FIRST CANOE TRIP - 2012
I had a day off and it was time to be on the water. It was getting warm enough that this needed to be an early morning endeavor. I loaded everything up the night before and headed off early, and yes, the paddle was the first thing in the vehicle.
I drove into the pond and was surprised. There was a 12 foot ring of algae and plants around the edge of the pond. I have seen this in July-August, but not in June. It is a weird weather year. I unloaded the canoe loaded everything inside. I did not even try any casts from shore.
I pulled the canoe to the edge of the algae and made a cast along the edge of the algae. Immediately I had a nice bass hammer the black boa yarn leech. I let this fish go and tried again, and I had a nice gill hit the fly. Then the area died. I cast in the opposite direction and got nothing. I tried each way with a Goldie Jr. and caught one crappie. Being curious I cast straight out into the pond, and I had moved the fly about five feet when the line felt heavy. I set the hook and had a nice crappie. I did see a few other fish swirl as they spooked when the crappie came in. I made a shorter cast the next time and got a fish to hit as the fly dropped. This was a nice gill. Cast a little farther in the same area and picked up a crappie.
I determined that if I made short casts over the area I would get fish in several spots. By lengthening the cast about 10 feet each time I could continue to hook fish. I cast over the area again with casts about 10 feet longer I hooked another round of fish.
After that the fish were getting off before being landed, so it was then time to move the canoe. Curiosity did get me. I tied on a couple of flies I have not used for a while, and both of them worked. I hooked fish using the same pattern I used before. Short casts in a circle around the canoe. Then lengthen the casts. It was usually about seven fish on each series of casts.
About 8:30 a.m. fishing just turned off. I tried everything for about another half hour. I fished deeper, shallower, faster, on the surface. I tried different retrieves and nothing happened. So, I decided the fish were telling me something, so I left them to grow bigger.
I can tell you that loading the canoe and putting the equipment away is not as much fun as catching fish.
I got home and had lots of fish to filet. I kept 46 gills and 44 crappie, which made for lots of good eating, and fillets to share.
Hope you can get out on the water.
Rick