DRY FIELDS
Since the gully washer it has not rained. There has been a steady wind and I thought that I could get into a pond, so I loaded the canoe the night before and took off early in the morning. I did get out and walk through the area that would be the worst to drive through. There was no standing water and the dirt looked to be dry. It was time to get the truck by this and down to the pond.
This pond has some very nice crappie in it. They are not always the easiest things to catch, but the rewards are worth the effort. I had four rods with me. I had a streamer nymph, a Goldie Jr, a Marabou Miss and a yellow boa yarn leech on the rods. All are good crappie flies. Well historically they are all good crappie flies. They all went in the water several times; in several places and the net result were no fish and no strikes. I know the fish are in this pond, so it was time to change and see if the fish might be interested in something else.
There was a slight breeze out of the east. I paddled to the dam and let the breeze blow me across the pond. I have a white grub pattern in the water down about five feet to see if the fish might take that. I tied a black mohair furled tailed leech on another rod. I am going to use black and white to see if the fish are interested in those colors before I go for the really weird things. I do try to have some method to the madness, but most of the time it is probably not able to be understood, even by me.
About 2/3 of the way down the pond the bottom comes up so the water is about eight feet deep and the goes to about two feet deep at the shallow end of the pond. I was in this area when the first fish took the leech.
The fly had dropped about two feet in the water column when I saw the line move to the side. Time to set the hook, and a nice fat crappie came to hand. I had fished this area earlier with the first four flies I had on, but the fish wanted something black.
I made another cast and let the fly drop. No fish even on the retrieve. After several more casts in this area I hooked into another nice crappie. I landed this fish with a net to make sure I did not lose it.
I discovered that these fish were the fish of “a hundred casts.” They would only take the fly on the drop and it seems that it had to hit them on the head to get this to happen. With this in mind I was fan casting the area. It might be that the fish were migrating through the area, but it took a lot of casting to get each fish to hit. Every fish I caught was in the 16 inch range. Almost looked like footballs when they came out of the water.
I ended up with fifteen fish from this pond. Not a great quantity, but the quality of the fish was great. I had some very nice fillets to share with some folks. They were also good eating at home.
Hope you can get out on the water.
Rick