Publisher's Note:
Rick's season is just starting again,
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.
Was going out to fish one day. Drove out to
where the pond was and went over the fence
to hike into it. Got about 1/3 of the way to
the pond when a cow started coming down the
hill toward me.
I decided that I should stop and see if I could
find a calf someplace that she might be protecting.
I did not see anything very fast and the cow was
coming faster. This was the time to get out of
the field in a big hurry. I took off running and
hurdled the fence just ahead of the cow. She
pushed against the wire to try to get at me.
There was a man sitting in his pickup laughing
at me. Said it was some of the best entertainment
that he had seen in a long time. He wanted to know
why I had not tossed my two fly rods away and run
without them. I told him that only flyfishers would
understand.
He asked my what I was going to fish for. When I
told him that I liked to catch crappie he told me
that he had a deal for me. I followed him about 5
miles to a gate. We then drove about one mile back
in from the gate. He told me that I could keep the
crappie that I caught but to leave the bass and
bluegill. He like to catch bass and brought his
kids to catch the gills. None of them like to
catch crappie.
He left and I started to fish around the pond.
Caught bass up to four pounds and a lot of nice
gills as I went around the pond. When I got to
the uphill side of the pond the wind came up
blowing into my face. I noticed that there were
clouds building in the distance. This is important
because we drove across a low place that would
be hard to get through if it was wet.
On my third cast into the wind I caught a 14"
crappie. As I continued to cast, I caught a fish
on almost every cast. I was getting two crappie
for every bass or bluegill that I caught. The
crappie did not turn on until the wind was
blowing. The wind was now blowing about 20 to
25 mph into my face.
I continued to cast into the wind. More times
unsuccessfully than successfully but I was still
catching fish. I have never been a good into the
wind caster, maybe I can't even blame it on the
wind. Every time I could get the fly out about
25 to 30 feet I would have a fish hit. All of
the crappie were about 13 to 15" long and heavy
sided. I was having a ball.
I still did keep an eye on the clouds. When I saw
the first lightening bolt I packed everything up
and headed to the truck to leave. I am not wild
about waving a graphite stick in the air with
lead in my bottom around water. Besides my wife
promised me that if I was killed by lightening she
would bring me back to life and make it a painful
death.
I was almost all the way out of the field when I
saw a cow hit by a bolt of lightening. I drove to
the farmers house and told him about it. He said
he would get someone to help him haul it in. I
told him that I would be happy to do that. He
said he would get his stuff to cut the cow up
into several pieces to bring home.
I told him to get a couple of things and we could
take care of the cow in a few minutes. He got the
things I asked for and we went out to where the
cow was. By this time we could hear the thunder
and see a lot of bolts hitting the ground. Five
minutes later we were headed out of the filed.
Just got through the gate when the rain started.
We could not drive very fast because of the rain.
I helped him hang the pieces in his barn and
then headed home.
About 1 mile from home I ran out of the rain. Went
home and cleaned 52 beautiful crappie. Had just
finished when he drove up to see if he could help
me because I had helped him.
He said that one of kids like to scuba dive and
says that the pond is crammed with crappie. He
told me that I could go in any time because of
my telling him about his cow. I have checked with
him since then but we have had to much rain to get
back to the pond.
He also wanted to know how I knew to field dress
an animal so fast. I told him that it was a
misspent youth. He thought that was another good
line. I will get out to this pond again.
I find that thanking the land owners and doing
a few other things always makes it easier to
get back into the ponds.
Hook one for me. ~ Rick Zieger
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