Fishing the Late Season Spawn For Huge Bluegills

Cathey and I spent Thursday morning on Smith Lake searching for some late-season bluegill still in the spawning mode. This may be the last spawn of the season. The lake is on the pull-down, getting ready for next Spring's rains, so we will be fishing falling water, which means the fish will be moving out of the nooks into deeper water. I hope I am wrong.We started the morning in Rayon Creek, which, of course, is my favorite place to fish Smith Lake. This quality bull gill inhaled a size 6 Boggle Bug Popper near one of many floating docks on the lake. I am amazed at how these big bluegill have enough suction power to get this size popper wedged in their mouths so quickly. I thought I had hooked a spotted bass, because of the fight of this fish. My 5 wt. was tested during the fight. Sorry to say, this would be the only bluegill I would take on the fly rod this morning. The rest of the morning was consumed with Cathey and me landing bluegill in four spawning areas where there was one or…