I made my way to a small farm pond about a ¼ mile from my home on Sunday night. The wind was blowing at a constant 25 mph and I knew the direction of the wind would help me make roll cast into a corner of the pond that is tough to reach due to trees and brush behind the pond. I used my 2 weight and a floating line with a wet spider, tied from mole skin and white rubber legs…allowing the fly to sink slowly…which is very attractive early in the spring when fish are still cold and inactive.
I stripped out enough line made a couple small roll cast and then a long roll cast and let the spider sink…all the time watching the end of my green floating line; a couple seconds later the indicator (end of my fly line) jolted and I quickly strip set the line and had my first fish, it was a nice 11 inch crappie. I quickly released the fish and once again another roll cast along the bank about 10 foot off the edge and just like the first cast my line moved and I set the hook on a 12 inch bass. This pattern continued for the next 30 minutes with catches of bass, blue gill and several nice crappie.
I like being creative while fly fishing and looking for ways to catch fish in inopportune circumstances and while none of the fish were huge…they were all fun on my 2 weight rod and if you let your mind wander, to go back to our hunter roots, you can have fun and enjoy any fly-fishing situation. So…the next time you can sit and watch 60 Minutes….or go fly-fishing; grab your gear and go conquer a small pond, it may just someday carry over to a quiet lagoon and a baby tarpon!
Share This Post with Your Friends ...
Low Water Fly Fishing Tactics for Smallmouth
In today’s video adventure I am once again back on the upper St Croix River with my good buddy, Duane. We do 3-4 miles of clear and low river water in search of big smallmouth and luckily along the way … we find a few! On this day it was a trifecta of issues; low […]
A Lazy Day for Smallmouth and Pike On The Fly
Another day on the upper St Croix River and another great adventure for my good friend Duane and myself. The air was cool and there was some rain in and around us … barometer was falling and the fish were biting, especially a few big pike and smallmouth bass. What a complete treasure to have […]
Up Close and Personal: One Of My Best Smallmouth Days Ever!
Another awesome day on the St Croix River … lots of smallmouth bass and several over 16 inches with the largest coming in a tad over 20 inches. Every once in a while all the stars align as they did on this day and the fish are up and eager to eat one of my […]
The Highs and Lows of Fly Fishing
If you have watched any of my videos then you probably have seen the bible verse at the end slide of each video, Gal 6:9. There are a few versions but the one I stuck on as a kid is as follows: Let us not get tired in doing what is right, for after a […]