Bass Angler?

When we first moved to our new town I was having trouble hooking up with bass on the fly.  I have not mastered it yet, but I am doing much better.  This past Thursday and Friday I borrowed a friend's kayak and hit the reservoir right before dark both nights.  The first night I took a spin rod and a fly rod on the kayak.  I tossed the spin rod a couple times and almost every retrieve was full of weeds, so I put the spin rod in the holder and reached for my fly rod.  I had strung the fly rod up with a popper and started trying to find the right retrieve pattern. 

The end of the unproductive day.

After about ten minutes of trial and error I had a hit.  Then the trail went dry for an hour, until finally I found the kind of water I needed to be fishing.  It was almost dark when I finally got 3 or 4 strikes on as many casts, but Thursday night was a bust because I was slow on every hook set.  So as I was loading the kayak I decided that I was going to get out again Friday night.

The next evening came and I was on the water again.  I did not take a spin rod this time, just a fly rod and a couple poppers.  Instead of bouncing around I went directly to where I missed fish the night before.  The bass were not looking for the same retrieve as the night before but once I found the magic retrieve pattern the strike was on.  It was windy and I was making short casts and retrieves and with less slack line the first strike was also the first hook set.  After I set the hook the bass ran to deep water.  I knew it was a good fish when it started to pull the kayak.
 

First fish was a 17 incher baby!

It was a short fight but my first thoughts of a good fish were right.  After taking a picture I got my key chain tape measure out and measured it at about 17 inches.  I took a look at where I ended up after the fight and the wind blowing me away and I was far from where I hooked up.  So I paddled back to about the hook up spot and started a new drift.  On my second cast I missed another good one.  Then desperate to get out of the wind I took shelter behind a small island and caught this nice 14 inch bass.

These bass were two very different colors I think its because of the water depth

Like I said at the start of this post I have not mastered anything but I am feeling confident enough to take just a fly rod and that is a start. 

-Bruce