Panfish

FORCED TO IMPROVISE

Rick Zieger - August 9, 2010

It is a day off and has rained most of the morning. I was 8 miles from home on a bike ride when I felt the first drops. I got home before the worst of the rain came. We have had 11.75 inches of rain this month and it is only the 15 of June. Maybe I should have planted rice in the garden.

About noon the rain stopped. I decided that I needed to head out and see what I might be able to do. First pond I wanted to go to had much water coming out for me to try to wade across. I know there was at least three feet of water flowing fairly fast from the drain pipe in this pond. The second pond was no better. It was time to head to another pond where I will come in opposite the dam end.

Maybe I can get to the pond, and it turned out that I could. The landowner uses this as a hay field and had mowed the field. He had also come back and rolled the grass up into long windrows. That left about two feet of grass around the edge of the pond.

I headed for the dam end first. As I got near the dam I saw that there was about 8 feet of water behind the grass. There were also fish in this water feeding so it was time to put a line in the water. I changed to a furl tail mohair leech with no weight to cast. The water was very shallow so this would almost be casting a floating fly.

Miracle of miracles, I got eight gills and four bass in this area. Each time I hooked a fish about 10 other spooked through the grass. Then the other fish would move down and fill the area in. I was catching fish where I have stood before.

I fished the dam area and found that I would get a few fish in each place. Had to fish parallel to the dam and near the shore, but the fish were there. In this area the Goldie Jr was doing the best.

An advantage of fishing this pond a few times a year is that I know the places where the water would not be as deep and I could get closed to the shore. Got to one of the places and made a few casts. I had started casting straight out and was getting a few gills.

I noticed that there was a disturbance in the water about 12 feet down from where I was. I watched this area and saw that the disturbance was caused by a crappie. What a challenge.

I have a huge oak tree about five feet from my left side. The limbs come down on all the sides, except where I am standing. I can cast side arm straight out and get some angles by changing where the cast stops. In the canoe I would move and this would not be a problem. On the shore it seems to be a problem that must be solved.

I am not a good enough caster to try to get the line out straight and then get it to go about 90 degrees to the side. But there has to be a way to do it. The mind goes some very strange places when trying to catch a fish, but it’s even worse for crappie.

I put the rod out straight in front of me. I then try a roll cast to the side. I got get a little line out. I do this several times and have the fly a few feet past where I saw the crappie. I start bringing the fly in and have a fish hit it.

Turns out to be a crappie and I get it in, so it’s time to try this again. I hook another crappie, but lose it as I am trying to get it in. I keep working this area and end up with seven more crappie before the area quits. I move on around the pond and get a few more fish.

I see a few more places where fish are working on the edge, and they look like crappie, but they are in places that I cannot get to. The ground is to wet and I would probably get stuck in the mud.

It was time to head home. I had figured out a way to get the fly to the fish I saw. Ugly as sin, but it worked and I had some crappie for supper. I need to look at some of the books I have to see if there is a better way to make this cast.

Hope you can get out on the water.

Rick

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