HOT MORNING
I had the day off and I needed to be on the water. It was 6:00 a.m. and the temperature was 83 degrees. I knew it would get worse later in the day. It had been this way for two weeks. I loaded the canoe the night before along with everything else.
I arrived at one of my favorite ponds for the first time this year. I can see that the water is down about two feet, that is the effect of no rain and hot dry winds.
I loaded the canoe with my gear and got out onto the pond. I could not make any casts from shore as there was about 12 feet of algae around the whole edge of the pond.
I have two 3 weights and two 5 weights with me. I have a white boa yarn leech fly, black mohair furl tailed leech fly, silver Goldie Jr fly and a popper-midge dropper rig. There is about two feet of visibility in the water due to the algae bloom.
I make several casts with each fly and nothing happened. I tred another spot and not a thing happened. I go to one of my favorite spots and try all the flies. Nothing happens, except casting practice. I have never been skunked at this spot so it's time to change flies and go to some weird colors. I tied on a purple mohair leech, a reddish-orange boa yarn leech, and an olive hares ear type fly, and changed the midge dropper to a bright silver colored fly.
I tried each fly with no results, until the reddish-orange boa fly went into the water. The fly was dropping when I saw the line move sideways. I set the hook and had a fish on. When I gott it near the canoe and it flipped off.
I tried another cast and had another fish take the fly. I dropped the rod tip down near the water and slowly brought the line in. I got the fish close to the canoe and raised the rod tip up to try to slide the fish into the net. It worked, but the hook comes out in the net. But I have the fish in the net! I get a few more strikes in this area, but no more fish into the canoe.
I moved about 30 feet and tried again. The reddish boa yarn fly is the only one the fish showed any interest in. I got about one of eight fish into the net. The fish were barely lip hooked and most of them are flipping off before they get near the canoe.
I checked my fly box and I had a couple of flies tied on size 12 hooks, instead of the size 10 I have been using. I thought that this might help with the short striking. It was a great theory, but it did not help. I tried a lot of other flies and the fish were not interested in them. I keep casting the fly all over the pond. Lots of fish were hitting it, but not many made it to the net.
I ran out of water and the heat was getting to me, and I decided that the fish would be there next time. I was sweating, but I knew that it would not be long before things might get worse. I hate to leave biting fish, but dislike the idea of health problems more.
I got 18 fish in the net, some fillets to share and lots of time to plot revenge.
Hope you can get out on the water.
Rick