This spring I’ve been fortunate enough to go fishing at the lake with my wife a few times. She enjoys going out and throwing in what according to her mom is the secret weapon.. the blue worm. Unfortunately for me, she always seems to out fish me when we are there.
Take our anniversary for example. We arrive at our favorite spot on the lake, and I see right away a nice bass hanging out on a bed close to shore. Michelle is still getting her gear out of the 4Runner… I have a chance to get this fish before her, victory will be mine! I have a Clouser tied on, throw it out past the bed and bring it back in, anticipating the bite… nothing. Rinse, repeat. Nothing. Michelle takes a different position down the shore from me while I go insane trying to catch this fish within arms reach.
Five or so minutes after, I decide to switch flies to something else, and she moves down to my spot. Michelle throws her blue worm out, and on about the third cast:
With my newly tied jig head wolly bugger, I did manage to pull in this beast from the lake, but it wasn’t a nice bass.
Michelle didn’t want to continue showing me up, so she hung her rod up for the day. We went on a short hike up Soddy Creek to a nice pool. I caught a couple more sunfish for the day, which were fun, but again, not a bass.
When we moved to Chattanooga three years, I purchased a spinning rod, thinking it would be better for fishing the lake, but I hadn’t caught a single thing on it up until this year, as I had always opted to use the fly rod instead. The weekend after our anniversary, we returned to Soddy Lake, and I only got out the spinner. A nice guy named Adam and his buddy were walking thru the lake around the shore, fishing. He gave me a couple tips, and a pumpkin worm. I threw it on the hook, and after about 10 minutes of trying, I came up with a bass. The three year old stench of skunk had been washed off my spinning rod.
Since then, I have caught one more bass with the spinner, but overall I still am not that good at it. Michelle however still gets one almost every time she goes out.
Are spinners winners, as my wife puts it? For me, no.. although I haven’t caught a large bass on the fly yet, I have much more overall success fishing with the fly rod. I enjoy fly fishing far more than throwing a worm or lizard around, even when I don’t catch anything. I’d say to each their own, and I hope one day to get good at getting the bass on the fly rod. Until then, my wife will probably continue to out-fish me on the lake… which means I need to bring her to some more trout streams in the future.