ANY COLOR
With the possibility of rain the next few days it was another day to be out. I grabbed a 3 weight and a bamboo rod and headed out. I took six boxes of flies with me, and I went to a pond that does not have many trees around it. I had hopes that the water would be warmer.
When I got to the pond I headed to the south end where the dam is. The east side is very shallow water for most of it area so the fishing would be across the dam and up the west shores a ways.
The 3 weight had a Hares ear type fly on it and the boo rod had a yellow boa yarn fly on it. I decided that those were good things to start with. I made several casts with each to find out where the fish were and I found out that when the flies came in perpendicular to the shore the fish hit. If the retrieves was over about 10 to 15 degrees off the perpendicular the fish did not take it. I moved a few feet and brought it in perpendicular and the fish hit. Each of the areas where casts were made resulted in from five to seven fish. It really did not seems to matter which fly was used first. I got a few fish on one rod and then change to the other and pick up a few more.
The next time I moved along the dam I made the decision to change flies. I wanted to see if something else would work. I changed to a white "Only" fly and an olive marabou damsel pattern. The fish seemed to like these flies also. Each place those were cast resulted in a few fish on each fly.
The bug to experiment more bit me. I let the flies drop deeper before starting to retrieve them. The flies were down about five feet before starting to retrieve. This is the point where I started catching some nice bass. Since I don't keep these I decided that fishing shallower was better. This would get the pan fish that were the quarry I wanted.
After a few more stops it was time to try some different flies. I had tied up a few Goldie Jr. in a copper color, and I also had a nymph pattern tied with bright green dubbing. I tied these on and had fun. The fish also seemed to like these flies. They still had to be coming in perpendicular to the shoreline.
I finally got to the west shoreline. This slopes out for about 12 feet where there is a break line that takes the depth from about four feet to about seven feet. This is a fairly sharp drop. This is one of my favorite spots on the pond during the summer. The fish also seemed to be in this area. I picked up several more fish in this area. I hooked fish on both of the patterns that I tied on, but the bug bit again. I tied on a pink and a purple fly since I wanted to see if these colors would work. It turned out that they worked well and I had fish take both of them. It was fun to take fish on some different colors. I lost the purple fly as something big took it around a stick up and the leader did not survive that.
At this point the fish basket felt heavy. I lifted it again and decided it might be smart to head home and take care of the fish in it. Different flies had worked and the rods had danced a lot. I knew that it would take a good amount of time to take care of the fish.
Got home and it took quite a bit of time to clean of them. I really did not think I had caught that many. My problem is that I am always interested in the next fish and don't pay attention to how many have gone in the basket. I do pay attention to the size of the fish, and if decreasing in a pond then I don't fish it for a while.
Had lot of fish to share with folks, but more than anything else I had a lot of fun.
Hope you can get out on the water.
Rick