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I did something I rarely do, I went back to the same
pond for a second week in a row. The field had been
mowed and I had not fished all the places on the pond.
This was a clear day and we had not had much rain
during the week. The chances would be good that the
water would be clearer.
This is a corner of the pond I had not fished the previous
week. I was worried about weather so I had not fished this
area. This was a clear morning, so there was more time to
spend on the pond. I had the same six rods with me. Did I
mention I really don't like to tie flies on? Also with six rods I
can make multiple presentations into the same area in a very
short time. In Iowa you can have two lines in the water at a time,
but you can have more rods with you than that. This was a
court case several years ago.
This is the area I started fishing in. The water goes from about
two feet deep and slopes out to about 12 feet deep around 35
feet from the shoreline. That means I make a lot of casts in this
area to try to figure out what depth the fish are at or if they are
suspending over deeper water.
To prove how dense I can be at times, I did not hook a single
fish in this area. I felt I was just hitting the tops of the weeds. It
was just a little bit of resistance for a fleeting second. You cannot
see the grass that was mowed, but it had started to dry over the
week. For a seasonal allergy suffer this meant that my sinuses were
working full time.
As happens to me often, a sneeze resulted in my jerking the
line. This resulted in a fish being on the line.
I got it near the canoe before I could tell that it was just barely
lip hooked. Time to use the net. The hook came out when I got
the fish in the net. There are times that things become clear in my
head in just a second. The majority of the time it does not happen
that fast.
Could it be I was not hitting the weeds, but the fish were
just barely mouthing the fly? There was one way to find out.
The fly went back out and I waited for that little tap on the
line. The fly had not moved far when that happened. It was
another crappie that came to the surface. I could see this fish
was barely lip hooked. Once to the surface the hook came
out.
I tried this a few more times and I got a fish to hit on almost
every cast. I lost many more than I ever managed to get into
the net. I did change a couple of the flies that I had on.
I read somewhere to tie flies on Aberdeen hooks so the bend
is very hear the end of the tail. The fly is the same length, but
the hook is longer. This gives a better chance of hooking fish
that are hitting short. It is easier for me to do this than to tie a
trailer hook on smaller flies.
That did not help any in catching the fish. I got the same
number of hits, but lost just as many fish. I tried keeping
the tip of the rod near the surface and that did not help.
The only time I landed the fish was if they did not
come to the surface. If they got up to the surface then
that was it. They flipped the hook out.
I was fishing the center area of the pond in this picture.
There seemed to be a school of fish that was milling
around in this area. There was a strike on almost every
ast. I hooked most of them. Most of them also came to
he surface and got off.
It was a fun morning to be out. The fish were a challenge
to get to the net. More of them won the contest today than
I did. But there is always another day.
I had 24 crappie in the fish basket. I know that I did not
even land 1 out of 5 fish I hooked. There is a good
population of fish in this pond.
Hope you can get out on the water. ~ Rick
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