FUN FUN FUN
Still to wet to try to get the canoe into any ponds and rain is in the forecast so it may take a while. I decided to try a pond that I had not fished for a few years.
The pond had been fished out of bass and the gills had become stunted. I had a friend put in some flathead catfish, but those were caught out in a few years. I had made a large mistake, I think, in putting an article in the local paper asking people to leave the bass and catfish that had been put in the pond. All that happened is that a few folks went back out and fished it down.
The same friend put in a few more flathead catfish and we did not tell anyone about it. He put in a dozen flatheads that weighed from 5 to 7 pounds. I wondered if they might have grown enough to have helped the pond.
One way to find out is go out and try it. I took two rods with me. Took the boo and a 3 wt. Carrying more than two rods while fishing on the shore is a pain. The lines get tangled and I spend more time getting things straightened out than fishing. I do that enough with two rods.
I had a Goldie Jr and a black boa yarn leech on the rods. They are flies that I always start with. It was a nice sunny afternoon, and the temperature is about 65 degrees. There was a wind from the south at about 15 miles-per-hour. Not impossible to cast in.
I am getting smarter, or lazier, in the advancing years. I head down to the far end of the dam, which is as far away from the truck as I can get on the pond. That way as I fish back, and catch any fish, I will be carrying less weight as I am farthest from the truck. I will let you decide.
I made several casts with each rod and had not caught a fish. I was surprised that I had not even gotten a small gill, so it was time to pull a Ray Bergman and really look at the pond to see what I might notice. He used to study a stream for an hour or more before he ever made a cast.
In a few places where the wind was not rippling the water I notice a few swirls. Could it be that there is hatch going on? Are the fish keyed in on something coming to the surface? There is a way to find out. I change flies, going to a PTN and a Prince nymph variation. The prince nymph has red biot tails, 3 colors of peacock for the body and yellow biots for the wing.
The Prince nymph is the first fly to hit the water. No more reason that it was the first rod I picked up. The fly had just dropped under the surface when the line moved to the side. A feisty gill was on the line. This fish was about 6 inches in length. Not huge, but twice the sized they were two years ago.
Another cast brings in another gill of the same size. It seems that there is some sort of hatch going on. When the fishing slows down I change to the other fly and pick up a few more fish. I move about twenty feet and try again.
I get one strike at this place. No fish, and no more strikes so it was time to move on down the pond. I find that there are places where I will get a few fish and then it ends. Other places I don’t get any fish, and I am not sure why that is happening. I will have to get the canoe out on this pond with the depth finder and see what I can find about the bottom of the pond.
That is for the future. Today it is move and find the fish. When the fish stop, then move until the fish are found again. That is what I do in the canoe and it is working on the shore today. I do notice that there is another person out fishing on the pond. That is not a problem to me.
I get to the end of the dam and head down the shore to another place where I can cast. There are some trees there that look like they are very hunger to eat my flies. I am not going to give them the chance.
I make a few casts along the side of the pond and figure out that this is not working very well. I need to work on my casting into a cross wind. With the canoe I just move, but that’s hard to do on the shore.
I decide that his might be a good time to head home. The fish basket is heavy, and I have not filleted a lot of fish this year. By the time I do this it will be near supper time.
I head home and get the fish filleted. I find that I can still do this with some measure of skill. The muscles seemed to have retained some memory. I did not even cut myself with the knife or the gills of the fish. That is amazing. I find that I had 62 gills and 2 crappie. I had returned a few bass to the pond.
It was a fun day at the pond with cooperative fish and a beautiful day to catch them. Got to share fillets with several folks.
Hope you can get out on the water.
Rick