NEW POND
This is a pond that has not been accessible to fish for a long time. Earlier this year I found some cattle on the road. I chased them off the road and waited until another vehicle came by. I had them go to the nearest farm house and try to get some help to find out who owned the cows and where they were supposed to be.
In about 10 minutes there was a guy who knew where the cows went, even though they were not his. We got them back in and the gate secured. He asked me why I was going by this field. It is not a main road. I told him that I was heading to a pond to go fishing. I told him where the pond was located and who gave me permission to fish it.
He said that he had a pond that I could fish. It was closer than the other pond and also closer to the road. A nice consideration as it is still too wet to drive into any ponds. I took him up on the offer.
He took me back to where his house and barns are , and he told me to go through the one gate and over the hill and the pond is right there. He told me that he knows the pond has had fish in it and that he might be out later.
I get to the pond with two fly rods. One rod that I had not fished for a while and a bamboo that is new to me. This boo rod was a gift to me from a friend that says that I needed it. A nice person did some refurbishing on the rod for me.
This pond is narrowest at the dam and then broadens out to about three times the width at the shallow end. It looked like there was a gully starting in this area and the way to stop this was to dam it between the hills. The trees and shrubs that were in this area were left as is. There is a huge amount of wood in this pond, which, from previous experience, is probably a magnet for my flies. But this is why I tie flies; so much money is saved that ponds like this can be fished.
I see a lot of dragonflies around the pond, so a hares ear goes on one rod. A Goldie Jr is on the other rod. The Godlie Jr goes in the water first. The water is fairly clear so the flash may work better. No more reason than that.
The fly has not moved very far when it is hit by a fish wanting to take it to the ends of the earth. I am not sure what it is, but it sure fun to have the fish on the line. More by luck, than skill a very nice gill comes to hand. This fish is over 11 inches long, but the landowner wants any panfish taken out of the pond. So into the basket it goes.
Another cast to the other side results in a bass wanting to eat the fly. This fish turns out to be about 18 inches long and takes to the air a few times. He was great fun to catch, but goes back into the pond. This is when I become aware that another person has come to the pond.
He tells me that he wants any bass that I catch. I explain why I return bass and that the landowner has not told me that anyone can keep the bass. My parentage is explained to me. The answer being no was explained to him again.
I turn back to fishing, hoping that he would leave. I got a few more gills and a few nice crappie. Lost a fly to a fish, probably a catfish, that took it into a tree with no hope of me turning it. I tied on another one as you never want to be short of flies. That is why my boxes are crammed and my vest could be used for weight training.
I had another bass hit the fly. Easy to tell that it was a bass as it spent most of the time in the air. It was fun to land, and I put it back in the pond. As I was straitening up I got hit on the back of my shoulder. At the same time I was informed that this would happen every time that he did not get the bass that he wanted.
I turned to discuss this with him and saw the landowner about 15 feet behind him. My much better half decided that I needed to let the landowner handle it first. He wasted no time and ordered the guy off his land to never return. He told me that if I wanted to press charges he would be a witness.
I told him that I just wanted to fish and not be hassled. He called the County Police on his cell phone to complain about this other guy trespassing. I like this guy!
After the other guy left we got to fishing. His wife had decided that a fish fry sounded good and sent him out to catch some fish. He was getting a few, but not as many as the flies were attracting. He was using a bait casting rig and I could not figure out a way to get the flies out with that, or he would have had a fly on.
He stated that he had about 20 more minutes to fish and then he would need to do some other things. I asked if he had enough fish for the fish fry. He said that he would be short.
At that point I started putting any fish that I caught in his basket. He asked if a fly rod was a fun way to fish. I showed him how to hold the rod and strip line in. I cast the fly out and had a fish hit before I could hand it to him, so I hooked the fish and then let him bring it in. He had a ball. I cast about another 10 times for him and I got fish on every cast. I think I had almost as much fun watching him as catching fish myself.
We headed back to his house. I showed him how to fillet fish, as he had never done it. He did fairly well, but as he said he was slow. He said that he might not get them all filleted before he had to do some other things. I told him that I would fillet them for him. I took them off the bone and he took the skin off. We got the fish done in short order.
As I was starting to leave he told me that I could come back to the pond any time., and he took me to where he keeps a few keys and said that I could drive through the gate to either pond. He said that he had another pond that was even better than this one. I will have to see that.
I had one of my best days of the year for numbers at this pond. I had lots of fish to share with many people, the excitement of another new pond to fish and the opportunity to fish another pond that I have never fished.
Hope you can get out on the water.
Rick