I flyfished a local public pond. I had fished it earlier in the year and caught some decent crappies, but in the half-dozen trips since April, I had only caught a grand total of 6 more crappies. I was worried about the population, and also concerned about all the algae and weeds that had rimmed the pond all summer.
The algae and weeds have mostly died off now, but may decompose over the winter, robbing the water of precious oxygen and possibly causing a winterkill. I hope my fears do not come to fruition.
The migratory geese and ducks have stirred up the sediment in the pond, reducing the water clarity significantly.
The rest of the story is good news. I found plenty of crappies and bluegills, and they are in GREAT SHAPE right now....all very chunky and healthy! I caught one 13" bass, and my "pet" bass...the 20-incher I caught 3 times last year...showed up. She hung out right in front of me for quite awhile. Because of the mud stirred up by the waterfowl, I could only see her when she was very shallow, right in front of me. She gave chase to a nice bluegill I had hooked, but she didn't catch it. I released a crappie back into the water, and as it swam towards deeper water, she appeared and gulped in the front 1/2 of the crappie, then turned and swam off with it still in her mouth. Pretty cool!
Pretty much all the fish hit a chartreuse 1/80th oz microjig suspended @ 18" beneath a Fish Pimp strike indicator.
And the pictures:
Dave
ReplyDeleteColorful fish, makes me wish for spring time. I notice you use a small clip on the end of your line to attach the jig; I have seen those but can't remember the name??? Thanks for sharing
Good eye, Bill!
DeleteThat's a "No Knot Fas-Snap". I've been using them for probably at least 5 years now. They are similar to using a loop knot to tie on your fly...but with this you can change flies in seconds without using up more tippet.
You wrote a short article about them on your blog on April 23, 2012.
The story of the bass reminds me of a youtube video I just saw. A guy was dangling a panfish in front of a turtle. When suddenly a huge bass came up from the depths and devoured that panfish. When I do that people just stare at me and point.
ReplyDeleteYeah, Drew....I saw that video too! That turtle had his mouth open and was just getting ready to try for a bite when that bass came up from underneath...and then the bass threw a strategic tail swat at the turtle at it dove back down, to push it away. :)
DeleteI caught a big bass (21.75"...thats pretty big for Iowa) twice earlier this year, both times it grabbed a bluegill I was fighting. And I've seen it happen a few other times this year. Pretty cool. Totally makes me feel that my flies aren't anywhere NEAR big enough to be interesting to those bigger bass!
Wow, Dave, what a great outing for this time of the year on the local ponds. Those Crappie and Bluegill look very healthy. Sure hope their is not a problem with water quality as you stated. That would be a shame..........
ReplyDeleteI agree, Mel! This pond gets a lot of waterfowl on/around it as well. So decomposing goose poo could also rob the water of oxygen over the winter. I flyfished the pond for a couple hours one morning this weekend. The water clarity seemed a bit better, and it was sunny. I think that pushed the crappies away from shore/deeper. I caught 10 bluegills and a couple bass, but only 4 crappies this time.
DeleteCan't beat some late Fall crappie action on the fly! The weeds and vegetation from the shorelines of the lake in my backyard have gone away, and I haven't caught a thing back there in 2 weeks. Not even a bead head San Juan Worm stirred anything up. Winter is coming.
ReplyDeleteYep, Winter IS coming. This time of year is great for crappies, they will hit all the way to ice-up. They seem to come closer to shore and shallower now. My better days lately have been overcast days and evenings (even after dark!). Crappies have large eyes and don't like bright sunlight.
DeleteJustin, if you haven't tried this already, my recommendation for crappies is a 1/80th oz microjig (chartreuse body and tail, unpainted head) suspended @ 18" below a strike indicator (my favorite is the original size Fish Pimp football-style indicator). Fish it slowly...let the waves move the indicator up and down. If you don't get a strike in about 10 seconds, retrieve the indicator about 1' and repeat. Nice bluegills and even some bass have been hitting this too.