigued with the idea of landing a "nice" Bass on the 2 wt rod. One thing was for sure, I didn't want to lose a fish like that again due to inferior rigging or terminal tackle. I brought my rig into the shop and we hooked it up correctly, complete w/ about 90 yds (that's all that would fit) of Power Pro for backing. I also picked out a few flies I thought might work. And a few nights later it all came together. Only it wasn't one of the flies I'd picked out that did the trick. I need to thank Earl w/ discovering the Pattern the Schoolies couldn't resist. Now, I've heard people say that there are different "classes" of Bass and while one 20lb bass can fight completely different than another, I've generally heard that there's a BIG difference between a the way a teen size fights compared to a 20 and the way a 20 fights compared to a 30 and the way a 40 fights etc... Well this seems to hold true when scaled down for the little guys as well. Earl and I were having a great time on schoolies in the 14" - 18" range: think of a 14" - 18" trout on a 2 or 3 wt and then double it. As Steve has said numerous times in the shop "a fish with Salt on It's tail fights much harder" ...
Well this particular night some "bigger" fish appeared to move in. You could tell by some of the splashes. The sound they made was "deeper". To this point we'd been content to fish from shore. But with the larger splashes just out of range considering the limitations of the tackle, we'd decided to venture in. Earl was the first too try this approach but the ill-fated combination of bare feet and territorial crabs had forced him to retreat. I, on the other hand, decided to raise the stakes by getting into my waders, yes, things were getting serious
. At any rate one such bigger splash begins to show in my general area. Finally I got the fly in the vicinity (not an easy task w/ the 2 wt) ... a few strips... and then the strike. I set the hook and all heck breaks loose. The fish takes off and the little orvis CFO is SCREAMING! Earl can hear what's taking place from about 200 yds away (it was a calm night). The fish makes 1 LONG run and then turns. I slowly gain line as he works diagonal towards the beach. He's strong but the run appears to have tired him out some and I'm able to gain line more quickly now. Soon he's at our feet (Earl had come over to check out the action) Take a look at the picture of that fish below, let me know if you'd like to hear Part III (the climatic conclusion) of the Intense Schoolie Action. If not I'll just wait until we need some new material on here and post it anyways
. As always please post your own Pictures / Stories to this forum for our benefit.
