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I was ready on Saturday morning to go out to a pond
and start the long Memorial Day weekend. What better way
than to start the weekend that to put some tempting flies
in the water for the fish to bite? Works for me. The weather
did not cooperate at all. It rained through the night. In fact
when I got up in the morning,it was raining.
That ended the chances of getting to a pond on Saturday. We did
a bunch of things around the house that needed to be done. The
rain kept on falling all day long. It was not the rain so much
as the lightening and thunder that was going on. I will get wet,
but I am not excited about getting electrocuted.
Sunday was a bright and shining day. After Church, my wife told
me that I needed to get the bug out of my system and go to a pond.
She also said that it was nice that she gave me permission to do
what was going to happen in any case.
All that I needed to do was put on my fishing clothes and head out.
The canoe was still loaded and all the other things were in the
pickup. In less than five minutes I was on the road. I decided
that I could make it into the second pond that I looked at. The
first had this real nice mud puddle that I would have to go through.
As long as the water had been setting on this I think there is at
least three feet of mud under the water. I did not want to get
stuck, I wanted to fish.
I headed into one of my favorite ponds. Anglerdave and Joe Hyde
have been to this pond. I had hope that the water might be a little
clearer than it had been in some other ponds. In any case I had
four fly rods with me to try different flies.
I put the canoe in the water and started casting. There was no
breeze so the anchors did not have to go into the water to hold
me in place. That is a rare but welcome circumstance in this part
of the world.
I started using the black leech type fly with legs on it that
had worked before. I like this fly in dirty water and the legs
give so much motion and with the motion comes sound to help fish
find the fly. I had an idea that the best thing to do was to cast
up into the lanes and holes in the weeds along the shore where
fish had been the week before in another pond.
When I got the fly into these places a fish would hit it. I
did not land very many of these as they got into the weeds many
times and came off. But I got a few of them into the canoe.
There were some nice bluegills and a few bass. As I went
around I decided to try another fly and see if I might hook
the fish more securely. I went with a black marabou leech
which is much like the fly I had been using but with no legs.
I wondered if the fish might get it a little farther in their
mouths and let me get them out of the weeds easier.
It was another one of those great theories that I have, that
don't work as well as I hope they would. I hooked the fish,
but lost them just as I had before. I did fish the water that
was away from the weeds, but could not interest any fish in
taking flies there. The visibility was under a foot. That
is why I think that casting into the weeds worked so well.
The water was a little clearer there and the fish had some
cover as they looked for food.
I got about one fourth of the fish I hooked to the canoe,
but it was still a fun day.
Memorial day turned out to be a washout. I was out early,
but the rains came and I had to leave to get up the hills
before the fields got to wet. The rain continued all morning
and I had committed to a few things in the afternoon. So what
I had thought would be two fishing excursions turned into one.
Hopefully the rains will slow down a little here and the ponds
will get clear enough for the fish to be able to see the flies
easier. As a fisherman,I am getting to be like some of the
farmers that are never happy with what the weather does.
Hope you can get out on the water. ~ Rick
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