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:


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:


By allenok at 2012-07-11

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


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!