ANNUAL DUMBNESS
It had been dry for a while, and I loaded up the canoe and headed for a pond. This one is seven miles from town and about half a mile off the road. I had four fly rods with me and was looking forward to being on the water. I got to the pond and saw that there was algae around the edge. It was May and there is this much stuff in the pond already.
You can see the front tip of the canoe in the lower right of the second picture. I took the canoe down to the water at the midpoint of the picture to launch it. This is one of my favorite ponds. I got down to the water and got the canoe in the water. When I got in the canoe and reached for the paddle to launch out in the pond I realized the paddle is back home. This was the exact same thing I did a year ago the first time I took the canoe out.
It was too far to drive back and get the paddle so I put the canoe back on the truck and changed tactics. I took two rods and a box of flies and walked down to the water.
If you look at the first picture you can see where I was planning to start casting.I did not carry the camera with me. I did not think it would be safe based on my track record for the day.
I did get one gill in this area. I kept moving along the dam and casting, and I picked up a fish here and there. I did notice that there was some activity at the other end of the pond, so I headed to the left of what you see in the second picture. I moved very slowly so I could watch to see what the fish might be after. I did notice that they were hitting things just under the surface.
I decided the black fur tailed leech was the thing to try. Casting it out I got a nice crappie on the first cast. The fly barely dropped in the water and the fish took it. I did have to get the fish to the surface to slide it across the algae. The next cast resulted in a nice gill taking the fly, and it was harder to get this fish to the surface to slide it across the algae.
Each time I cast the fly and let it drop I would get a fish. The cast had to land about five feet from where I had cast the last time, but starting with short casts this gave a large number of places to cast to.
I decided that I should get a picture of this spot. I headed back to the truck to get the camera.I brought the camera, in the case, took the picture and then put the camera in the case. That way it's hard to mess the camera up. However, there was a slight problem. I did not check to make sure that I had turned the camera off. I thought I did, but the battery was dead, so no picture.
I did get several fish from this area. The fish had moved back into the areas where I had cast before while I was going down to get the camera. Finally ran out of time, as I had another place I needed to be. I got home and took care of the fish. I had fillets to share and to eat.
Hope you can get out on the water.
Rick
PS My wife typed me up a checklist of stuff to take when I go fishing.
1. Paddle
2. Rest of stuff.