HOOK AND LOSE
It was a fairly nice day and there was a hankering to catch crappie in my head. There is a lot of garbage there, but every once in a while a good idea comes out. Air temperatures and water temperatures are dropping. Hopefully the fall feeding binge would be on.
I put everything in the truck and then checked it several times. I did not want to leave without the paddle, or the net or any of the other numerous things I could think of. I went through my head on how all the things would come out of the canoe. Then did I have everything to catch the fish? This all checked out so I headed off to the pond.
Upon my arrival at my destination I unloaded the canoe from the truck and got everything loaded into the canoe. I had four rods with me on this day, two 5 wts and two 6 wts. Heavier rods as heavier flies were going to be tossed at the fish.
Then I went to the interior of the truck, got my life jacket, vest and hat on. That is when I noticed the curse of Ron upon me. The camera was setting at home on my desk. Everything was in the back of the truck, but not everything was in the truck that should have been, so there are no photographs to go with this article; another case of bad brain flatulence.
I did not feel bad enough to drive back home (14 miles) to get the camera. I headed out on the pond. This pond is almost a perfect rectangle. About half the pond; the shallower end (west end) is from about 3 to 7 feet deep. The deeper part is a channel running just about down the center of the pond. About 40 feet out from the dam the pond then slopes down until it is about14 feet deep, at the east end. On the north and south side of the dam there is a large flat area that is about 5 feet deep along the whole shore line. Lots of break lines to fish and many places to fish if the fish are holding at a specific depth.
I am on the north side as the canoe is launched. I drop the front anchor when I am about 10 feet offshore. It is time to find out where the fish might be in the pond. There is hope in my head that they will be along the break line looking for food.
I have a silver Godlie Jr., a Marabou Miss, a Streamer nymph and a perch-a-bou on the four rods. All have been good crappie flies for me. This time I grab the rod with the Godlie Jr on it. This fly is my searching fly. If fish are hitting anything, it will probably be this fly.
On the second cast there is a strike on the fly. The fish is on just long enough for me to see that it was probably a crappie and then it was off. Was this a bad hook set, slack in the line or did the fish roll on the fly? With the consummate skill of the fisherman it must be the fish rolling on the fly. The thought of; "you can’t catch what you don’t hook," is reverberating in my head.
The next cast goes out along the break line again. The fly is dropping about 16 inches before I start the retrieve since I want the fly down in the water, but higher than I think the fish will be. The fly is almost back to the canoe when I see the crappie streak up, roll over on the fly and dive.
The idiot in the canoe sets the hook and watches the fish fight for a few seconds and then the hook comes out. Maybe if I let the fish tighten on the line, the hook will come through that thin membrane on the side of a crappie’s mouth and hit something more solid. The hook would be moving slower than when the hook set is made. Think about how hard it is to not set the hook when a fish hits. There are years of practice in the muscles to set the hook when the strike is felt. I am not even sure it is a conscious thought anymore but conscious or not it hard not to do.
A few more casts do not produce any more fish, so I try the other flies and they are not any more successful. I move the canoe and try again. This time the Marabou Miss goes out as that is the rod I grabbed. The fly is almost back to the canoe when another crappie comes up and hits the fly. This time the head takes over and no hook set is made until the line is tight and I feel the fish fighting. Not a real hard hook set, but enough to make sure the hook would be in solidly. This fish came to the net and went in the fish basket. I did see where the hook had pulled through the membrane on the side of the fish’s mouth.
This did not work every time. Several times I had fish take the fly and swim with it. When I saw this and tried to set the hook it did not work out well. This confused the issue, as the decision had to be made whether to set the hook immediately or to wait for a while. I am very glad that I did not play the Lottery on this day.
My success ratio was this was not very good. I hooked a lot o fish during the time I was on the pond. I did come home with six nice crappie, and I released around 30 small bass that took the fly.
I hooked a lot of fish and did not land most of them. This is an improvement on "catch and release." This is "hook and release." This is one of those days that demonstrated that I have more to learn than I have acquired so far.
It was a fun day to be out on the pond. I found the fish, even if not many of them came to the canoe.
Hope you can get out on the water.
Rick