WRONG ROD
I had a chance to go out fishing. I had some other places to be and things to do so I only had a short time to fish. So I grabbed one rod, some flies and the fish basket, and headed to a pond that is easy to get into. We had way to much rain to try to drive in. I had heard of a few tractors getting stuck in fields.
When I got into the pond and I caught a nice crappie on the first cast. What a way to start. I picked up another nice crappie on the third cast. This was looking like a great day. I knew I would have to count fish to make sure they could be taken care of before other things got in the way.
Then the fun started. I felt a light strike and missed the fish. I immediately made a cast in the same area and it happened again. I called myself a few names, and changed to a smaller fly. The first fly was a yellow boa yarn fly and the next was a hare's ear type fly. I picked this one as it was a size 14 and not a size 10 like the boa yarn fly.
I cast that out and got a nice gill. Then nothing happened on the next several casts. I moved about 30 feet and tried again. I picked up a few more gills in that area, but I had several more fish hit the fly without making contact. Smaller was not working any better so I went to a larger fly. I put on a furl tailed mohair leech. This fly was longer than either of the other two. I tried this and got nothing so I moved 30 feet and picked up a few more fish. Again I was missing a lot of fish that hit the fly.
I moved to the place on the pond that was sheltered from the wind. I could see down in the water much better, and on my third cast, as the fly was a few feet offshore, I could see a crappie come up and butt the fly with its mouth closed. Being curious, I left the fly in the water, and I didn't move it at all, just let it set. I had a gill come up and take the fly, but takes about four bites to get the hook inside its mouth. It was very difficult to not set the hook until then, but I could see what was happening.
Being curious I dappled the fly out again. Nothing took the fly. I made a cast and let the fly drop a few times as it was being retrieved. About 10 to 12 feet offshore the fly would be hit, but I did not get many of these fish. This is the point where I verbally and mentally kicked myself for not having the Tenkara rod with me.
My guess is that if the fly could be held motionless in the water the fish would take it. I did try a float on the line but that did not work. To keep the fly shallow enough the float spooked the fish. Get the fly to deep and the fish ignored it.
I did keep on moving around the pond getting a few fish at each place.
I got enough to have a meal and share some fillets. The fishing was more fun than the other things that had to be done.
It will be a few days before I could get back to the pond with the Tenkara rod. The weather forecast was for five days unsettled weather with the possibility of severe storms. I would have to wait until that passed to go out again.
The Tenarka rod is not hard to carry, just have to make it a habit.
Rick