Christmas Eve Pond Play

Late yesterday afternoon, Nathaniel decided the pond bluegills needed a Christmas Eve visit. I agreed, and we both figured that Asher would like to tag along. We scrounged up a few worms, which were shallow and easy to find on a strangely warm and rainy December day, grabbed ultralights and ice jigs, and hopped in Nathaniel's truck.

When Asher's along, it's always a competition, so we settled on an inches game. We would measure every fish and total the inches. For modesty sake, I won't say who won.

We only had an hour or so to fish before dark, but the fish were cooperative. We caught about 15 fish and even managed a couple of doubles. We caught them all on tipped ice jigs, either fished vertically at the deep end of the pond or cast to the bank, allowed to sink and dragged slowly across the bottom. The fish aren't stacked in the deep water yet, but they are on the bottom, and some have moved all the way out.

Last fish of the year? Maybe, but we still have a whole week, so maybe not!