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I was at SowBug last weekend so there was no fishing for me.
I read Joe's article last Monday and thought about the
fact that he is about one to two weeks ahead of me on
temperatures. This means that his fishing is usually
a few weeks ahead of me also. Since he had experienced
such good luck with a Pheasant Tail Nymph, I decided
I should have one on also.
I headed out over my lunch hour on Tuesday. There was
nobody else at the lake. I went to the north end of
the pond and started casting over the shallow flat
that is there. With the wind out of the south it made
sense to fish there as all the warm water was being
pushed into that area. Besides that, this is the area
where I always catch the first fish in the pond. It
warms up first and is the only flat that I can get to
over my lunch hour.
I was just off the pavement when I made the first casts.
I want to cover the water that is near the shore before
I go tromping up to the edge. I could see that there was
about a foot of algae along this shoreline. I wondered
if a fish or two might be cruising along that looking
for any food.
I cast about 10 feet past the edge of the algae, let the
fly drop for about five seconds and then started a very
slow retrieve. A half inch slow strip, followed by a few
second pause. I want the fly to be in front of them, where
they don't have to chase it.
The leader was just at the edge of the algae when the line
felt heavy. I sat the hook and had a bluegill on the line.
This was the first fish I had caught since the ice went off.
I returned this fish and made another cast, about 10 feet
north of the previous one. Again the slow retrieve, keep
the fly in their face. This time I got a foot long bass.
When I sat the hook, I could see a couple other fish spook
away from the one that was hooked. No casts into that area
for a while.
I made a few more casts with nothing happening. I moved down
the shoreline to cast from another position. This is still
part of the flat, but is about two feet deeper here. I picked
up four more bluegills along this area. Then I ran out of
time and had to get back to my hobby of "patient care."
Thursday was a practice day of casting into the wind. It
was about 30 mph from the southeast. My casting is
definitely rusty as I did not do too well in doing this.
But I did improve over the time I was out on the lake. I
saw the rain shower coming and got to the pickup before I
would have been caught in the deluge. No fish, but good
casting practice.
Friday was another thing totally. There was a slight breeze.
There were heavy rain showers last night. The night crawlers
were all over the place. This means that some food organisms
have been washed into the pond to stimulate the fish. This
was a time to be sure to be using imitative flies, PTN and
Hares Ears for example.
I went back to the same place I had started Tuesday. The first
thing I see there is a carp along the edge of the algae, with
a turtle about four feet away. I could not interest the carp
in the PTN. This fish spooked when someone tromped over to
see what I was casting to. I think about 5 on the Richter
scale. No apology for doing it, but wanting to know what
kind of fish it was.
Being a little ticked, I told them they would have to find
out on their own. I moved down the bank and started casting
again. When the fly was about 15 feet off the shore, a fish
would hit it.
This was a mixture of crappie, bluegills and bass. None of
the hits were very hard, but the feeling that the line was
heavy. I ended up with a bakers dozen fish from this spot.
I had again run out time to do the important things in life.
Time to get back to the grind and see what was happening.
This does bode well for my Saturday fishing expedition.
Hope you can get out on the water. ~ Rick
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