I've had the same experience when I used to fish a little lake down in SW Washington during the Hexagenia Limbada hatch. Everyone would show up about dusk and the fishing would get the hottest right after sundown. Lasted about 45 minutes to an hour and you found yourself casting to rise sounds rather than rise forms. You'd also learn to look sideways towards your fly to be able to better see any action in the dark. Well, about sundown, the little bats would come out, and it was quite common to see your fly suddenly shift its position several inches laterally as the bats would try to pick the bug up off the water, but drop it due to the tension in the leader. A couple of times I hooked a bat. Like you said, a couple of vertical mends invariably released 'em from the barbless hook.
Sean Jim Speaker wrote: > This isn't really funny, but I thought it was pretty weird... probably some > others have experienced this. > > Late this summer I was into fishing Lake Sawyer, right by my house, right at > dusk and past dark after the skiers would get off the lake. There were > thousands of small rainbows released this year so it was a kick fishing tiny > midges and caddis for them and seeing how much they'd grown since last time. > It was past dark and I was casting blindly to rise sounds rather than rise > forms when very immediately following a cast I felt a couple quick tugs and > set the hook. To my surprise my line started going up instead of away or > down. I had hooked a small bat! Fortunately throwing a few airborne mends > toward the bat disengaged the barbless hook after a few tries and I didn't > have to deal with the little critter. > > I've often seen bats come real close to my fly but I always thought their > sonar was precise enough to see it was not a natural, that they either saw > the line, or the hook, or some other cue to not go after it. Guess I was > wrong. > > -Jim
