It is the Tuesday before Thanksgiving. I know that I need to be out,
as the weather report does not look good. Thery are calling for
snow and much colder temperatures for the coming couple of weeks.
It will not take much to make the ponds skim over with ice. Several
of them have already turned over. My days of fishing for the season
are definitely numbered. But this is a nice day and the water is
calling my name.
I get out to the lake and there is very little wind. I can see there
is something working along the edges of the settling pond. It is not
big swirls and not the rings from the gas that bubbles up from the
bottom every once in a while. This is fish being active.
I have a couple of Hares Ear type flies tied in size 14 and 16 with me.
I tie one on and cast it out. I let it settle for a few seconds and
them start to retrieve it with very slow, short strips with a pause
between them. The flies are unweighted so they almost suspend.
The fly has not moved far when I get the first fish to hit. It is
a fair sized bluegill, but a nice fish to have on the line. It is
caught in about two feet of water. If it works once then it should
work again. I cast out again and the fly has barely hit the water
when a fish takes it. It is another bluegill.
I see a few swirls farther out from the shore and cast into that
area. The fly drops for a few seconds and then I start to
retrieve it. It has moved a few feet when I feel some resistance
on the line and set the hook. Whatever it is on the line does
not like being hooked and takes some line out.
I finally get the fish turned and it starts swimming in an oblong
circle out in front of me. I gain a little line and then I lose it.
I am beginning to think I may have hooked a large catfish. This
is going to be a long siege as neither one of us wants to give up.
After a long time I begin to get some leverage on the fish and
gain a little line. I don’t gain much each time but I am getting
some. I still have not seen the fish, but I can see the water
swirl in the area where the fish is every once in a while.
Every time I see the swirl the fish takes more line. After
about 15 minutes I seem to have the fish tired out and I am
gaining line fairly fast. I finally saw that it was a fair
sized bass on the line. First I must promise you that I did
not try to do this. I had the fish hooked in the flesh just
above the tail fin. In short, I had snagged it. I got the
fish in and was able to lip it so I could get the hook out.
No wonder it took so long to land the fish.
I made some more casts and caught a few more bluegills. Most
of them did not hit very hard. It was some resistance and that was
all I needed to try to set the hook. They were fun to hook and
bring in.
I thought I had another light bite and set the hook. This time
the line just peeled out away from me. For the first time in a
long time I had backing off the reel before I could get the fish
stopped.
I was sure I had a big bass or a catfish on and settled in for
a long fight.
I did not really try to gain line for a while. I just wanted to
get the fish tired. I was not sure who would tire out first.
It took a long, long time for me to get to the place where I
could put enough pressure on the fish to gain some line. As I
started to do this the actions of the fish began to look more and
more like the bass I had snagged earlier in the day. I was sure
I could not snag two fish in one day on a size 16 fly. What
are the odds of that?
I was still at the point where I had backing off the reel when
another person stopped to watch what was going on. He saw
the bow in the rod and wanted to see how big the fish was that
caused it.
I began to gain line very slowly. It was bring some in and lose
a little less than you brought in. Do this enough times and you
finally get the fish closer. The closer I got the fish the more
it actred like the bass I had caught earlier.
When I got the bass very close I could see that I had hooked it in
almost the exact same spot as the previous bass. Not only had I
snagged two bass, but the hook was within an inch of where it had
been on the other fish.
I released this fish also after I got the hook out. It just
shows how tough the skin on a bass can be. I was surprised the hook
did not pull out with the small gap it has.
That ended my time at the pond as I had to get back to work. I hope
I am not banished from the fly fishing world for accidentally
snagging two fish in one day.
Hope you can get out on the water. ~ Rick
(Written November 21st, 2007)
Originally published November 21st, 2007 on Fly Anglers Online by Rick Zieger.