The Poppin' Man

I fished a lake in the Northern part of the state yesterday with one of my favorite guests to fish with, Ralph from Georgia.  We fish with a fair number of larger groups throughout the season, and it's always nice to change up the pace and focus on just 1 angler.  Ralph doesn't get to do much bassin' down South, so we always try to get after'em when he's in town.  Fishing with Ralph is the way it should be.  We have some great laughs, real conversation, and Ralph always has a great selection of bass poppers that he's collected over the years to share with me and the local fishes. 
Yesterday we found water temps at 68-69 near the surface and glass-calm conditions when we arrived at the lake at 6am.  There was a hatch of caddis coming off and the fish were on top feeding sporadically.  They were tough to please, so we targeted the water 10-30' off the shoreline.  We threw a mix of flies and ended up hooking a mix of northerns and smallmouth with a few good ones landed.  The winds picked up around 9am and blew us around a bit, but we managed to find some calm coves to fish.
It's gonna be a hot one this week and night time air temps will be creeping up, so keep an eye on water temps and don't trout fish when the water's above 69.