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I went out for my normal Saturday morning reviving of
the soul on the pond experience. This is one of the
ponds that I get into every couple of years. One year
cattle are on it and the next year it is hay ground.
It just depends when they get the hay cut and into
bales. While they are working it, I can go into the
pond. The rest of the time the gate is locked and it
is over half a mile from the road to the pond. The
land owner does not want me to drive on it while the
grass is very tall. He does not want it pressed down
and I go with his wishes.
In any case, I could get into the pond. This pond has
bass, bluegills and a few green sunfish. The fish have
a tendency to be good sized in this pond. I take the
bluegills and green sun fish and the landowner takes
a few bass out of it each year. It is a nice arrangement.
I got the canoe off the pickup and had everything in
it ready to go. I was making my first cast when I
heard a tractor come into the field, I always make a
few casts before I put the canoe in, just to see if
there is a fish there. If I put the canoe in first,
the fish is gone.
The guy in the tractor stopped to check to see who I
was. I had not met him before, but he knew that it was
OK for me to fish the pond. He wanted to watch me cast,
believe it or not, as he had not seen very many folks
fly fish. The second cast resulted in a very nice bass
deciding to annihilate the fly. This fish came out of
the water twice before I got her in. She was just short
of twenty inches long according to a tape measure. In
any case she went back into the water.
With all the commotion she made I knew the other fish
were gone or turned off. Time to put the canoe in. I
did have the two thwarts replaced and things were back
to normal. I knew that the bass had hit the fly about
five feet from shore. I cast toward the shore so the
fly landed about three feet offshore and slowly retrieved
it out. The fly had moved just a few feet when the line
twitched and the rod moved to set the hook.
It was a nice gill that headed for the center of the pond.
It was a time to just let the fish swim around and get
tired before trying to do anything. I was using a 3 wt
with a 5X tippet. Not the equipment to try to horse fish
in. After a few minutes I could get the fish to start
doing what I wanted it to. I landed it and put it in
the basket. It was a nice fat bluegill.
I cast toward the shore again and got a repeat performance.
It was another bluegill that headed for China. This was
fun. Hold on and let them get tired so they could be
lipped. It was a fish about every five to 10 feet as I
moved around the pond. About every fourth fish was a bass.
This got to be fun at times as some of them were pushing
the five-pound mark. It took a long time to get them in,
but they were all released.
There is a place on the far side of the pond where a
tree has fallen into the pond. The top fifteen feet
of the tree is in the water. There are always a few
fish in this area. My first cast to this area resulted
in a jarring strike. This was not a bluegill and did
not act like a bass, but it sure did not like the hook.
It turned out to be a large green sunfish. This is the
largest green sunfish I had caught in this pond. In
any case I let her go back into the water. Maybe we
can have another dance in a year or two.
I slowly worked my way around the pond. All of the fish
were near the shore and they were in a feeding mood. The
casts that were out farther into the pond just did not
seem to interest any fish. If they want to be near the
shore that is where I will cast to try to catch them.
I was about two thirds of the way around the pond when
I saw the tractor driver waving at me. I headed over
so see what was going on. The tractor had broken down
and he wanted to know if I could give him a ride into
town to get someone to come out and fix it. He could
also get another tractor to get his work done.
I said to let me get the canoe loaded and I would take
him in. He was amazed at how fast all of the stuff in
the canoe could get into the pickup and the canoe
strapped down on top. We then went into town so
he could get on with his work.
I ended up with forty nice gills at home and I know that
I tossed that many fish back in. It was a fun day with
very nice fish. I was also able to be a nice guy and
help someone.
I hope you can get out on the water. ~
Rick (written 09/06/06)
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