Hey guys. Its been a while since I posted much on the WW forum here, but I've got a question for you folks.

I spent 2 hours Friday afternoon fishing a local city park pond that was recently stocked with rainbows. I was fishing with a bugger and a BH Deerfield special. Ait temp was around 40 degrees, but the rain and wind chill made it feel quite a bit colder. I didn't have a thermometer in the water, but I'm guessing it was around 40 ish as well. 2/3rds of the pond was iced over if that says anything about the temps.

I've always been under the impression that most bass won't due much at all unless temps are above 55 or 60. Well, not once but 3 times I hooked--and lost fish that I could have sworn were LMB in the 1 to 2 lb range. The first time I felt the take and a little head shake. I had this one on for a few seconds and got him to the surface. It was about 30-40 feet away and I didn't get a great look at him, but I sware I saw a big white belly and large gold colored scales. I would assume SMB but, there aren't any in the pond so it had to be LMB. The second and third fish I thought were snags because the fly just stopped and wouldn't budge. Then they suddenly moved, then the line came slack. One of them was only about 10 feet away, and again, I thought I saw a fat white belly in the water. This one was hooked when I was trying to pick up the line for another cast....I love it when that happens!

So, any thoughts on this? The section I was fishing was obvisouly the deepest section, hence no ice--but it was still pretty dang cold. And the weirdest part was that they all took the Deerfield special, not the bugger. What do you guys think?


PS: All told, I hooked 7 fish and landed only 4. Oh, well--still a pretty good couple hours.