Monday, February 27, 2012

First Open-Water Fish of the Year-February 25, 2012


My friend Ben wanted to fly-fish some open water on Saturday morning.  Lots of choices as far as the local public ponds were concerned, since most of them had become 100% ice-free in the past week.  Of course, late in the previous week we got hit by a snowstorm and a brief return to colder temperatures.  How would this affect the fish?

We met at one of the ponds, fly-fished for about an hour.  We each caught one tiny crappie.  First open water fish of the year!  :hello2:

Then we headed to another pond.  We fished for a couple hours before Ben had to leave.  It was slow...we'd each caught at least 2 crappies, and missed several other fish.

Since I was there, I decided to stay after Ben left to try a couple other spots.  I ended up trying just one spot, and stood there for another hour, and caught a total of (at least) 16 crappies.  THAT was fun!

Yes, it was cold...had to fly-fish with gloves on, and also had to clean the ice out of the line guides every 2nd or 3rd cast.

It was very fun, great to finally catch some fish on fly-gear from open water again, and the fish fought well.  What caught fish for us was chartruese microjigs under an indicator.


3 comments:

  1. Glad you got a chance to hit the water, from what it looks like some nasty storms are headed your way!

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  2. @Kevin...Crappie are delicious, but these are too small to bother cleaning. So...back in the water they go!

    @Dale...Did you get this weather first? Yeah, this wind, rain and ice is preventing me from trying to fly-fish for trout during my lunch hours!

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