SHORELINE FISH
I headed off to a pond to get rid of the itch, as if that will ever happen. It was still too wet in the low spots to get the canoe out. That is just the way things are.
I hiked into a pond. There are about 6 places around the pond where I can cast, but the rest of the places have trees that just love to eat my flies. The way that I cast I can’t really be near a tree without managing to hook it. That is one great advantage of being in the canoe.
I stopped about 15 feet from the shore to make a few casts. I always try this as I have scared too many fish by barging right up to the shore. I read this a magazine years ago and have made it a habit now.
I know that a white boa yarn fly works in this pond most of the time. That is the fly I started with. I had the fly about two feet from shore when a fish hit the fly. No need to set the hook, just try to turn the fish and get it in. This was a nice gill that did not want to stop short of China or the middle of the earth.
As this fish was doing its thing the head did ask the question: Are there any more fish near the shore? That meant that I would try to slide the fish up on the shore and bring it to me over the grass. Cattle had been grazing in this field for a few weeks and the grass was short. I got the fish up to me and in the basket.
I made another cast and had another fish hit the fly. Most of the leader was out of the water when the fish hit. This turned out to be a nice crappie and the voices in my head said to be careful when sliding the fish up on the shore or it would get off. I wish those dumb voices would go away because I lost the fish. Getting it on the shore gave it leverage to get off the hook.
I moved up a couple of feet to see if that might help getting the fish over the lip of the shoreline. It did not make much difference with the gills, but I did not do much better on the crappie.
When the fishing slowed down I moved up to the shore and made some casts. It was a bust; the fish must have wanted the fly coming in perpendicular to the shoreline. All the casts that were parallel to the shore resulted in no fish. Even I learn after a time, but it did take several casts to convince me of this.
So I moved down the shoreline to another place that I could cast. A side note is that I left the fish basket, with the fish I had caught, in the pond where I could take fish to it. This was far enough away from where I would be casting that I would not disturb the fish.
While moving down the pond the mind was wondering on how to get the crappie out of the water. I was hooking them, but had only landed two of them. Not good for a crappie fanatic. Then a possible solution came to mind. Let the fish go out from shoe a little and get them up to the top. As they came in I might be able to raise their head up some and thus get them over the lip of the shoreline.
The result of this method was that about half the crappie hooked made it over the lip of the shoreline. After I caught four fish I would take them up to the fish basket. It took some time, but I wanted to take care of the fish.
When the fishing slowed down in this spot I moved to the other side of the pond. Being smart once in awhile, this was closer to where I would need to go to get back to the road. I try to start fishing the farthest place away from where I came in, so that as the basket got heavier, I would be closer to the truck.
The fish were cooperative on this side of the pond also. I made several trips to the basket. I was watching the time and decided that I needed to head home. The basket was heavier than I thought it would be. I did not remember catching that many fish.
I got home and found that I had 50 gills and 25 crappie. I lost at least half the crappie I hooked, but still had great fun and I had fillets to share with lots of folks.
I want to get back with the canoe and see how I do in this pond.
Hope you can get out on the water.
Rick