“The Beast”

The first catch on the beast.

I have been fishing a lake near me that is quite a large lake.  It seems the larger the lake the more difficult it is to figure out how to fish.  This has been true for the past 4 months from spring to summer and now into early fall.  I have been fly fishing for bass and have come up short to say the least.  I landed a monster at my feet, but as I went to grab the sucker the line snapped, so I don’t like to count it.

Since that day I have been trying to hook the big fish that are in this lake and have had no luck.  I have used smaller flies and then some larger poppers in the evenings and still nothing.  The majority of the bass that I am catching are approximately 8-9 inches in length. Until today.

I have a lure I bought at Orvis that I affectionately call “The Beast”.  It is a huge deer hair popper that when I cast it makes such a splash in the water that I cannot help but laugh.  I have used this in the past but kept it in the fly box because it just seemed ridiculous to even use such a large popper.  I have a 5 weight Hydros and a 7 weight wildwater creek rod.  I was using both today trying again to figure out what works.  The 7 wt has 9 weight intermediate sinking line and a mirage 7-9 reel.  I figured what the heck, Im bustin’ out “The Beast”.

The water had risen considerably in the past week due to the rain and Hurricane Irene, and I could get my NuCanoe into sections of the lake that I couldn’t before.  Also, because of the flooding certain areas of the lake have changed landscape due to the rise.  I paddled back into a cove that I had fished before and in the cove there is a “T” where you can go right or left.  The right path is usually pointless because it ends abruptly, but today, I saw a fish jump back in the right path, and decided to give it a shot.

With “The Beast” tied up and ready to go, I anchored and case right into near the crook of a log.  A huge splash from the fly and then a quick “pop”, and within seconds I was on a fish, a big fish.  It jumped twice and gave a good bend to my 7 weight, so I knew this was a good one.  I grabbed the net and reached over and finally had a proper fish from this lake! The picture will show the beast sticking out if the mouth of the bass.

The second victim of "The Beast"

I was very happy landing this fish, and went in for more.  Paddling another 20 feet into the cove, I quietly anchored and tossed the beast in to do his work.  I cast into some weeds and as soon as I pulled the beast out of the branches another bass nails the beast!  I couldn’t believe it!  Two bass in 10 minutes and I haven’t had ONE good fish at this lake in 4 months!

I moved out of the cove and kept fishing the same huge popper. I had lost a fish the night before that actually snapped 8 pound test line, so I decided to give him another go.  I paddled up to the spot I had lost the fish the other night, tossed in the beast, twitched him once, and an enormous swirl engulfed my fly, and I was on!

This fish was gigantic.  Estimating based on the prior fish to be double the size, because he pulled extremely hard.  I thought I was in heaven, and then the bass thrashed and his head came out of the water and he threw the Beast out of his mouth like it was nothing.  Meanwhile keep in mind the Beast has a 2/0 hook, which is enormous, and this fish tossed it out of his mouth like it was nothing.

I will certainly keep fishing this lake and absolutely will be tying some more huge black deer hair poppers!

Happy Fishing! and cheers to the beast!