SOFTLY
I had a chance to go to one of my favorite ponds, and it had been awhile since I had been there because there was some vandalism done on the property. The owner dropped a key off and said told me to lock everything behind me. He is going to be watering his cattle out of this pond, and he was afraid that many of the fish would die. I got out to the pond and found it down three feet. That is what happens when it doesn't rain. Hot weather with a wind does not help either. Places where I had caught fish were dry land.
I got out on the pond, but there was too much vegetation at the edge to cast. I made the first cast with a Goldie Jr. I let the fly drop and felt some weight on the line. I set the hook and had a fish on. I got it near the shore and it flipped off. The fish was barely lip hooked and came to the surface. But if there is one that hit maybe more of them will. I made another cast and had another fish hit the fly. I dropped the rod tip down near the water and slowly retrieved the fish. I got it close to the canoe, picked up the net and quickly landed the fish. It was barely lip hooked, but did not come to the surface. It was a crappie that was 13 inches long and fat as a football.
Curiosity is a bad thing at times. The fish were hitting the Goldie Jr, but I wondered if a white boa yarn leech, that is shorter in length than the Goldie Jr, would work better? There was one way to find out. I picked up the rod with that fly and cast it out. The fly dropped about a foot and I started to slowly retrieve it. I pulled it an inch or two and let it set a few seconds. About the third time the fly moved a fish slammed it. It was another carbon copy crappie, but well hooked. That fish fought more like a bass than a crappie.
I got two more crappie on the white boa yarn fly before things died. There was a very slight breeze. The air was barely moving, and I pulled the anchor up and let the breeze slowly move me. I kept casting with the white boa yarn fly. On about every third cast I got a crappie. All of them were nice. But each fish seems to be in its own 10 X 10 foot area. I never got a second fish from the same area.
Curiosity strikes again. I grabbed a rod with a black furl tailed leech on it and casted it out. The fly dropped about a foot and the line went sideways. There was a nice fat gill on the line. This fish did not want to come in, and the rod tip did a lot of dancing before the fish got to the canoe.
I got four more gills by casting around the canoe. But all of them came from different areas. I had moved far enough that I could try the white boa yarn fly again. I got another crappie on the line, but I thought it was a bass. I kept drifting down the pond getting fish to hit the flies as they were cast. I didn't hook any fish near the canoe. They were all about 20 to 30 feet away. I got to the end of the pond, paddled back up to the dam end and slowly drifted down the pond again. I got more fish to hit the flies, and found that the fish were getting a little deeper as the sun got higher in the sky.
As I neared the end of the pond again the fishing really slowed down. I moved back up the pond to try again, but that did not help. I was out of fishable water, which seems to be a good reason to leave. Also there were fish to be filleted and it was only going to get hotter as the day wore on.
I got home and filleted the fish. I didn't remember catching that many. I had some nice fillets to share with many folks, and I brought home a jar of pickled beets that one lady sent to my wife.
Hope you can get out on the water.
Rick