Welcome to Warmwater Fishing!

Cold Front
By Rick Zieger, Iowa


I went out the Saturday afternoon after Joe Hyde had been here to go fishing. I had too many other things to do in the morning. Also, it is about 15 to 20 degrees warmer in the afternoon.

The only problem was that the weather changed. A cold front came through and the wind started blowing about 15 mph from the northwest. The temperature also dropped about 10 degrees. Not the best of weather conditions to go, but the best time to go fishing is when you can get out and go.

I headed out for a pond that I knew would be protected from the wind. This is one of the few ponds that has the dam at the north end. Most of the dam is a natural bank, only the northwest 1/4 of the dam had to be built. The gully that it flows into turns to the west to drain the water.

There is a growth of mature trees along the north side of the pond. I thought that the trees would block the wind and make it easier to cast.

I got to the pond and saw that the wind was not causing too much trouble over 2/3 of the pond. The shallow water was covered with waves, but I felt most of the fish would be a little deeper.

I had a black boa yarn leech (I like this pattern) and a hares ear type fly on. This pond has the normal list of fish: bass, bluegill, crappie and a few channel cat.

I got the canoe loaded and out into the water. I dropped the front anchor and made a few casts into the shallow water. All I managed to catch were a few weed stalks. I moved up the west shore, about 20 feet out from the bank. I cast out and let the fly drop and then very slowly retrieved the fly. I was casting so the fly would somewhat parallel the bank and allow me to fish along the breakline. It was a great theory and did not work today.

I made several casts in each place and then would move a little ways and try again. I even cast perpendicular to the bank and tried different depth and different speeds of retrieve. I even switched flies. Nothing was working.

When I got to the northwest corner of the pond, I dropped a fly right above the breakline and let it drop. I felt a little resistance as I started to retrieve the line and did a hookset. I had a fish on!

The fish was fairly lethargic and did not fight much coming in. It turned out to be a bass of about three pounds. This fish was freed of the hook while still in the water to swim some more.

I caught two more bass along the dam end of the pond, both of them hit while the fly was dropping. I never felt a strike, just resistance on the line. But I did manage to land them. I fished on around the pond and was getting some good casting practice in.

I tried several flies, several depths and speeds of retrieve, and any other things I could think of to do. The fish did just not want to cooperate.

Then I felt the first rain drops and decided that it was time to get out of there. Part of the road back to this pond goes over a hill and it would be had to get out of if it was slick. You have to follow the road as it goes through some trees and there is no room to get to the side. Rain had not been forecast, but the weather is like fish, not always cooperative. I did get out before it rained too much. Not long after I got out of the field and was headed home the rain stopped.

It was still fun to be out. It was one of those days that will stay with me as I bumble it about in my head as to what else I could do to get the fish to bite. Heck my brain is supposed to be bigger than theirs and that means there should be a way to catch them. This is what keeps us going to the water in any case.

Hope you can get out on the water. Richard Zieger

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