Fished the pond at work, 7/11

I had tied up a deer-hair bass popper that I wanted to try out, so off to the pond at work I went this afternoon. The popper works, although nothing decided to sample it.

I was seeing a few surface hits here and there, so I decided to put on a foam hopper and see if any of the sunnies were hungry. I didn?t get any hits on top, so I tied a dropper onto the hopper and dangled a BH Wooly Bugger below the hopper.

I got a few hits, but didn?t connect with anything. I also had trouble getting the Wooly Bugger to dive, as I had a big maribou tail and not much weight on the fly. I looked though the little fly box I had with me. Apparently, the Wooly Buggers that I tied up with weight were in a different fly box that I left in the van. I noticed a bigger Wooly Bugger in the box I had with me, a size 8. Oh well, we?ll see. I cut the little bugger off and tied on the bigger one.

Almost immediately, got a couple taps, as indicated by the hopper. Then, it went down, and I set the hook. I noticed that my rod had a good bend in it, and I couldn?t pull the fish up. I was thinking either a LMB or a decent Channel Cat, but wasn?t surprised with this Hybrid Sunfish:

http://img96.imageshack.us/img96/671...idsunfish1.jpg
By allenok at 2012-07-11

I threw the rig out again, and did a SLOW retrieve along the face of the pond?s dam, about a foot away from the cattails. I got the hopper within arm?s reach, right at my feet, and stopped it. I got a hit, lifted the pole, and had this on the Wooly Bugger:

http://img842.imageshack.us/img842/1...11bluegill.jpg
By allenok at 2012-07-11

I threw it out again, and was rewarded with another Hybrid Sunnie:

http://img402.imageshack.us/img402/7...idsunfish2.jpg
By allenok at 2012-07-11

One of the Maintenance supervisors showed up, and we gabbed for a bit, and I managed to catch another male Bluegill. I did get a surface hit on the hopper fairly close to the bank, but didn?t hook up. After the Maintenance super left, I got a hookup with what felt like another Hybrid Sunnie, that promptly got my tippet tangled with the cattails. I ended up loosing the fish, my tippet, and both the hopper and BH Wooly Bugger.

Dang, that was the only size 8 BH Wooly Bugger I had. Guess I know what I?m doing tonight!

Hi Allan,

Cool! Nice photos, and thanks for the post.

Regards,

Gandolf

Those are some massive fish for those species. Have you ever tried to eat one?

Not these. I have eaten a Green Sunnie that went about as big, but it was caught out of a small lake 4 years ago.

These fish that I'm catching at work are stocked, and several of the little old ladies that live there think of them as their pets, and raise high holy heck if someone keeps one.