RICK ZIEGER’S FISHING LOG
FISHING IN THE COFFEE CUP
It is an old refrain, but it has rained again. The onions in the garden have rotted. Too much water for them to make it. Folks that had potatoes in the ground have found them to have rotted also. The canoe will stay home, but I am headed for a pond. I take two fast action graphite rods with me. I am headed to a place where many of the cast will have to be roll casts. There is room for that in the trees, but not any other type of cast. I prefer to fish this pond from the canoe, but that is not possible today.
I want to fish this pond, because it has so many fish in it. I am hoping that some of them will be shallow in the water column and will take the flies. I have a white rubber legged dragon and a black fly on the two rods. Both are un-weighted. I want to be able to retrieve them slowly.
I get into the pond and start fishing the southwest corner. It is warm out and the first cast hits at 6:15 am. Try the black fly first as the water is dirty. No results on that. Try the white fly and get a bluegill on the first cast.
A fish hits just after the fly hits the water. A few casts later another bluegill hits on the retrieve. Move and try this again. No fish on the black fly but a few more bluegill on the white one. Both of these come as the fly is being retrieved. No more fish come on several more casts.
Move again. Get three more bluegills on the white fly in this area. One just after the fly lands on the water. The other two as the fly is retrieved. Change the black fly to a Yellow Only tied with a glass bead head. Cast this out and let it set for a few seconds. When I start to retrieve there is weight on the line. Set the hook and have a nice crappie on the line. Get this fish in and start to put it in the basket. In doing this the fly drops in a little hole in the vegetation growing around the edge of the pond. Another nice crappie takes it and is put in the basket.
Continue to move around the pond. Pick up a few fish in each place. Getting more bluegills than crappie. Get a nice bass every once in a while also. The largest was just over 20 inches long. Get to the east side of the pond. There are a lot of trees here. Every few years there will be a beaver that comes into this pond. They have taken down some of the saplings that are near the water. This allows me to make some roll casts here. Get the flies out and continue to get fish to take them. The flies had to stay in the top two feet of water or no fish took them.
Worked my way up the east side of the pond. As long as the fly stayed in the shadow cast by the trees the fish continued to hit. Lost several crappie as they got hear the shore. Good reason their nickname is paper mouth.
Got to the northeast end of the pond. No more trees and the fishing really slowed down. Tried letting the flies drop longer, but that did not work.
Getting really warm now. Decide that I need to go home and take care of the fish. It will be really warm by the time I am done.
Had more fish than I thought when I got home. But had fish to eat and to share. Also got a lot of practicing on roll casts.
Hope you can get out on the water. Rick