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Went out Labor Day morning for some bonus fishing
time. Had a slight wind blowing and the temperatures
were in the low 60's. Very nice to be out. I was at
a pond that I have fished before.
Got out into the middle of the pond and dropped the
anchor. Cast out with a Marabou Miss and started to
slowly retrieve in about a foot under the surface.
I had moved the fly about five feet when I had a hit.
I set the hook and had a nice crappie come to the
surface. The fly was in the side of his mouth so I
tried to be gentle. No such luck the hook came out.
I thought what the heck, I mean I got a strike on the
first cast so it should be a good day if the fish are
that active. I cast out again about 10 feet to the
side of where I had cast before. Moved the fly about
eight feet and had another crappie on that duplicate
the previous one. I thought I might be setting the
hook too hard.
I cast again on the other side of the canoe. Had a
fish hit just after the fly hit the water. Another
crappie came up to the surface. He flopped around
and came off. I had been careful not to set the hook
too hard. Time to change tactics though. Losing three
straight fish hurts my pride.
Slid off the canoe seat and got on my knees, not
praying. I cast again and started retrieving the fly.
This time when the fish hit I put the tip of my fly
rod down by the surface of the water. The fish stayed
on a little while longer but still got off.
Time to change to another fly and see if they will
hit it and be hooked better. Went to a Perch-a-bou.
I had the same thing happen with this fly on the next
five casts. Five crappie hooked and five crappie
flipping off. Time to go the other way and went to
a bigger fly. Use a Flasher with the spinner blade
on a loop of monofilament of the bend. I had eight
strikes in ten casts and eight fish get off.
This was getting disgusting!
I went to a Streamer Nymph I had tied on a size 14
hook. I thought they might take this one deeper in
their mouth and I could land a fish. I hooked fifteen
fish on twenty casts and landed one, this one I had
hooked in the roof of the mouth. The rest were on
the side of the mouth and the hook came out.
I kept trying flies, and different retrieves at
different depths. All resulted in hook ups but most
also resulted in the fish flipping off. I kept on
casting trying to figure out what would work.
As I am doing this, I remember reading about the
size of the brain of a fish. I also remember how
big my brain was supposed to be. I wondered if
maybe it just wasn't backwards.
I had been keeping track of my nonsuccess. I hooked
fish on every fly that I tried. Went through all 18
crappie patterns I have. Even hooked them on a few
streamer patterns I tied. The fish were hitting but
getting off.
I looked at my watch and realized in was a little
after 9:00 am. I had told my wife that we would do
a couple of other things that day. I decided that
I needed to head home.
When I pulled my fish basket in, I had six fish in it.
I had hooked 151 of them. That means I had a
hook-to-land ratio of 4%. This also means that
I have to get back into the pond as my ego is a little
battered.
If you have a suggestion of how to catch these fish,
maybe even dynamite, let me know.
Can you tell it was a little frustrating? Just goes
to show that I don't always get a huge number of fish.
Hope you can get out on the water. ~ Rick
ziegeria@grm.net
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