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Memorial Day With EB
By Richard Zieger, Iowa
My friend, from back in college days,
called me the week before Memorial Day
and said that we needed to go fishing.
He said that we could go to a pond
that was on some property that we had
never received permission to go onto
before. What more invitation did I need?
I picked him up at 6:00 am and we headed
off to the pond. There was only one gate
we could go through so we did not have to
drive by any cattle. The owner does not want
us going in fields with cattle in them. This
got us to within about 25 feet of the pond.
We unloaded the canoe and put it over the
fence. I then handed everything to EB to put
in the canoe. I showed him the anchoring
system and how it worked. He is thinking
about doing something like that with his
flat bottom boat.
We had decided that we would keep some
of the fish we caught in this pond.
The owner said he liked fish and we were
going to take him some fillets. EB
had decided that he wanted to fly fish
this pond. He had not used his fly
rod in a while and the line was coiled.
We tried to straighten it, but with
not much luck. I told him to use one
of my rods and we could get out on the
pond.
He wanted to use the flies that he had
bought a few years ago and I went with
a perch-a-bou. I know that this fly will
catch crappie, gills and bass. We started
casting when we got out on the pond. EB
would cast toward the shore and I would
cast out into the pond. That way we would
cover all of the water and find out where
the fish were.
I cast the fly out and was letting it drop
when I saw the line twitch. I set the hook
and had a feisty gill on the line. This fish
just did not want to come to the canoe. I
finally did get it in. It was a nice fat male,
with spawning colors on.
EB got his fly tied on and we both cast out.
We both let the fly drop and then stated to
retrieve. We were moving the flies very slowly
and the fish would just smash into them. We
really did not have to set the hook. Just
hold on and try to get them to turn some
and stay away from the weeds.
We were curious about the pond and just
drifted around to try different places.
Both of us were catching nice sized fish.
We never knew if it would be a gill,
crappie or a bass.
Being curious I decided to try another
fly, just to see if it would work. I
tied on a black marabou leech with small
silver bead chain eyes.
I cast it out and had a gill hit the fly
almost as soon as it touched the water.
The next cast a crappie did the same thing.
EB wanted to know if I had another fly like
that. I replied no. He was turning back when
I started laughing and dug one of the flies
out for him to use. He then told me that
actions like that could end in a loss of life.
We continued to slowly move along and
reached an area where there is a mat
of weeds. Both of us cast into that
general area and had hits immediately.
We were amazed at the size of the gills.
Both of these fish were just over 12
inches long. We checked to make sure
they were not hybrids. These fish
went back into the pond. Being curious,
and of sound mind (questionable?),
we cast back into the same area again.
Each of us had another carbon copy
fish. We caught at least a dozen each
of these and then left the area. We
got to thinking that they might be
spawning and did not want the nests
disturbed.
We finally decided to leave as we had
all the fish we wanted and thought we
might spend some time with our lovely
wives. We headed out and got everything
loaded on and in the pickup. EB said
that he would like to clean the fish
at his house so he could use the remains
in some ground he has just turned over.
This worked out great. He likes an
electric knife and I like a regular
knife. I took the fillets of the one
and he took them off the skin.
We ended up with about 80 gills and 45
crappie. We had tossed a large number
of gills back in. We had also returned
a good number of bass back into the pond.
We were just finishing when the land owner
showed up. He came to ask us when we would
go into his pond. When we said we had been
there he was not sure he believed us. He
stated that there was not mess and
garbage left behind.
We did give him some fillets to take home and eat.
I headed home on and on the way gave a
bunch of fish away. It was a neat way to
end a great day. Good fishing with a good
friend.
Hope you can get out on the water. ~ Rick ziegeria@grm.net
Archive of Warm Water
By Richard Zieger, Iowa
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