FUN
I got several things done in the yard so I decided that I needed to head for a pond. I was not sure I could get the canoe in, but went to one of my favorites. As it turned out I could drive in. The road was fixed as the field had been harvested. My guess is they did this to make it easier to get in and out of the field.
I went in with two 5 weight rods. The wind was blowing at times, and there are some places where I need to roll cast and I do better with these rods than lighted ones. That might be my inabilities but in any case I was at the pond and it was time to cast.
The rods had a white Only and a black boa yarn fly on them. I cast with the Only first, because it was the rod I had in my hand. I let the fly drop for a few seconds and then started to retrieve. I had not moved the fly far and had a fish take it. I saw the fly line drop so that was the indication to set the hook. On the next cast another bluegill took the fly. It looked like it was going to be a great day. However those thoughts started to dissipate very fast. Several more casts in the area produce no more fish. I moved to another spot and got a couple more fish there. Then there was nothing more, and although I tried different depths and retrieves there was no action.
The next two places I tried produced no fish. To make matters worse I could see fish rising in the center of the pond. That was too far out for me to cast, but it did suggest to me to keep the flies fairly shallow as I retrieved them. The fish were either shallow or coming up.
I kept moving around the pond and casting. I got a few fish at some of the places and nothing else at others. I changed flies a few times to see if other colors might work better. It does not seem to matter. I get the same number of strikes on any fly that I used. I finally figure out that this is probably a run and gun situation. I made a few casts in each place and if no fish hit then I moved on. This seemed to work a little better. There was not as much wasted time casting where no fish were holding or where they were not interested.
I finally got back to the place where I had started fishing. In the process I had gone around the whole pond and I was getting hungry and thirsty. I never take water or food with me or I might not ever get home.
I got home and found that it had been a fairly good day. I had fillets to eat and to share. I'm planning to go back next week with the canoe and see what I can do. The pond is going to be taken down about five feet in a few weeks so the drain pipe can be replaced. The land owner wants a lot of fish taken out of the pond, to try to prevent winter kill. I hope I can help him out.
Hope you can get out on the water.
Rick