NEW POND
I got permission earlier this year to fish a new pond; at least it was new to me. Unfortunately it has been way to wet to be able to get into it. Finally I heard that it had dried up enough to get into it on one of the "roads" that goes to it, so I put the canoe on the rack and "all" of my stuff in the truck and headed off.
When I got to the pond and realized that I left two things at home. One was the camera which I left sitting on the table, and the other was the Assault paddle that makes it easy to move the canoe a short distance. It was too far to go back and get them so I had to make the best of it.
I had three rods with me and a black boa yarn fly, Goldie Jr, and a hare's ear type fly on the leaders. I cast the Goldie Jr first and caught a couple of small bass. I was casting to the shore and bringing the fly back but after a few fish the action stopped. So I let the slight breeze move me.
I decided to cast the black boa yarn fly next. I dropped it about three feet from shore between two trees. Hard to believe I did not catch the trees. The fly had just dropped and the line moved. I set the hook and had a nice bluegill come to hand. I cast back in the area and got another nice bluegill as the fly came in on the retrieve. Then the action stopped. I even tried the hare's ear and nothing happened. So it was time to move again.
The breeze was moving me and I kept going along the south shore but I was not finding fish. I found another spot that gave up a couple of decent bluegills on the black boa yarn fly. Then I tried the other flies and nothing happened.
I dropped the anchor so I could change flies. I had an Only (FOTW archives) tied with black ice dubbing and also a rubber legged dragon (FOTW archives) tied in black. I had both of these in several colors. I tied both of these flies on and started casting. It turned out that it did not matter which of the black flies I had on, the fish wanted them. I got to the dam at the east end and the fun really started. I would cast toward the shore and retrieve the fly out with short strips and a few second pause. The fish either hit the fly on the run and hooked themselves, or it felt like some weight was on the line. I was getting two or three bass for every bluegill I picked up.
A few of the bass were about 24 inches long and a half a dozen with about 20 inches long. Many of them were either about 12 inches or 6 inches long. There is a very good population of bass in this pond so it's a lot of fun on 3 and 5 weight rods.
I did find a couple of huge gills in this area and I had to net them to get them in the canoe. I was afraid to lift them as they might come off the hook. They were too large to get my hands around. While I was landing them I was kicking myself for not having the camera with me. I wear size 10.5 shoes and I put these near my foot and they were longer than my foot by the length from the gill flap forward.
Both of them went back in the pond. There will be more chances to catch them again. Hopefully the camera will be remembered. I moved around the pond and found bass at almost every place.
I finally came down the center of the pond and I found fish out in that area also. They seemed to be more scatter but seemed to like the flies. I knew that there were a few other things to do and so I headed home.
Here are a few pictures of the better fish from today. Had fillets to share and eat.
Hope you can get out on the water.
Rick