WHERE ARE THE BLUEGILLS (part 2)
| Sysadmin Note |
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| Part One can be found here |
I headed off for another pond that I needed to walk into. I usually can drive, but the culvert for the drainage is being replaced and it was not a good idea to try to drive through the canyon in the road. So, with two 5 weight rods and more fly boxes than I probably need headed in for the pond. The way in is about half a mile, but it is easier to walk this way than to try to climb in and out of the area where the new culvert will go. I got to the pond and saw that it was a little off color. I hiked around toward the northwest corner of the pond so I could fish back toward where I would go out when I was done fishing. Hopefully the basket will get heavier as I get closer to the truck. This pond is about 1.5 football fields in all dimensions, and lies north-south in orientation. The north end is the shallow area.
I had a white rubber legged dragon (RLD) and a black Only on the two rods. I cast the Only first, for no other reason than I put the other rod down first. Several casts produced no fish. I tried the RLD next and the fly was about three feet out from the weeds and a fish took it. The fish had no interest in coming any closer to show. I thought I had a nice gill on the line but it turned out to be a nice crappie. I decided to make another cast, but to try to keep it closer to shore to see if the fish were located there. The fly had not moved far when another fish took it. Again the thought was a gill, but it was a carbon copy crappie.
I tried the black Only again in this same area and got nothing so I went back to the white RLD and got four more nice crappie. Then it stopped. I moved about 20 feet and tried again. Made a short cast first, almost dappling and got a nice crappie. I made each of the next casts a few feet longer and got several more crappie. All of them made the rod tip dance.
Then I tried a few casts out into the pond and I did get a few fish, but nothing like being near the shoreline. I decided to move and I moved about 30 feet down the shoreline. This placed me about 20 feet from a tree than hangs out over the pond. It is a huge weeping willow, so there are many branches down in the water. Almost always there are a few fish in this area. This is one of the times that I thank Castwell for writing about being able to cast with your off hand. It is not pretty, but it does get the fly out. I caught some more nice crappie doing this and I also caught a very nice bass in this area. My guess is that this fish was north of five pounds. Two of my guides are 24 inches apart and this fish was just shy of that. The fish is still in the pond.
I fished across the dam, but did not get much. I changed the black Only to a yellow one and did get a few fish, but the white RLD did better, so I changed the yellow fly to a white boa yarn leech.
It did not seem to matter which white fly hit the water. Both caught fish down the shoreline. All were about three feet or closer to the weed edge.
I was almost to the spot where I came to the pond and I tried to decide if I wanted to fish farther on or head home. I lifted the fish basket, really for the first time, and decided to head home. I had been pulling the basket along in the water. I did not know how many fish were in the basket but it was darn near full.
I hiked out to where the truck was parked. I had just got everything put in the truck and the rods back in their tubes when a truck stopped and one of my farmer friends asked how I had done. I showed him and he was impressed. I asked him if he had a bucket and he could have some fish. He had one so we were putting fish in it when another guy showed up. He stopped out of curiosity and I ended up putting more fish in the bucket so he could have some. This just might open up a few ponds that I have not fished for a long time.
When I got home it took me quite a while to clean all the fish I had left. I had two large bowls of fillets. With what I gave away it was a three figure day, but only three gills in the whole thing. Not sure why.
Hope you can get out on the water.
Rick