|
I have been out over my lunch hour for the past week,
as per my usual routine. The little settling pond that
I normally fish has had someone else where I normally
fish. That being the case I went over to the main lake
and decided to fish along the weed edge.
Thought I might catch a few gills there as the water is
three to four feet deep and it is the end of the bay
formed by the road and the fishing jetty. The weed growth
has several openings and places where the weeds come out
farther than the rest. I thought bringing a fly by them
very slowly might just interest any fish that were there.
Also, by casting an unweighted fly into the pockets in
the weeds I just might find a fish or two.
I decided to tie on a Royal Coachman Variation to fish.
I use yellow or copper seed beads to form the body and
use some luminescent yarn for the wing. I have caught
panfish and bass on this fly so thought it was a good
overall fly to try. The other thing is that it can be
seen a country mile with the yellow beads.
As I was walking down the bank when a couple of guys towing
a boat came by and said that I would not catch anything.
You had to be out in the lake and fish 25 to 30 feet deep
to catch any fish. Just behind them was a gentleman that
I have seen fishing at the lake before. He had parked and
was out of his car. He came down with a bucket and asked
if he could have any fish that I caught.
I told him that if I caught any he could have them, but
not to bet the farm. The guy with the boat told me it
was a waste of time and headed over to launch their boat.
I got set up and flipped the fly out near a little clump
of weeds. The fly had dropped about a foot when I saw it
disappear.
I set the hook and brought in a crappie that was about
8 inches long.
The "old geezer" as he calls himself, told me that he
wanted another five or six to have a good mess. I was
not sure that anything like that would happen. I cast
near the same area and had another crappie hit the fly.
The third cast did not produce any fish. I cast around
to some of the other weeds that were sticking out from
the main body of weeds. I caught a few more fish doing
this. I then started to cast along the main edge of the
weeds. The first casts were short so that I could cover
the area more efficiently. I caught a few more fish
along this edge.
I had 11 crappie for him on Tuesday. I was back on Thursday,
fishing in the same place and got seven crappie and two
bluegills in the same area. I was back out on Friday to
the same area. This time I brought the 3 wt I had built
to use. It is 9 ft long and helps to keep the line off
the water and take flies through weeds better. I thought
there might be a few more fish there but they would be
deeper in the weeds.
I caught four crappie there before the action stopped.
I knew that about 100 yards away near the other fishing
jetty there was another patch of weeds in the same depth
of water. We headed down there as the "old geezer" was
with me again.
I caught seven crappie, three bluegills, and two small
bass at this weed bed. The next fish was a bass that
was 17 inches long and he made quite a fuss before I
could get him landed. That stopped the fishing at this
spot.
I was talking with the "old geezer" about catching fish
this shallow is this large of a lake. It did not seem to
make sense but there had to be a reason. I was looking
at the lake when I saw a school of minnows about 1.5 to 2
inches long swim up to the surface of the weed patch.
The light came on. These fish were in feeding on these
minnows. I had the "old geezer" check the stomach of the
fish as he cleaned them. He called me and told me they
all had minnows in them.
It might have been sunny and the middle of the day, but
the fish were where the food was. I am going to be fishing
around the weed beds more in the next few weeks as I go
back out to the lake over my lunch hour. I am also going
to watch weed beds more to see if there are any minnows
in them.
I checked with the guys who came by towing the boat and
they had caught a few small bass. I told them how many
I had caught and he called me a few "names".
The "Old geezer" had enough fish for several folks to
have a meal of fillets. He told each of them who had
caught the fish. Said I needed to look like a good guy
once in a while. ~ Rick
ziegeria@grm.net
|
