BACK TO AN OLD FRIEND
There is a pond that I have fished for several years but has been unavailable to me the past few years. A different person is renting the land and called me to say that I could fish the pond again. He would like the bass left in it, and he also wanted to see any fish that I might catch in this pond. I grabbed two rods to go in the truck. I already dad the canoe and everything else loaded. I headed out early in the morning, but the temperature was already 78 degrees at 5:30 am. I wanted to hit it early to try to beat the worst of the heat.
Here are a couple of pictures of the pond. The lily pads have multiplied a lot since I last fished this pond.
You can see the bow of the canoe in the first two pictures to give a reference as to the size of the pond. The water in the third picture is very shallow. This pond was down almost three feet. Many of the lily pads had their feet out of the water.
I had a yellow boa yarn fly variation and a white boa yarn fly on the two rods. Both unweighted, with about 5.5 foot furled leaders. I added about 8 feet of 4 pound mono for a leader. I wanted the flies to be able to drop down in the water column and not move very fast. My thoughts were that the fish would be deep and I hoped to get them to come up.
Here is a picture of the yellow boa yarn variation, wet. The eyes are from the craft section at Wal-Mart. It is a strand that is used to make necklaces.
I got out on the pond and made the first cast. First I let the fly drop for a long time. The water was clear, and I could see down about 10 feet. That cast was only about 20 feet out. I was not sure how spooky the fish might be, so a short cast first and then longer casts can be made.
I could still see the yellow of the fly and when it was about 4 or 5 feet down I started a very slow retrieve. I moved the fly an inch or so and then paused for about 5 seconds. Hopefully this gave the fish time to come up and take the fly.
I have moved the fly about two feet when it disappeared. I waited a couple of seconds and set the hook. There was a nice fish on, and I got the fish close to the canoe and netted it. That is easier to do with the long leader than trying to lift the fish into the canoe. It was a nice fat crappie. I love it when a plan works. I made another cast and let the fly drop for a long time, and then I started retrieving it the same way. This time the fly was almost to the canoe when I saw a fish come up and follow the fly for a few seconds. Then the fish swam up and moved with the fly. I waited a few seconds and tried to set the hook. I promptly pulled the fly out of the fish's mouth!
I made another cast and let the fly drop. Just before I started to retrieve this fly I casted the other fly out on the other side of the canoe. By the time the fly dropped I will be ready to retrieve it. I got the first fly near the canoe and saw a crappie swimming with the fly. I have not felt any weight or anything else on the line so I moved the line so that it was going by me in the canoe. When it got passed me and extended out as far as I could reach, I set the hook. This time I hooked the crappie and got it into the canoe. I think with the line coming back toward me, the hook went into the flesh of the fish and did not pull out.
I recast that rod and picked the other one up. I moved the fly once and the rod tip went down. A very feisty crappie was on the line. This fish did not want to come in, but the pressure of the rod brought the fish to the net.
Once again I cast out and let the fly drop again. I picked the first rod up and started the retrieve. When I had moved this fly about 10 feet another fish took it. This time I saw the flash of white and set the hook quickly, and I had another nice fat crappie in the net and then into the basket.
I got a fish on about half the casts, and missed many more as I think they were following the fly. I would feel weight on the line and try to set the hook, but nothing was there. But the flies were attracting fish.
I continued this until I ran out of drinking water, and it was getting warmer and warmer. I decided that by the time I got all of the stuff loaded, get home and get the fish cleaned and the fishing stuff put away it will be very hot. I decided that this would be a good time to head home and get out of the heat. I had fished the area of the pond that is to the left of the bow of the canoe in the pictures. I did not try the shallower areas.
I stopped at the home of the person who let me fish the pond. I showed him the crappie and he went nuts. I pulled five of the biggest ones and gave them to him. He was ecstatic to have fish for dinner that night. Then I went home and took care of the rest of the fish.
There were some nice fillets and some good eating. By the time I got them taken care of and got cleaned up it was 91 degrees out. I did not want to leave feeding fish, but sure was glad to be out of the heat.
Hope you can get out on the water.
Rick