Panfish

TOUGH DAY

Rick Zieger - May 20, 2013

It was a day off and time to head to a pond. IGgt everything loaded and headed out. Today I went to a pond that I have not been to for a year or more. I got permission to access the pond in a different way than I had done before. The other way had too many cattle on it, and I didn't want to be blamed if he animals got out, as they have many times.

When I arrived at the pond I noticed it was down about two feet, and there was about four feet of algae around the edge of the pond. The water was a light green color, from the algae in it. This seems to be happening in all the pods around here.

I got everything in the canoe and headed out on the pond. I had four rods with me; one with a black boa yarn leech, one with a white boa yarn leech, one with a Goldie Jr, and the last with a popper-midge dropper combination.

The popper-dropper went out first. Then the black boa yarn leech went in the water. It was on the next rod that I picked up. No other reason than that. I made several casts with this fly and got one bluegill on it. I changed to the white boa yarn fly and cast that, and hooked one small crappie on that.

Then I decided to try the Goldie Jr to see if a bright fly worked any better. It was a great theory that did not work. I made several casts with no success so it was time to change flies. The popper-dropper rig was still waiting for action. I put on a furl tailed mohair leech, a hares ear type fly, and a glass bead body minnow.

I cast with each of these and was not having any luck. I cast one rod and got a wind knot in the fly line. I don't think that many other fly fishers are that talented. By the time I got the knot out the fly had dropped a long way. I started to retrieve the fly and had a fish on and it was a nice crappie. I cast again and let the fly drop a long time. When I saw the line twitch I set the hook and I had another nice crappie on the line. I cast the fly again and hooked a nice bluegill.

I was fishing with two rods. I would cast out one and let it sink while I made another cast with the second rod. I would retrieve the fly on the first rod, and if I hit a fish I would retrieve it and cast it out again. Then I would start to retrieve the fly on the first rod. I hooked and lost another fish and then the action stopped at that place.

I changed the fly on the second rod to the bead body minnow fly that was catching fish. I moved the canoe a little ways down the pond and cast again. In each place I would get a few fish.

This was not fast fishing. I would cast 30 to 40 feet and let the fly drop for at least 30 seconds. This fly does drop very slowly. Then a lift and drop retrieve would start. I would get a couple of fish on each set of the anchors.

I finally ran out of time to be on the pond and headed for home. I did have enough fish to eat and some fillets to share. I had to wash my fly lines to remove any algae that might have been picked up on the pond. All in all I had a fun day on the water.

Hope you can get out on the water.

Rick

Comment on this article

Archive of Panfish


[ HOME ]

[ Search ] [ Contact FAOL ] [ Media Kit ]

FlyAnglersOnline.com © Notice