Another Pond
It had rained again, and that seems to be the only thing that it can do. Several of the ponds that I would like to get to are not accessible by road. All of those low places seem to have standing water in them.
So I headed out to another pond that I had been told that I could fish. I am almost ashamed to admit that with all of the searching that I have done for ponds in this area that I did not know that the pond was there. The advantage of this pond is that it is only about 50 yards off the road.
With all of the other ponds required a longer hike I decide to try this one. It is also close enough that I decide to haul the canoe into it. The land rises about15 feet over the 50 yards it takes to get there, and that means that I will have gravity helping me as I head downhill to the truck.
This pond is almost a square with each side being about 50 yards long. There were no bays or other distinguishing features.. There were a few small gullies that come down to the pond, and the water had about 6 inches of visibility.
I have two rods with me since I was not sure that I could get my canoe into the pond. One has the Goldie Jr on it and the other had a PTN variation that I have been using. I start making casts and trying to figure out where the fish may be. I work the west shore with no success so I decide to change flies and put on a black boa yarn leech. I cast this near the weeds that line the shore and start to slowly retrieve it. The fly had not moved very far when it was attacked. It was a nice gill that made the rod tip dance.
I cast in this area several more times without success so I moved a short distance and tried again. The fly just hit the water and the gill came up and took it. This fish made the rod tip dance and came out of the water twice. I am not accustomed to gills jumping out of the water.
I am beginning to see a pattern here. Maybe the fish are scattered along the weed line. Time to try this and see if by making progressively longer casts I can catch some more fish. I still make some casts out over the deeper water, but that does not do very much for me, except for casting practice.
I get near one of the little gullies that come into the pond. These are depressions that feed water into the pond and are grass covered so the water is no dirtier here that in the rest of the pond. This seems to be a good place to find fish. I get 5 nice gills in this area, and all of them put up a good fight, and cut several dados before they can be landed.
A little farther along I tie into a fish with shoulders. I fight this fish for a long time and then lose it. The fly is still there so I continue to fish. I get some hits, but do not get any hook ups. I have worked my way around the pond and my thirst meter tells me that it is time to head home.
As I am putting things up, I found the huge mental error that I made. I was going to put the hook in the boa yarn leech in the hook keeper on the rod, when I discover there is not a point on the hook. That could possibly be why I was not hooking any more fish.
What a dumb thing to do. I saw the fly on the line, but I did not check to see if the hook was still in good shape. I wanted to get the fly back in the water as that is where you catch fish. Not smart. You need to constantly check the hook to make sure it is in good shape.
The only thing that I saved on this fly was the small bead head that I had on the hook. How many of you will salvage something like that off of a fly? I guess that I am a little chicken, cheap, cheap.
All in all it was a fun day, and one of the few that I have fished in the canoe.
Hope you can get out on the water.
Rick
[ HOME ]
[ Search ] [ Contact FAOL ] [ Media Kit ]