Ok, so I did a bad thing today, but had too much fun.
I travel for a living, and always have a travel 3wt with me for just such an occasion.
Last night, I checked into my assigned housing and could see a golf course (municipal) across the parking lot.
Staring back at me was a HUGE water hazard with dimples on the surface.
Yep - got up early just after sun-up, grabbed my rod and slung my bag over my shoulder.
Landed a nize dozen of HUGE bluegill before breakfast. My footsteps were the only tracks on the course - I even beat the dewsweepers out.
The waitress at the hotel saw me and commented on my fly fishing while she served other patrons. Her dad was a fly fisherman and she claimed it brought back memories.
Ahh, the memories I made today.
Now, don’t misunderstand, I know that what I did may have not been “kosher”, but I just HAAAD to try a few casts with a foam spider.
Just wait till tomorrow morning!
Yes - this happened in PA but I’m not saying where - only that it’s in the northwest corner of the state!
I guess I don’t understand. It was a public Golf course, right? And you didn’t interfere with any golfers or damage any property? Were there any “No Tresspassing” signs up?
When I was a youngster, I was a skin-dive fanatic (still am). I used to make my fun-money by snorkeling at the local golf course water hazards and collecting all the lost golf balls off the bottom. I would then re-sell them to golfers for ‘practice balls’. I’d put 10 in a bag and sell them for $1.00 (that was a good bit of money for a kid in the early 60s). I would make $50.00 a week during the summer like this. The golf course never complained.
I don’t think you did anything wrong, and probably improved the ecosystem of the pond by fishing in it. It is obviously an under-used resource.
Did it give you an Erie feeling being out there before the golfers? I personally do not see anything wrong, but just to keep things on the up and up, maybe you should ask the greens keeper just to give yourself a clear conscious.
We’ll, I couldn’t resist this morning. Actually last night I felt like I was 8 years old and Dad was taking me fishing. I rigged my rod, put my gear together and by the door.
I could hardly sleep.
I woke up at the crack of dawn and out the door I went. There it was, all dimply and NO ONE around.
What a guilty pleasure.
Landed 18 bluegill and had a huge grin as I came back to the hotel and cleaned up and put on my suit to go to work.
All day long I’ve been thinking, one more night, one more night and I can fish again.
I don’t feel guilty (anymore). I mean I’m not stealing anything, there are no signs posted, no trespassing warning.
The hotel manager even talked to me walking back to my room this morning (how could he miss me with a fly rod!). He said that all summer he’d been thinking about fishing that water hazard, and here I went and did it.
I have one more night on this assignment then back to the office.
I can hardly wait for my next assignment back to this town - I’ll have to request this same hotel.
Golf course fishin is the nutz. We have a local municipal one that is closed. they still mow it and have the driving range open. It has several good size ponds and one reaqlly huge one. So far I have caught big catfish, buttloads of crappie and bass, and have caught sumtin really big twice and did a long line release. My guess it was a big catfish or a gar. Went the other day with a bud. I used a skip morris panfish fly supplied by Rick Z. Tore Crappie up. Caught about 20 or so. It’s amazing how much abuse those flys can take. Tail gone, ribbing wire broken and hanging and still it caught fish. Great thing about a golf course… No problems with the backcast.
Next time, chuck out the 8 iron from the cart and replace it with a nice little flea rod. You could go from hole to hole in a motorized cart, be the last one on the course for the day and no one the wiser. I suppose in stead of howlering FOUR it woudl be FISH ON!.
I like that Jonezee, last man around, keep the fish honest. Whenever I think about getting booted off a golf course for fishing I think about Ted Knight’s character in Caddy Shack, “Judge Elihu Smails” as the type who would do the booting (or have it done by minions).
When I was a kid I used to go onto our local golf course and fish (of course this is before I switched all FLY!) Caught tons of bluegill, crappie, and some pretty big bass. One pond had goldfish (comets, shobunkins, and a few koi to fellow water gardeners) and made quite a few nice additions to my fish pond. Also used to catch huge bullfrogs (sometimes on our lures!) Of course I felt no guilt, however, this was about as far from a public golf course as you could get… nearly every trip ended in a golf cart chase by the greenskeeper.
