YELLOW
It has been dry for several days. A friend called to tell me that the approach to one of my favorite ponds had dried out. He had been in to cultivate a field. That was enough incentive to decide that was the pond to fish. I loaded everything in the truck the night before except for the rods. This time I made sure I had the paddle with me. In the morning I grabbed the rods and headed out.
There was no problem getting into the pond if you stayed out of the ruts in the low spots. I got to the pond and got everything unloaded.
Looking at the pond and I could not see any activity and when I got down to the edge of the water I saw that there was about 5 to six feet of visibility. This was way better than what I had observed when I hiked in earlier in the year.
I had two 3 wts and two 5 wts with me. The flies on them were a Hares Ear, a black boa yarn leech, a popper-midge dropper, and Goldie Jr. I tried several casts at the edge of the pond and did not have any results.
I launched the canoe out onto the water and started casting to the spots where I have caught fish before. It was a great theory but the fish did not seem to be there or the wrong things was going in the water. I tried five different places and did not have a fish to show for it. It was time to change flies and see what might happen. I tied on a yellow boa yarn leech, an irresistible, a prince nymph, and white leech sort of fly. I tried each of these in turn and the yellow boa yarn leech had a single gill take it. All the rest of the flies did not get any activity.
I started fishing the yellow boa fly very hard by casting it to all the places that might or might not hold fish. I tried to cover all of the water, and I even tied a yellow boa with a bead head on it so it could fish deeper.
I was picking up an odd fish here and there around the pond, but not anything near what I knew that this pond held. I had moved around the pond and was nearly back to the place where I launched the canoe so I dropped the anchor and decided to try this area before I packed it in.
I cast the fly out over a broad flat that is about 8 to 10 feet deep and always has weeds that grow so they are 3 to 4 feet under the surface. I let the fly drop and started a very slow strip with a long pause. The first couple of times I thought I was hitting the tops of some of the weeds. Then some common sense, sometimes it takes a while to kick in, made me do a hook set on one of these taps. It turned out to be a good thing as I had a nice crappie on the line. I made another cast and had the same thing happen. Maybe I was onto something. I tried the rod with the Godlie Jr on it and the fish were not interested in that so I went back to the yellow boa yarn fly. It worked like a charm, and I was getting a fish on every cast.
I made a sloppy cast, not an unusual experience, and saw a crappie come up out of the weeds and take the fly. I surmised that the crappie were down in the weeds and would come up and take the fly. Whatever the reason they were taking the fly and I was putting it out there for them to take!
Finally looked at my watch and decided that I should head home. There were other things that should be done. Having a fisherman’s’ mind, I wondered if they were as important. In any case, the other things needed to be done so I reluctantly left the other fish in the weeds and headed home.
In addition, I had a lot of fish to fillet, but that meant there were fillets to share. Not sure why it was one color of fly and one place where the fish were, but I am happy that I found it. Maybe that is part of the reason I am not very patient when fish are not biting. I just have to try something different.
Hope you can get out on the water.
Rick