Warm Water still Warm down South!
looks like a general "cooling trend" in this section as many of you northern anglers are accepting the onset of winter and the icing of the ponds and lakes.
Yesterday after work I was facing a stiff northerly breeze that had a chill to it but the pond and fish still beckoned.
So I went and fished. I tell ya tossing a 4wt into the wind is tough at times. It felt more like throwing rocks as my forward cast had to be speeded up just a bit to cut the wind. Couldn't get to fish the leeward side of the pond due to trees and brush and a steep mucky bank.
At any rate I tied on one of my black bead head spiders and got busy. Only four or five good casts into it and I'm rewarded with a yank and a tug as the line straightened out. Strip hookset and OFF to the races! Mr. Gill cuts right, NO left, back right, towards the deep. I'm laughing now as I can tell this ain't no baby gill. Got him to hand and he measures right at 8 inches. Not bad, I smile and send him on his way. In another ten minutes his twin brother is on the line. ZOOM! It's great when they take up the slack line at your feet before tiring. This one swallowed a bit deep and I used my homemade ball point pen with a slot cut into it release tool. Similar to a kethcum release tool. Just insert the tippet into the slot and gently follow it to the fly and de-hook the fly .
Back to casting....I toss straight out 35 feet and take up the slack and countdown the fly and I feel a big tug and jolt. YANK! Swish! RATS! I missed whatever that was. In my haste to get the spider right back to it I hooked the tree behind me. TWICE! Then again back to the same area....maybe a little to the left of the first strike.....and.....WHAM! there it is! This is either the mother of all bluegills, a whopper Crappie, a catfish maybe or a Bass. The more it fought the more I'm thinking Bass. And in about two minutes......yea! I see a rather decent looking bass go head shaking and tail walking for me. No camera this time but the tale of the tape was 19.25 inches long with a 12 inch girth. A new personal best on my 4 weight. While not my biggest ever.....that one I forgot to weigh or even measure in my euphoria....it was still worth some pretty big smiles and a kiss goodbye before he swam away. One more bluegill caught then the wind shut me down as well as cold hands. Going back today at 330 pm. wooohoo!
Steve
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I fish, therefore I swam.
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