SHORTENED BY WIND
It was a day off and it was time to hit a pond. It was still too wet to drive in anywhere and put the canoe in. The way the rains have been coming, with the amounts we get, may make this a summer that the canoe never hits the water. What a horrible thought!
I hiked into a pond wearing rubber boots to get past the low spots. There was water in them and the mud was fairly deep. I found the places where the grass was growing to have better footing. The mud was so deep that there was a chance of getting stuck. It will take a long time for the ground to dry out under these places.
It was a nice afternoon with temperatures in the mid 60’s. The only troubling thing was the wind. It was blowing about 25 mph, and being shore bound this makes it a little more difficult to cast than being the canoe where it is easier to move to make casts.
I got to the pond and discovered that the water was discolored some. Not real bad. The wind was making waves that were about four inches high on the pond. The pond is rectangular and lies in and east-west orientation. Wind was out of the west, and blowing toward the dam.
Despite the weather, or in spite of it, it is time to put some flies in the water. I have two 5 wts with me. They are easier to cast into the wind than lighter weights.
The water is still fairly cool so I had a hares ear variation and an irresistible variation on the two rods. I use a neutral colored fly and a fairly bright fly to see which the fish might like better.
The hares ear went in first, only because it was on the rod that I did not lean against the bush. The fly dropped for a few seconds before the retrieve started. Very short strips, with very long pauses to let the fly be seen by the fish that might be there. The fly was near the break line that is in this pond when the line twitched and I set the hook. A feisty gill made the rod tip dance as he cut all the dido’s in his repertoire.
Made some more casts in the area and got a gill on about every other cast. Fly had to move very slowly or the fish were not interested. Out of curiosity, I tried the other rod to see if there might be some other fish that would be interested in a different fly. I did pick up a few more fish on the irresistible.
I moved down the pond to try another spot. This area is a broad flat that is about 5 to 6 feet deep over the whole extent of it. You can learn a lot, by watching how much rope goes out with the anchors. I hoped the fish might be in this area looking for food.
I cast over this area, picking up a fair number of fish. The fly had to drop about two feet for the fish to be interested it. I had a fair number of fish in the basket and started experimenting. I tired six other flies and caught fish on all of them. The fly had to be about two feet deep before the fish would look at them. Nice to know that some other flies I had run onto worked also.
One of the problems of going out in the afternoon is that the wind can get stronger. That is what happened. The wind got up to about 40 mph. I am not a great caster in the first place, but in wind like that I am downright dangerous. I decided I did not want to hook the big sucker at the pond so I headed home. It was a short trip, but great fun. I had enough fish for a meal and to share some fillets.
Hope you \can get out on the water.
Rick