CANOE DAY
It has dried out enough that I was told that I could drive into one pond as long as I followed the path the tractor had made. It's the middle of June and the first time the canoe hits the water. I was glad he said to follow the path as there were some places the truck would have sunk out of site.
I got into the pond and got the canoe unloaded. I had even remembered the paddle. I brought four fly rods with me; Two 3 weights and two 5 weights. I had a Goldie Jr, black furl tailed leech, popper with midge dropper, and a damsel nymph. I tried each of them and did not have a thing, so it was time to change the flies.
I went with a white boa yarn fly, a purple marabou leech, an orange fly, and brown damsel fly nymph. I tried each of these and got a few fish, Not much on any of the flies, but at least I knew fish were in the pond. I knew that before, but now I had proof.
Out of curiosity I tied on a yellow boa yarn leech. I cast it out and the fly was smashed. A nice crappie came to hand, so I tried it again and the fly was hit hard by a nice gill. It was beginning to look like yellow was the color of the day.
I tied on a yellow fun fur yarn leech on another rod and a yellow marabou leech on another rod; all different flies, but the same color. Each of these flies was hit hard by fish. It seemed that as long as it was yellow the fish would take it.
After catching a few fish in one area it would slow down and I would change to another rod and pick up a few more fish. After this fly stopped working I would get a few more fish on the third yellow fly. It did not matter what order the flies were cast in. The same thing would happen at each place that I cast to. I am not sure if this is true all of the time or not. I will need to do it many more times on many different ponds to see if it continues to happen. But it sure is fun to continue to catch fish.
I worked around the pond, getting some fish at each place where the canoe was anchored. It is not my custom to count the number of fish that I am catching. I do count, out of curiosity as I am washing the fillets, but for some reason the idea came to lift the fish basket. That exercise convinced me that it was time to head home. The basket was very heavy with fish. That shows that the catching was great, but the cleaning takes some time also.
I got home and found that I was north of three figures in fish. Nice sized crappie and gills. There were two nice bowls of fillets that were shared with a number of folks.
It was a fun day to be on the water, but my rear end is not accustomed to setting in the canoe. I need more practice is needed to correct this condition.
Hope you can get out on the water.
Rick