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I had a ton of things to do so it was
Sunday afternoon before I got a chance
to get out to a pond. The rain we had
at the end of last week made it
impossible to get into a lot of the ponds
that I normally go to. Decided to
go to a pond that has gravel right up to
the edge.
The temperature had finally got above 50
degrees. The wind was blowing between 25
and 30 mph. But the conditions were better
than they had been Saturday. Got everything
into the canoe and got out on the pond and
anchored, facing into the wind. Picked a
spot where I knew there was water that sloped
to about three feet deep and then dropped off
to about 6 feet deep on a fairly sharp break.
Thought that fish might be somewhere along
this breakline.
Tried the new 3 wt rod I built but the wind
was to much for my poor casting skills.
Changed to a 6 wt that I had with me and could
get about 30 feet of line out. I would let the
fly drop and then let the wind push it back to
me. I had to try to keep the line taunt while
watching the end of the line for bites. This
did not work very well for a while.
I finally pointed the rod almost straight out
in front of me and near the surface of the
water. That way I could see the line at the
rod tip and then where it joined the leader.
It was then the problem of detecting strikes.
The end of the line was moving all the time
with the wave action.
The water was a little discolored and fairly
cool. I had messed around with a fly that I
wanted to try to see how it worked in dingy
water. I figured this was a good day. I tied
it on a size 10 streamer hook. Tail of peacock
swords. Rear hackle was a grizzly color. The
body was peacock herl with red floss twisted
into a rope. I put a wing of silver krystal
flash on and then used a orangish hackle I
picked up at SowBug to finish the fly at the
front. I also had a small beadhead on it to
get it down in the water column a little faster.
I figured that this might push more water and
be a little more interesting to fish.
I would cast this up near the shore and then
watch as the wind pushed the line back toward
me. I had several strikes that I missed. I did
manage to hook a few fish. These fish were
barely hooked behind the lips. They just
were not being aggressive. I did try some
other flies but nothing seemed to interest
them much unless it was very bushy.
I did see one fish come up and hit the fly.
My guess is that the fish weredeeper than
the fly and with the bushiness of this fly
they could see it up above them. They were
not doing it hard or very fast. It was several
casts between each fish that I caught.
I ended up coming home with 17 gills and one
crappie. I know that I had many more fish hit
that I did not see. Still, it was fun to be
out and to have some success.
Hope you can get out on the water. ~ Rick ziegeria@grm.net
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