CATCHING DAY
It had not rained for two days but it was still too wet to drive into many places. A few folks were trying to harvest, but were getting stuck as the ground was too soft.
I decided it was a good day to do some fishing so I grabbed a 1 weight and a 5 weight bamboo rod and headed off to a pond. I decided to hike in to one of my favorite ponds. hiking in as I want to fish one of my favorite ponds. The temperatures have been going down and the water is getting cooler so I was hoping the water temperature had gotten back to the best temperature for fish to feed.
As I hiked in there were puddles of water everywhere so I was glad there was grass to walk on. I got to the pond and headed for the east shore. There are many trees along that side and they were casting a shadow over the water. I was hoping a few crappie might be up along the shoreline, or close to it.
I had rubber boot on so I could wade about four feet off the bank. That gave me the chance to roll cast the flies out since there was absolutely no room to make regular casts. I cast so I had the fly about 25 feet out and started a retrieve. I had not moved the fly far when a very nice bluegill smashed the fly. The rod tip danced and the line cut dido's as it came in. I made another cast and got the lie caught in some pond weeds in front of me. I got it out of the weeds and started a retrieve when, just off the weeds a crappie took the fly. It was a nice fish and did not come to hand easily. It was fun; I had been fishing for less than 5 minutes and two fish in hand.
I made a few more casts and picked up another bluegill. I moved up the pond about 15 feet and tried again. I made the first roll cast so it would come in more along the weed line because I wondered if any more crappie were there. The fly was a few feet from the weed edge when another nice crappie struck. The next five casts produced two more crappie and one bluegill.
I moved up the pond another 20 feet and tried again. I got a few more fish there that seem to be near the weed edge, but I did wonder how many might be spooked by the roll casting. It was the only way to do it there, but I still wondered.
As I moved up the pond I caught a few fish at each place. The wind had picked up a little bit, so I decided to head for the dam and cast with the wind behind me. Also some of the wind would be blocked by the dam which was at my back.
Suddenly I was really catching fish. Fish were stacked just off the break line which was just off the dam. It was about a fish a cast, with the misses still being bites. I was using the 1 weight and it was a blast. The fish were hitting the fly hard and I was losing about 1 out of 6 strikes after a few seconds. Since many of the fish were crappie I guessed that the fish were crappie that I hooked in that thin membrane on the side of the mouth.
After doing this for a while I looked at the fish basket and there were a lot of fish in the basket and it was a long hike out. Just getting ready to leave when an big ATV came in. The people were going to fish and asked how I had done. I told them I did well and they asked if I would catch a few for them and I could get a ride out. I helped them get fish in their basket and when they said they had enough I headed back for my other rod and basket. As I picked it up they left. As I left the pond an insect hatch started. There were rings all over the pond.
I hiked out and got to the truck and as I was headed home I saw the ATV on the road up ahead of me. I turned onto another road that would keep me from going by the ATV since I really did not want to communicate with them. I had fun catching the fish, but admittedly I was irritated about not getting the ride that they promised.
Here is a picture of a couple of the crappie I caught. It was a triple figure day.
Hope you can get out on the water.
Rick