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I had tied up a couple of new flies to me. I wanted to
go out and try them. So I loaded EVERYTHING up
and headed to the pond. I have done this a few times
before so I really don't go through a checklist to make
sure I have everything. I know the routine of getting
everything out. Who needs to check anything!
When I get to the pond I get everything into the canoe.
The anchors are set to be used. The fly rods and ready to
go. I have my life jacket, the fly vest is on, the fish basket
and net are in the canoe. I have my sunglasses on. At that
point I reach for the paddle, that is still at home. What a
dumb move!
I am not going home to get the paddle. That is a13 mile
round trip. I will fish from shore and see what I can do. I
take two rods with me. In fact I leave my vest in the truck
also. I take the hook box that has the new flies in it and head
down the shore line. This way I will not be tempted to fish
any other flies.
One of the flies is a variation of Mike Mercers EZE sculpin.
I saw that in a book and like the way it looked, but I made
a few modifications to fish in the pond for crappie. The other
is a wacky worm sort of fly tied with rubber hackle. When I
can find my disk to load the program to work with my camera
I will take some pictures. I have not found it in my stuff here
at the house so it must be in another box where we have some
things stored.
The pond that I am at has both crappie and bluegill in it. That
way I can try for each with the different flies. I cannot fish the
place I really wanted to as there are trees planted right down
to the shore. These trees are now about 15 feet tall and are
planted about 5 feet apart. The only thing I catch there is trees.
So I fish down the shore line. I cast the wacky worm thing
first as it will drop very slowly. I then cast with the other fly.
I try various retrieves with the minnow type fly, but there is
no consistency in what the fish might like.
I catch a few crappie with the pattern. Some on the drop, some
on a steady retrieve, some on a lift and drop. The crappie range
from about 8 inches long to a foot long. This is not bad for fishing
from the shore in the middle of September at 10:00 in the morning.
The other fly has also produced some gills. As the fly drops,
the rubber hackle is moving around and the gills seemed to
like that. This was not very fast fishing, but they were nice
gills that took the fly.
I had some other things that needed to get done. I had seven
crappie and seven gills for the time that I spent on the pond.
I would have probably done better if I had been in the canoe,
but there is no need to check things when you know the routine.
I may have to make a checklist and keep it in the truck and
mark things off to make sure that I do have everything.
Hope you can get out on the water. ~ Rick
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