It has not rained for several days, and the puddles in the fields have disappeared.
The possibility of getting into many more ponds is good. It is a day off and
time to head to a pond. The water is calling my name.
I drive my truck to one of my favorite ponds. I hiked in one time this year,
but with the drier weather I might be able to drive in. The cattle have been
rotated out of the field leading into the pond. It is the early afternoon
and the temperature is about 75 degrees, and it is slightly cloudy with about
a 15-mph wind from the west. The truck makes it into the pond. The low spots
are dry for the first time this year. I know there are fish in this pond,
and the fishing has been very good in this pond for the past several years.
For some reason the canoe is not as heavy as I hurry to get it unloaded and
all the rods in the canoe with the rest of the stuff. Anticipation is a wonderful
thing when heading to the water.
I did park about 50 feet from the water. The land is still flat there, but
slopes down to the pond from that point. Fear of lack of traction still resides
in the mind. I know that I will need to have the rods set up to fish before
I get in casting distance of the water. I make sure I have a silver Godlie
Jr, a black boa yarn leech, a streamer nymph and a popper with a midge dropper,
about a foot under it, on the four rods.
I stop about 15 feet back from the shore and grab a rod. The black boa yarn
leech is on it. I make a cast out, let the fly drop, and start the retrieve.
The fly has moved about three feet when a fish heads for China with it. Several
twists and turns, loops and didos before a nice gill come to hand. Seems like
a good day at hand, one cast and one fish. A few more casts do not result
in any more fish. The canoe goes in the water. The back anchor goes down when
the canoe is about 15 feet offshore. There is a drop off at this point that
goes from about four feet to eight feet. This is a good place to run flies
by.
I cast out the midge-popper combo and let it set. The next rod I have has
the Goldie Jr on it. I cast it out about 15 feet and let the fly drop. A slow
strip of about three inches with a couple second pauses is the first retrieve
tried. The fly has not moved far when a fish heads for South America with
the fly. The rod tip does a lot of dancing before the fish gets to the canoe.
It is another nice bluegill.
I make several more casts in this area. By casting in a rotation around the
canoe and slowly increasing the distance of the casts, the pattern of fish
location starts to come into to focus. The fish are about five feet apart.
Every time a fish is hooked the next cast has to be five feet to the side
or five feet longer to get another fish to hit. Not sure if they are scattered
that much or get turned off by a fish getting hooked. In either cast my casts
are made to have that distance from where the last fish was hooked.
I get about12 fish in each place that the canoe is anchored. That is fish
in the basket, as there about six bass released at each spot. This is fun.
I might even know what I am doing, not a chance, just dumb fish.
I get down the west shore of the pond and head across the pond for the other
side. The east side of the pond has a gentle slope from the edge to about
eight feet deep over a 30 to 35-foot span from the shoreline. A good place
to find out what depth the fish are holding in when things are not going well.
The fish seems to be holding where the water is about four feet deep. The
fish hit several different flies that go into the water. After I have caught
several fish I change flies, just to see if anything different happens. What
the fly is does not seem to matter to the fish. I have several gills in the
basket and have returned several bass to the pond.
Time to search for the crappie in the pond since I know they are swimming
some place and the need to find that place with the right fly is rumbling
in my head. I change all four rods to flies that have worked well on crappie
for me. Several casts with each fly serve for casting practice.
I change all four flies to another set of flies that have worked for me. I
make another cast. Just after the fly hits the water there is a swirl at that
point. The hook is set and there is a crappie on the line. What a crappie
is doing that high up in the water column, at that time of day, is beyond
me from the reading I have done.
After this fish is in the basket, another cast is made. The same thing happens.
The fly hits the water and a fish takes it. This almost becomes a robotic
response on each end. Almost, but I am having too much fun for me to be a
robot. It is darn near a fish a cast for this area on the crappie.
Finally a little bit of common sense comes into my head. This is a rare event,
especially rare on the water. I lift the fish basket up to see how many fish
are in the basket. Somebody else has been putting fish in the basket, because
I don’t remember catching that many fish. Thinking of how many fish
there are to fillet, the time to do it, and to take fish for others to share,
convinces me to head home; not an easy decision, because leaving fish that
are biting is not one of my favorite activities.
Catching a lot of fish seems to make the canoe lighter as I put it on the
truck. I might figure out why that happens some day. Everything gets loaded
and I head home.
The canoe gets unloaded and all the fishing stuff put away before I start
filleting fish. I fillet a lot of fish and fill two bowls with the fillets;
one bowl with bluegill fillets and one with crappie fillets.
For the day I was far over the century mark in the fish that I brought home,
and I’ve had a wonderful fun day of fishing.
I shared fillets with several folks and had some good eating at home.
Hope you get out on the water.
Rick
PS: The crappie were caught on a Perch-a-bou (Ricks favorite crappie flies)
Originally published September 14, 2009 on Fly Anglers Online by Rick Zieger, Iowa.