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I decided to head out early Saturday morning
to a pond. I was trying to beat the wind that
always seems to come up about 8:00 in the morning
lately. The wind always seems to be blowing at
least 25 mph. Not the best of conditions for
my casting ability.
I was heading off to the Ringold County Game Preserve.
There are two ponds you can drive right up to on gravel.
I thought this would make it easier than trying to get
into a few other ponds where folks are working the
fields around them.
I was headed toward the pond when I saw the first
deer. Caught the shine of the eyes in the headlights.
I stopped to let the deer go. This did put me
on edge a little to watch for them. I also slowed
down some so I would be able to stop quicker. I
saw two more groups on the six miles to the first
intersection.
I know that as I head west again on the county road
there are several belts of trees on the land in that
area. I always see deer along this area early in
the morning. I was doing about 40 mph when I had
a car fly by me. He went about 30 yards in front
of me and hit a deer. The deer ended up hitting his
windshield. Fortunately the car stayed on the road.
It was also fortunate that the car had air bags
that had deployed so the folks seemed not to be
injured. I did tell them to stay in the car and
headed off to a house near there to call the
emergency personnel. I now the people who live
there and the lady is a nurse. She came back to
the car with me to look at the people.
All in all by the time everyone got there and
the police got all the statements and reports
they wanted it was a long time to get to the pond. I
don't regret helping the folks at all.
It was about 7:30 before I got the canoe loaded
and out onto the pond. By this time the wind was
blowing about 15 mph. I decided to cast with the
wind and work the tree tops sticking up out of
the pond. The fish where there but they were
hitting very lightly. I missed several and had several
get off as they flipped around on the surface.
When this happens to me, I do try to go to a
smaller fly, hoping that they will take it in
a little deeper. This seemed to work for me a
little better and I was hooking more fish. It
seemed to be more efficient to cast about
three feet out from the limbs that were sticking
up out of the water. If I cast right to the
limb the fish would not hit until I was a
little father out.
I was using a Streamer Nymph (in Ricks favorite
crappie flies in the archives). This worked for
about the first hour and then the wind got
stronger. This fly did not work any more so
I changed. I change to a Perch-a-bou (in the
archives also) because it has bead chain
eyes. I thought that it might drop down
in the water column a little farther and stay there.
This worked well and I also started to pick
up some gills. The fish continued to hit
the fly very lightly and with the stronger
wind it was getting harder to detect the
strikes. I got to the point where I started to
false strike at times, just to see if there
was a fish there. I will also admit to doing
some blind casting around the pond. This picked
up a fair number of fish for me.
Finally the wind got to me. It got up to
about 40 mph and I just don't like to be
out in the canoe with the wind that high.
I worked my way around the edge of the pond
to get back where the pickup was.
As I headed home, they were just starting
to tow the car that had hit the deer. Still
I had several fish and we had some good eating
from the fillets.
Hope you can get out on the water. I also
hope the wind slows down. ~ Rick ziegeria@grm.net
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