I’m looking for ideas on fishing a local pond in a public city park. This pond has been open for several years now, but just this winter it joined the ranks of stocked trout water. As you might expect, this has at least tripled the number of people fishing the pond. The water is generally clear, the pond is about 2 acres, there is aquatic vegetation around the perimeter, and algae growing in clumps in many areas. There are abundant sunfish and largemouth bass, easily visible most of the time. Three-quarters of the shoreline is wooded and not suitable for flyfishing, while the dam and a short section of bank on one side of the dam is fairly open. The bank next to the dam is very shallow, while the dam itself drops off into deeper water fairly quickly. The shallow water warms very quickly, and I measured it at 84F today, even though most local streams are closer to 70F this week.
Today I took a trip to the pond at my lunch break, and I immediately saw numerous sunfish, plus a few smaller bass along the shoreline. Occasionally, I saw a larger bass swim by 20 or 30 feet from shore in about 2 feet of water. One looked like it had to be 2 or 3 pounds. I started off with a size 10 nymph, which I retrieved in different ways, including letting it sit until it sank to the bottom. I saw numerous sunfish nibble the nymph, but never felt a hit. Had I not seen the fish, I’d never have known they were there. I switched to a streamer, which I retrieved rapidly. This brought clusters of fish following it in, and even a few bass, but again, never a hit. Then I tied on a size 8 comparadun, hoping this would be the fly that they had never seen before. I let it sit in several places for upwards of a minute, but never got a hit. Finally, I tied on a SHWAPF in neutral colors. I managed to hook a sunfish with that, but only one before I had to leave. The take came on a very rapid strip retrieve.
Clearly, the fish are very skittish. There were at least 4 other people fishing the pond at the same time as I was, although none of them were near me. Every fly was examined very carefully, and in the bright sun and clear water, the fish seemed to be able to tell real from fake. So what do you do in situations like this, where there are plenty of fish, and they are interested, but refuse to commit? Is it a different fly? A different retrieve? Do you just pack up and go somewhere else?
Solving the riddle is part of the fun! And sometimes the fish are just in that mood… Try it again. In some waters, especially clear waters, the fish tend to feed in the low light hours rather than during middle of the day.
With bass on the patrol, panfish seem to know that if they let down their guard, the bass may charge in and nab them.
I’d suggest trying to solve the bass issue first. Catch a few, and while they sulk after the release, you may find the panfish will relax more. For the bass, try large streamers that resemble panfish and fish them fairly fast, like they are trying to escape. And try large topwaters that create a good disturbance…like a blockhead popper.
Once the panfish relax, try #12 or smaller nymphs or leech patterns with SHORT tails. That way, you may catch some nippers.
Fishing faster gives the fish less time to carefully scrutinize a fly.
For the sunfish, I would switch to a size 12 soft hackle with very little weight added to it. If you tie them with a bead head, keep it small and I would use colored glass beads. Cast it out, let it sink for a couple of seconds and strip it in with rapid 1-2 inch strips with a 1-2 second pause between strips.
For the bass, I would use either a size 4 black mohair leech with a rabbit fur tail or an unweighted polar fiber minnow tied on a size 4 or 6 hook so that the pattern is 2-3 inches long. My favorite minnow pattern colors are chartreuse over olive over white. I like to add 3D eyes to mine but it’s not absolutely necessary. With the leech pattern, strip it in with steady even 12-14 inch strips with about 1-2 second pauses between strips. For the minnow pattern, cast it out 12-15 feet off the shoreline and strip it fast in 18-24 inch strips. If possible keep it parallel to the shoreline which is where the bass are hanging out You will probably have to move the rod tip to get the speed you want for these long strips. Pause for 2-3 seconds between strips and watch the fly. Many times, all you’ll see is the fly disappear like someone turned out a light bulb. That means a bass has inhaled the fly so you want to strip strike very quickly as they can spit them out as fast as they suck them in. I find that 95+% of the strikes happen when the minnow stops in the water and slowly starts to sink towards the bottom. Quite often, you never see the bass, the fly just seems to disappear. Good luck!!!
For water like you described, I’d fish at night or just before sunrise. For ponds with large sunfish populations, I love to use bead head woolly buggers tied in two color cobinations using either green, chartreuse, yellow or orange. And sometimes just to create some additional interest, I’ll tie a propeller just in front of the bead head (i.e. Pistol Pete) I like to use a longer marabou tail than the ones you can buy in the store. Good luck. Like somebody said earlier, part of the fun is figuring out the puzzle.
Since you are fishing your lunch break, I doubt the dawn and dusk options fit. You can try to bright day - bright fly and dark day - dark fly bit. With nymphs I have only had luck, under these conditions, when the nymph is on or very near the bottom. A small, quickly stripped streamer might work. Poppers might work. Big parachutes that imitate wolf spiders, etc… might work if fished with more gentle movement.
I fish a number of small ponds like you described on a regular basis. There are a million options. I stick with a small #10 Foam butt caddis, but a heavy tied EHC will fill in fine. At times I’ll Fish a #16 beadhead hares ear about a foot beneath. But not unless i have to. Stick as close to the bank and vegetation in the heat of day as you can. Cast out and retrieve with a twitch-pause in about 2-3" strips. Good luck!
