Publisher's Note:
Rick's fishing season is over until the ice melts,
but we have a nice stash of articles he has written
in the past as ideas or events occured to him. We hope
this will explain apparent 'out of season' articles.
I headed out on Saturday morning. I knew that
the rain was coming, but it doesn't seems to
bother the fish. I did go to a different pond
that I knew I could get out of if it rained
very much. Some of the other ponds have dirt
roads that get slicked like "greased snot"
when they are wet.
I had received a few flies from Gary Miller
that he really likes for gills. The trouble
was that they had not worked for me, but I
was going to keep trying them. I know this
pond has gills and bass in it. So I went with
a peacock sword tail nymph and a floating/suspending
nymph. After 15 minutes and no fish I decided
that it was time to try something different. I
opened my boxes and looked at the flies. A little
guilt made me tie on one of Gary's Granny Bugs and
I tied a black and red Skip Morris Panfish (SMP)on
the other rod. The guilt was that I might not have
tried the Granny Bug often enough.
I cast the Granny Bug (GB) so it landed about
3 feet from the weed edge. The fly had dropped
about a foot when the line tightened and I had
the first gill of the day. This was a brightly
colored male that turned sideways and tried to
go to China. After landing this fish I cast
about 10 feet to the side of where I hooked
this one and had a repeat performance. A few
more casts did not produce a fish so I cast
it toward the center of the pond, with no
success. I switched to the other rod with the
SMP on it I cast toward the center of the pond.
As I was letting the fly drop the line tightened
and I was into another gill. This fish circled
the canoe twice before I got her in. I did not
get another strike there so I moved a little
way down the pond.
I picked up a few more fish near the shore with
the GB and a few in the center with the SMP.
Neither fly would work at the other place. I
tried them several times. I even tried a few
other flies and none of them worked as well
as the two that I had on. I finally went back
to these two flies and continued to catch fish.
My downfall came when I cast the GB into a little
pocket in the weeds along the shore line. When
the fish hit and I sat he hook I was into a fairly
good sized bass. This fish headed for the middle
of the pond and then reversed itself and headed
for the weeds. This fish got to the edge of the
weeds and jumped. When she landed in the weeds
that was it for the leader and the fly. It was
the only GB that I had with me. I will have to
tie some now.
I continue to cast out with the SMP and was
catching fish about every ten feet as I moved
down the pond. I was having fun and the fish
were cooperating. Then I heard the rumble of
thunder.
I looked back and could see the bolts of lightening
in the distance. I quickly reeled the line in and
got everything in the canoe. I hurried to shore
and quickly loaded everything into the truck.
I had just got to the main road when the downpour
started. I had to travel 10 miles an hour because
I could not see any father than that. I had gone
about two miles when I drove out of the storm. When
I got home my wife said that it had barely rained
there but she had seen the storm to the west of the
house. She was also very glad that I had enough
sense to leave the pond.
I did end up with 49 gills. About 20 came on the
GB and the rest on the SMP. I did catch about 30
bass on the flies also. Not bad for just over two
hours.
It is not the first time it has happened to me,
but I still find it a little strange that two
flies can work differently on the same day. One
will catch fish near the shore and the other away
from the shore and they will not work the other
way. I think that is part of why they call it
fishing and not catching.
If you want information on the GB, let me know
and I will put you in contact with Gary. I don't
feel free to give details of the fly as he has
them commercially available.
I hope you can get out on the water.
PS I just got in a 3 piece 10 ft 5 wt to
build. I will let you know how it works when I
get it built. ~ Rick Zieger
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