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I received a call on a Thursday evening that there
was someone that wanted to take me fishing. His
stipulation was that I use one fly rod and fish
the pond that he would choose. His idea was to
ow that you could not catch fish with a fly rod.
I decided that it would be fun to go out on this
challenge and see what would happen.
We got started later than I usually do. I met him
at 7:00 am, at the cross road that we agreed on. I
followed him about two miles and then we turned into
a field and went back to the pond. This was the first
time that I had ever seen this pond. It was a
parallelogram shape with the dam being about 80 feet
long and the other end about 30 feet wide with the
length being about 150 feet. Both of the hills this
pond was between sloped gently down to meet the edge
of the water.
We unloaded his 16-foot John boat and we put our stuff
into it. He told me that the water was about 14 feet
deep at the deepest point but most of the pond was
from six to 8 feet deep. He said that the pond had
bass, bluegills and crappie in it. He said he would
fish from the back of the boat and decide where the
boat would go.
We pushed off and he started down the bank along the
dam. We were about 15 feet out from the shoreline and
he was moving very slowly. I cast a few times to the
bank but was getting little bass to hit the fly.
After about a dozen of these, I turned and cast
toward the middle of the pond.
The fly had dropped maybe a foot when the line went
sideways and I was into a large crappie. This fish
came to the surface and started to thrash about. I
dropped the rod tip into the water and tried to get
the fish to go down into the water again. It worked
fairly well and I lipped a 14-inch crappie.
He told me that this fish was pure luck and to catch
fish you had to fish toward the shore. I cast out
again and when the fly hit the water a bluegill
smacked it. He had the hook set before I could
react. He cut some nice didos as he came in,
staying perpendicular to me the whole way.
At this point, my host decided that we needed to go
to the far end of the pond to fish as there were no
big bass at the dam end. He pushed the boat to that
point fairly fast. When we slowed down, I cast out
and let the fly drop about a foot. I then started a
very slow strip and pause retrieve. The fly had moved
about 5 feet when I felt the strike. I had another
large gill on the line and she did not want to come
in. She was 12.5 inches long and full of eggs. I
released her to spawn and fight again another day.
As we moved around the far end of the pond, I caught
several more gills and a few smaller crappie. My host
was still looking for his large bass. He decided that
we needed to go to where the water was a little deeper.
He thought the bass might be there.
When we got to the point where the water was about
eight to 10 feet deep the real fun started. I caught
crappie on 16 straight casts. Each was about 14-inches
long and very fat. My host was still looking to get
his large bass.
At this point I decided to get a little ornery. I tied
on a hellgrammite pattern that I have and tossed it up
into about 6 feet of water. I then started to slowly
pull it back to me with frequent long pauses. I had
moved it about 10 feet when I felt the first tap. I
dropped the rod tip and waited.
After about eight to 10 seconds the line started to
move sideways. I tightened it till I felt weight and
then sat the hook. When this bass came out of the water,
my host almost fell out of the boat. He said it was the
largest bass he had seen in this pond. I had to work
to keep her out of some brush that was nearby but
finally got her to the boat and lipped her. On his
scale she went 6 lb. 15 oz. He states that his scale
is very accurate. I admired her for a few more seconds
and then released her to swim some more.
At this point my host asked me if I would give him
some lessons on how to cast a fly rod. He also wanted
to know if he could use salt on the crow he was going
to have to eat about not catching fish with a fly rod.
I told him that I would show him more about how not
to cast but that I did have a couple of videos he might
want to watch also.
As we moved slowly down the shore, I cast the
hellgrammite again. I had not moved it far when I
felt the tap-tap again. I handed the rod to my host
and told him to wait a few seconds. I then told him
to strip in some line, having just shown him how to
hold the rod to do that. When the line tightened he
set the hook. He had a bass that decided to spend
more time in the air than in the water,. He finally
got it in and weighted it in at just over four pounds.
He was hooked. He is going to search around and get
himself a fly rod. He then wants some lessons and
to go back to this pond to see if he can cast and
catch a fish on his own rod. All in all it was a
good day and I think I have made a convert.
I also think that I may have another dozen or so
ponds to fish in. Good day in a couple of ways.
It was fun to out with him on this pond. In spite
of any possible differences in fishing styles we
had a good time.
Hope you can get out on the water. ~ Rick.
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