Early to bed & rise

[ronk]

Having had little luck fishing banker's hours for smb this summer despite good success in previous summers I finally gave it up in favor of adjusting the time on the water.I wasn't planning to fish on Sunday but seeing the dense fog blocking out the sun when I got up at 7:30 I rigged up the more powerful of my 2 4wts.In the 2.5 hrs fished until the sun broke thru I hit 4 , catching 2 at about 11-12", a 17.25" and losing another big one that shook free of the hook early in the fight.All were caught on a sneaky pete well away from the bank except the one lost which hit near shore.

Yesterday I returned to the same area before sunrise.Although there were some big risers I had no takers on either a bassbug or a bluegill pattern. The risers were probably carp. Didn't notice what they were rising to.Carhopped to a spot where in addition to the requisite deeper water there's also a fallen tree creating a current break.On the 1st cast to this break a big bass erupted out of the water crushing the bassbug. Unfortunately the bass also crushed my excitement when he broke the leader at the juncture of the tippet/butt with his vicious strike.Served me right for being too lazy to retie after noticing a slight tangle there.On the 1st cast after rerigging another biggie hit but the hook failed to get a toehold.While bassbugs are the most fun& often provoke more strikes from big smallies than streamers do they also result in more fish being lost due to the difference in the way fish strike them.Waiting until you feel the fish after he explodes on the bug as you're supposed to is easier said than done.Getting no more strkes in this spot on the bug I switched to a streamer to no avail.By now I'd been fishing for about 2.5hrs & with the sun getting high in the sky I called it a morning. The water was air clear with alot of loose eelgrass afloat.It was ez when some of it got on the fly to snap it off with a crisp falsecast one advantage flyfishing has over spin/baitcasting.