Local Public Pond
Fly-fished
Time Fished: 7:30pm-8:30pm
Weather: Sunny/dusk, 61 degrees F
Wind: 15mph from the North
Fish sought: Bass
Fish caught: 9 bluegills, 1 crappie
Best pattern: microjig
The wind was finally blowing out of the right direction for me to try some topwater poppers for bass. No takers along the short stretch of shoreline I fished. A guy with spinning gear on the opposite side of the pond did catch a small bass (<12").
I saw a nice Grass Carp porpoise within casting distance, so I chucked the popper in front of it, but no luck.
I'd seen some surface activity that I figured was bluegills, so I switched to a microjig. The first one (mostly black) got some attention, but no hookups. I switched to one with an olive grizzly marabou tail and an olive sparkle dubbing for the body. I caught all the fish on this.
The biggest bluegill was a chunky 8.5" female, which is the biggest I've caught on the fly rod so far this year.
The fish that got me all excited (and still couldn't fall asleep 2 hours later) was the crappie. It was a BEAST! Its my "Personal Best" on the fly rod, although I've caught bigger on spinning gear. It is a white crappie, and measured 14". It fought really hard, taking line a couple times. I was sure it was a bass, until it finally got closer to shore! I released all the fish, as usual.
Dave
ReplyDeleteAwesome catch, especially that crappie, and it is unusual to land that size female gill, on the fly. I usually land small females before I get into the bulls. Nice post.
Interesting point, Bill, about the females often being a bit smaller than the males. In the public ponds I fish locally, there is excellent shore access around the entire ponds. What I've seen happen is the big males are easy targets when they are on their nests, and get harvested. Since anglers can see them, they will sometimes work to catch every single nesting bluegill. The females tend to hang off the outer edges of the nesting areas in deeper water, and aren't as easily spotted or caught. Last year at this same pond, I was catching large females full of eggs, but there weren't any males on nests, because of the previous year's overharvest. The eggs never got laid. This isn't typical in larger lakes, but can happen in these smaller public ponds that get lots of fishing pressure.
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