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I headed out on a Saturday morning later than
I usually get out. Had to help some folks get
things done so it was about 11:00 am before I
hit the pond. There was a slight breeze. The
air temperature was about 55 degrees.
I tied on a fly and started casting. I finally
found a fly pattern that the fish would hit. Back
to one of my favorites, the Miss Marabou. The trouble
was that I was not getting any of the fish to the canoe.
I would feel the hit and fight them for a little bit
and then they were gone.
I started in by shortening my cast to about twenty
feet. I thought I might be able to see what was
happening. The fish would hit but I still could
not see what was happening. I then decided to
shorten the cast again. I cast about ten feet and
let the fly drop. I had retrieved it a few feet when
I saw the flash of a fish and had a solid strike. I
got this fish to the surface before I lost him. I
was able to see that the hook was in the side of
the mouth and that it was pulling out.
This is not the first time that this has happened
to me. I was prepared, half way. I have tied a few
patterns with the vice turned 90 degrees. I tied
them for just this situation. I cast one out and
had another fish hit it. I managed to land this one
as I had the fish hooked in the top of the mouth.
I caught several more on the next several casts. I
then decided to see if another fly would work. I had
tied flies with the hook turned in the vice 90 degrees
away from me and then turned the same amount toward me.
I had wondered if they would work any differently.
The only difference I was able to see was that some
of the fish were hooked in the top of the mouth and
some of them in the bottom. This had no correlation
to which way the hook was turned on the fly.
Time to experiment a little more. I made short casts
and kept the fly higher in the water column.
I was hoping the fish would still hit and I could see
what was happening. I was able to hook several more
and land them. I found out that if the fish rolled
away from me while hitting the fly it would be in
the bottom of the mouth, but in the top if the fish
rolled toward me. This was for a fly that was tied
with the point toward me in the vice. The opposite
was true for the flies with the point tied away from
me.
I did try a fly tied normally again, but I was
losing fish not long after the strike. I decided
that the fish were coming up from deeper down to
hit the fly and that the normal flies would not
work. This means that I am going to have to tie
some more flies that are rotated 90 degrees.
Most of the fish I caught were crappies. I did get
a few bluegills and several bass. The water is
cooling off so the fillets were firmer to eat.
Hope you can get out on the water. ~ Rick
ziegeria@grm.net
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