I had a Monday off from work. The ice is long gone. The
wind was blowing about 30 miles per hour with gusts up to
50 miles per hour. It was still time to go to the water. I did
leave the canoe at home.
I took the boo rod and a 6 wt graphite out. I was not sure
how well I would be able to cast with either one of them. But
it was a fairly nice day and it was time to be trying to catch fish.
There had not been any rain, but the wind had been blowing.
I hoped the ponds might be clearer than they had been before.
I took my vest with me so I would have a full choice of the flies
that I have tied. That means I have serval boxes of flies to choose
from. Probably too many boxes, but I don't know what to eliminate.
When I got into the pond, I could see that the wind was whipping
it up. On the north side of the pond there were white caps. The
waves were about a foot high. I did have a glimmer of what amount
of sanity I might have, but I was at a pond and it was time to get a
fly in the water.
The water was a little bit clearer than it had been before. I could
see down about six inches now.
Since the sun was shining, I went with a silver Goldie Jr and a boa
like yarn. This is a yellow sparkly yarn fly that came from some
material that was given to me by a knitter. She did not know
where it came from or what the name of it was. But it makes a
nice fly.
I was surprised to find that I could make about 40 foot casts
in the wind. That is much better than I normally do. I was casting
out over an area that has water from about 10 feet deep to about
a foot deep near the shore. I hope that the fish might have moved
in to be feeding.
I made several casts and brought the fly in at different depths
and at different retrieve methods.
Not a whole lot of anything was working. I made another cast
and started to reel the line in.
The fly was about 10 feet offshore when a bluegill inhaled it.
No need for a hook set the fish was on. It was a good size gill
and made several different twists and turns before I got him landed.
I tried doing this several more times and it did not work. I
even tied on a black marabou leech, which did not interest
any fish. So it was time to move down the pond. I cast over
areas with deep water. I hit areas with shallow water and had
the same result in both places. It was some good practice
casting.
My migration along the pond brought me to a place where
there is about five feet of space between the limbs of two
trees. Both of the trees are about 60 feet tall. That means
the limbs are big and bushy. It is always a challenge to me
to try to cast a fly here. Can I keep it between the limbs
and not lose the fly? A couple of the limbs almost look like
Christmas trees with all the decorative flies that are on them.
Hope does spring eternal, because I keep trying.
On this day my first cast puts a fly in the water and not
on a limb. The fly had just hit the water when the crappie
came up and hit it. Half the body of the crappie was out
of the water as the fish took the fly. I had my first crappie
of the year on the line! I carefully worked this fish in and
got her landed. I took two deep breaths and then cast again,
hoping there would be another fish in thee area. That hope
was dashed over the next several casts.
The wind shifted its direction a little and made the casting
much harder. When I was hitting myself on three of five casts,
I decided that it was time to leave. The wind coming over the
water was also very cold. I had not brought a jacket with me.
Hopefully the wind will stop blowing and the water will begin
to warm up so the fish are more active.
Hope you can get out on the water. ~ Rick
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