Outdoors - Fly fishing on a small lake

MOBILE, Ala. - Jason first started fly fishing when he was about 10 years old. He inherited some of his grandfather's old fly tackle.

Jason says, "I told my dad, 'Papa, Papa, I want to learn to fly fish.' He said 'You're too young, wait till you're 14 and I'll teach you.' When he got home from work that day, I was in the yard using the fly rod. Now it wasn't a pretty cast, but I was getting back and forth across the yard and I was figuring it out. He gave me a few pointers and I was off to the races from there on out. I had an early start on fly fishing."

The summertime heat and humidity can make for tough fishing in the middle of the day. It's important to get an early start, especially on small lakes and ponds which warm up quickly. The morning bite can be a lot of fun just about all summer long.

We started out with a smaller popper. This is kind of an imitation of a small cricket or a small bug. You can catch both bream and bass on this particular fly.

If you hang a really big bass, your chances of getting him in are not that great. That's because you have a very small hook. But the bass will still hit this particular fly and when you're catching bass less than a pound, a popping bug is the way to go, particularly one of the smaller sized bugs.

When you're fishing with a popping for bream, you never know what might hit it. Sometimes you can catch bass too. These bass, if you were using a full scale bass outfit, wouldn't be a whole lot of fun. But, with a fly rod, it's a lot of fun.

"Come here, buddy. Open your mouth. He's got a little weed with him when he came in. A great way to start out the morning. Here, good fish, nice little bass. And he just inhaled that little popping bug right there, he is about a pound. Good fish how about that."

You can catch our full 30 minute show, "Outdoors with Jason Smith" Saturday at 10:00 p.m. on the CW, and Sunday at 10:00 a.m. on WALA FOX10.