Fished a pond I had been to before, but had not previously fished. Picked the wrong day. The ground was soft, muddy, and vegetation was sparse. So, I picked one spot and fished that area, then left. The water was super muddy as well...visibility @ 6" maybe. Had a couple soft bites, caught one tiny crappie.
At least I didn't get skunked!
Next, I visited a 2nd pond. Here I tried for crappies...caught 2, lost a decent one...but I was catching a lot of small bass. My buddy Chad texted me from another pond. He often flyfishes, but prefers to keep all his options open with other gear. He was hammering bass on spinning gear. I switched to a topwater fly and worked it aggressively. Bass were loving it....but they were all small (13" or less). Eventually I went back to trying for panfish. Along with some bluegills, I caught 3 Pumpkinseed Sunfish.
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Sunday:
Jay and I went out and fished a couple ponds together in the evening.
At the first pond, Jay noticed a big swirl as a bird flew close to the water near shore. He cast into the area and got an immediate strike. And promptly lost his fly. He suspects a bad knot, because he said he never really even felt the fish. Darn Grass Muskies! ;o) He did catch a bass, and this really nice Hybrid Sunfish:
I was trying a new fly pattern I'd created, in an "electric chicken" color scheme. It worked!
I caught a couple nice bass on it, and had a couple awesome strikes (fish trying to attack it from above!).
At pond 2, I tried the electric chicken fly again, but the water was just super-muddy. I switched to a popper and caught a good bass on the first cast.
I worked my way down the shoreline, catching a bass here and there, but the rest were all small ones (12" or less). I switched to a microjig and caught a 14" bass on the first cast. Then some bluegills. And Pumpkinseeds....I measured one at almost right at 9".
I caught a couple tiny crappies. Fish were hitting the surface occasionally, from the outside weed edge to the middle of the pond. I tried 3 different flies and caught fish on all of them....small bass, small crappies, bluegills, pumpkinseed. As the light faded from the sky, I fished my way back towards my car. In one stretch, there was more surface activity. Some were those small crappies, some were bluegills. Finally, I caught a "normal"-sized crappie....maybe 9". Then a pretty nice one for this pond....one I didn't measure, but would guess to be in the 10"-11" range. And then a REALLY nice one, measured 13"! And then mostly bluegills after that, so I called it a night.
The 13-incher is on the right:
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Monday (lunch hour flyfishing):
Lunchtime flyfishing today was interesting. At the first pond I went to, another angler had just arrived...so I went with the poor-quality Plan B pond.
Tried for crappies where they had been nesting a couple weeks ago. Nothing. Saw a bass chase something into the shallows. Put on a popper. Didn't see that bass again, but around the shoreline some distance away I did catch a smallish bass @ 12"+/-. I saw some muddy spots further ahead and worked my way there.
I saw a carp. I switched flies, and it was feeding still, nose down, but hadn't moved much. 2nd drag-n-drop into the area near its head (I couldn't see down in the water that far...but I could see the tail), my line twitched, and I set the hook. NICE FISH. What a fight! I saw a LOT of my backing.
I did eventually land it, but left my cell phone on my desk at work...so no picture. Rookie mistake....rookie mistake! But it was a beautiful golden 28" Common Carp with a nice red tail...and VERY healthy, but not obesely fat. Probably 9- to 10-pound range.
Several minutes later at another spot, I briefly hooked another carp, but it came unbuttoned after just a couple seconds.
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