Over 20 yrs and never fished
Today I got to fish a farm pond that has not to the home owners knowledge been fished for over twenty years. The farm was over a hundred years old and had been in the family that long. It is on a 350 acre farm down in a hollow that you have to have a 4x4 to get to. The only sign that anyone had ever been to this little pond was that there was an old chimney still standing from a house that had long since disappeared (the land owner told me that it was the house of an old farm hand that lived there in the late 30's). I have know these people for about 10 yrs and never knew that there was a pond on their property (except for the pond by the road that the cows are always in). The pond was small about 2 acres in size very over grown in some areas and very muddy. I did not have much hope for this poor little pond but I was so wrong. I caught so many sun fish that I stopped counting and around twelve large mouths between 1-3 pounds. I truly fell in love with this little pond today. This pond was ugly. My fly line was actually brownish in color when done. The fish were very pail but fat and fought very hard. I think what made me fall in love with this little mud hole was that no one had fished this pond in over twenty yrs. It felt like it was my own little secret. As I left I stopped and told the land owner t hank you very much and about all the luck I had that day. As I was leaving the land owner tossed me a set of keys and said "the only rule I have is that you can only bring your boys. No one else." I looked down and there in my hand were the keys to the big red gate. Past that gate was a small dirt road that lead to this little pond that no one had fished for over twenty years until today.
