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This weekend was not nearly as nice as
last weekend. The temperatures were
lower and I had many more things that
needed to be done. I did not think
that I would be able to get out this weekend.
We got home about 1:45 pm on Sunday. My
wife said that I had the look of needing
to go to a pond. She said that was fine as
her sister wanted her to go some place with
her. Worked out well for both of us. I can
still get everything loaded in less than 10 minutes.
I got to a pond that I have not been to for
a while. We have been dry enough, long enough,
that I can get in now. Got everything unloaded
and set up to get out on the pond. The water
is up about four feet in this pond from the
last time I was in it. They raised the drainage
pipe so that the pond would hold more water. It
is now probably where it should have been in
the first place.
I started working my way around the pond from
the dam end. I was staying about 35 feet out
from the shore and casting to the shore and slowly
retrieving. I had the white fly from last week
on one rod and put a black marabou leech on the
other rod. I had a few light taps but that was it for
any action.
On one of the casts I had the fly near the canoe
when I saw the gill come up and mouth the fly. He
caught the tail some and pulled on that, but not
anywhere near where I could hook him. I decided
to watch and see if anything else would happen.
As the fly dropped the fish followed it for a
few inches and then inhaled the fly. This was
a solid hookup that took forceps to get the fly out.
On the next cast I had another thump and just
let the fly drop. I waited a few seconds and
then saw the line move. I was into another
bluegill. It seems that they would hit the fly
but wanted it to drop before they tried to
really take it in.
I moved on around the pond and picked up a
few fish here and a few fish there. I did
hook several crappie, but they were rolling
on the fly and I lost most of them before
they got to the canoe.
It was strange but this week the fly had to
be black for the fish to hit it. I had very
few hits on the white fly. The water temperature
was the same as the previous weekend. The fish
were not as aggressive, even with the same
water temperature.
The wind started to come up, but I was still
catching fish. I got around on the pond to
the point where I was headed back toward the
dam. It sure is nice with the anchoring system
Joe Hyde came up with to drop the front anchor
and be able to pull it up without my hands
getting wet.
I know I was fishing along a drop off that
is fairly sharp and about 5 feet in depth.
When I could keep the fly near this edge,
I would catch a fish. This was with very
slow retrieves. But it is the middle of March
and I am catching fish. If it needs to be slow
that I can do. The wind started picking up
and the temperatures were dropping. I was not
wearing that heavy of a jacket and it started
to get cold. I decided to head home as I would
also have to fillet some fish.
The temperature was dropping about a degree
every 15 minutes. The wind continued to pick
up speed. It got to be fairly cool to clean
the fish. I did take time to study the stomach
contents and there was nothing there that
I could identify. I caught 23 male gills, 1
male crappie and 1 female crappie. I had lost
many more crappie. I had also turned back
between 18 and 24 bass that were about a
foot long.
It was fun to get out and catch a few fish.
They will make some good eating.
Hope you can get out on the water. ~ Rick ziegeria@grm.net
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