Pay Lake Victory… One Fly vs. Many a 5 Gallon Bait Bucket

So I had to relay this story and photo because I can’t stop laughing about it. I was traveling for business in Western Ohio this week. I packed my rod in the car with hopes of getting out for a few hours in the evening.

I found a small pay lake near where I was working and hit the water. The lakes were being fished by a bunch of guys with huge live bait rigs fishing for monster catfish.

The lake was small and I could hear the guys across the lake laughing at the guy with the fly rod and one of them actually called me a moron. For two hours…. I believe their collective fish count was ZERO!

After I landed the first one (6lbs), they weren’t snickering quite as loud.

After I landed the 12 pounder…. they didn’t utter a word.

As I was walking back around the lake, the guy looked over his shoulder at me. I just smiled, looked at him, and said, “Not so funny now is it”.

He laughed and asked me to show him what kind of “bait” I was using. When I explained my bait was a size 4 chartreuse crystal bugger, he stared in disbelief.

I smiled the entire way home!