LIP HOOKING
Rick Zieger - Jan 15, 2018
My wife told me that she thought I needed to cook some fish for supper. That meant there needed to be a trip to the pond. What a terrible task to be entrusted with. NOT!!!!!
I grabbed two rods, flies and fish bag and headed off to a pond that I had been asked to check out. The land had changed hands and the owner wanted to know if it fished well. About 10 years ago it was a pond that I fished a few times a year and did well. So with anticipation I headed for the pond. I got into the pond and it looked like weak tea. There was some color to it but I could see flies down about three feet when a rod length out from me.
Had two 5 weights with me. I tied on a chartreuse ice dubbing nymph and a yellow boa yarn leech. I was about 2/3 of the way down the dam. I did not go the rest of the way as there were two geese setting on nests, and I did not want to disturb them. I cast out the green nymph first, as it was on the rod I had in my hand. I let the fly drop a foot or so and started to retrieve it. I felt a little tap and set the hook. I had a fish on that came into the shoreline, but as I swung it up the fish fell off the hook. I still got it into the basket. I cast again and had another fish hit, and brought it to about 10 feet from shore and the hook pulled out.
I switched to the yellow boa yarn leech and cast it. The fly had not moved far and I had a fish on. In short order this fish was off. This happened three more times. I thought it was time to change flies and go to smaller sizes hoping to get better hook ups. I changed the green nymph from a size 10 to a size 14 hook. I changed the yellow boa yarn leech to a yellow only made with ice dubbing, in size 14. I don’t have boa yarn flies that small.
I cast each of these out and managed to catch a few more fish, but I lost many more than were landed. I had enough fish to eat and share when I got to a place where landing more fish was a challenge. My success rate was at about one out of seven. It was time to change flies and try again.
I went to popper - dropper rig with one fly down about 16 inches and the other down about 30 inches. I went with size 18 flies tied in yellow and bright green. This did work a little better but was a pain in the behind. The fish took the flies so deep that it took forceps to get them out. But I was hooking more. I still lost some because they were lip hooked. I lost several crappie that were not hooked well.
I had over 100 bites but the ratio of fish hooked to fish landed was low. I will have to visit this pond again. I called the landowner and told him the pond had a lot of fish in it and he invited me to fish it again whenever I wanted.
Hope you can get out on the water.