Back to the Pond

On Saturday, I noticed there was a large group gathered at the trout stream and so I suggested to the Chief that we head back to our secret pond on Sunday. I told him that I felt like with the abating heat over the last couple of weeks, the water should have cooled down and that the conditions would be favorable to catching some decent bass. D went along to observe and play in the pool, but she didn't even bother to take a rod.

Well, the pond was almost two-feet lower than when we were last there. The water was cooler, but much of the structure we had previously been using was now no longer in the water. We were sort of going to have to relearn the pond.

Starting off, I made a conscious decision to target bass and tied on a Clouser Deep Minnow. I started fishing and the Chief moved off down the bank, promptly sliding on the soft bank and falling.

"Are you okay?"

"Yes."

"Are you sure?"

"Yes."

Back to fishing.

His first cast, he broke the ice with a mature bluegill, and the same with the third. I had not had a nibble and he had caught a meal. I was stubborn though, and kept at it with the goal of a catching a bass.

After about two hours, the old man suggested we get in the boat, so we loaded up and shoved off, heading to the head of the pond. We never set the anchor, just drifting along and fishing. Before long, I pulled in a nice bluegill of my own on my chartreuse SHWAPF, only to learn that he had done the same.

As we began drifting into the sunlight, I was able for the first time to really see into the pond. It sits in the nexus of two ridges, taking their slope for its shape for the most part and reaching a depth of approximately 20 feet, and covering roughly 5 acres. However, the south side of the pond features a walled drop off that appears to be in excess of 6 feet. I told the Chief that had I known that from the beginning, I would have been fishing the pond much differently from the start.

I started attacking that wall and almost immediately caught another large bluegill. Dad caught two more, as the boat drifted up next to the dam and I never got on top of the wall again.

However, the sun was starting to drop, there were a few fish jumping, and I decided to tie on a popper. I caught my third bluegill and fourth bluegill before catching my first-ever hybrid bass, just barely long enough to be a keeper, but definitely the best fish of the day.

With that, we decided it was time to head home for the day. It had been productive. In a period of about 4 hours, we caught ten fish: 9 full-grown, healthy bluegill and nice hybrid bass. As we were loading up, I told Dad that I thought the hybrid made for the ninth species of fish I had now caught fly fishing. There are something like 270 total species of fish in Kentucky and I am now wondering how many of them I can catch on a fly.