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It was Saturday and time to head to a pond. There
were a few things that had to be accomplished early
in the day and after all those things were out of
the way I headed out. I was heading out at the time
that I am normally heading back home. But, the
temperatures had been down and I thought with the
sun coming out the fish might be more active.
This is a pond that I have not been into for a few
years. One of those places that someone had cut a
fence and driven across the field when it was wet.
They then turned around and came out another place
and cut the fence again. So the land was off limits
for a while.
I had to get a key to get through the gate, but that
was OK. This is a nice pond. It is almost rectangular
in shape. About 160 yards long and about 65 yards
wide. The deepest water is about 15 feet deep near
the dam. Most of the water is about 6 to 8 feet deep.
There is a nice ring of weeds and a few water lilies
around the edge of the pond. There was a slight breeze
out of the west so it was convenient to put an anchor
down and cast for a steady position.
I had four fly rods with me. The first one I picked up
had the Fly of the Week for the week of September 17
on it, the blacklegged bug. That is what had been on
before and seemed a good place to start.
I cast this out and let it land near the edges of the
weeds. It had barely hit the water when the fly was
slammed. The fish hit going away and was hooked before
I could do anything. That means that I had not been
ready for a fish to hit that fast. It was a nice fight
to get the fish to the canoe. It was a nice fat bluegill.
A great start, one cast and one fish.
I cast a few feet farther along the weeds, ready to set
the hook this time. Again the fly had barely hit the water
and a fish was on it. This turned out to be a little bass,
six-inches long. I made another cast to the edge of the
weeds, just a little farther along. This time the line
just started to move. I set the hook and had a fish
start to twist and turn in every direction that there
is. I thought I might have a catfish or a bass on the
line. I was surprised to find that this was a crappie.
I have not had crappie act like this before. This fish
was on steroids.
I cast near the weeds on the other side of the canoe.
I had another bluegill want to take a long trip with
the fly. This was a huge bluegill. She was about 12
inches long and too big to pick up with my hand. I
lipped her to get her in. I was very tempted to keep
her, but she still swims in the pond. Hopefully she
will live another year or two to pass those genetics on.
I got two more bass as I cast along the shoreline on
this side of the canoe. All of them hitting the fly
just after it touched down in the water. I moved on
around the shoreline and found that some places had
fish and others did not. If the fly was not taken just
after it hit the water, then it was ignored. I tried
other flies, but they did not work as well.
I had several fish in the basket by the time I had
circled the shoreline. I had released a bunch of bass.
I began to wonder if there might be fish in the deeper
water that would take a fly on the drop. So I cast out
toward the center of the pond. I did nothing more than
that. The fly had an opportunity to just drop. I saw
the end of the fly line twitch and I set the hook. I
was sure I had a bass on the line. It was just fighting
like that. I was bum foozled to see a crappie come out
of the water. In fact this fish jumped three times.
If it happens once it just might happen again. I cast
out again and let the fly drop. This time it was a bass
that took the fly. This bass never jumped it just stayed
deep and pulled on the line. The bass were acting like
crappie and the crappie were acting like bass.
I kept on casting out in the deeper water. I caught about
half the fish I hooked. I think most of them were crappie
as I lost several as they jumped. But I had a good time
and had several fish in the fish basket.
The fly finally came apart on me. All the fish had been
on this one fly. I decided that this was a good time to
leave. I was surprised when I lifted the fish basket at
the number of fish that I had in it. I knew that I had
tossed 48 bass back into the pond. The landowner wanted
to know how many bass I caught so I kept track of it.
I got home and got everything out of the truck and placed
where it needed to be. I then filleted the fish. I ended
up getting 45 bluegills and 15 crappie. With the bass I
had a triple digit day. That had not happened for a long
time.
I had the fish filleted, washed off and in the refrigerator
in just over an hour. Lots of good eating there.
Hope you can get out on the water. ~ Rick
(Written October 7, 2007)
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