Birthday Bass & Bluegills

Birthdays and fishing often go together around my house, as I fairly commonly take my children to a nearby pond for a while on their birthdays. Yesterday we sort of turned things around, with Nathaniel, my 16-year-old-son, taking me to the pond. We fished out of his johnboat and he ran it. I just sat in front cast. He also dragged a canoe down the hill and launched it in the next pond down so we could make a lap down there and hit some different water. (Bass in photo came from the middle pond.)

We enjoyed perfect fall weather yesterday, and the fish were even kind enough to join the celebration. We caught a dozen or so fish, most of which were bluegills, in a couple of hours of pond play.

I also spent a bit of my birthday with my wife at Lawrenceville Bass Pro Shops, picking out some bug-tying stuff that was a present from Sarah, my oldest daughter. I hope to wrap a bit of the new stuff on hooks today and use it to catch trout tomorrow, but maybe that's a different story!

Johnboat Move

Nathaniel's johnboat needed to get back to the side of the pond, where it would be handy for quick outings, and he and I both had time on Friday afternoon. So we loaded the boat into the back of the Expedition and drove to the pond, which is only a few miles from our house.

Of course once we got pond-side with boat, we thought we decided make sure it still worked by making a lap around the pond. Fortunately, we'd brought a few rods and reels, so we were equipped.

The fish bit less than I would have expected as a hot day cool and the sun dipped over the trees. I mostly fished for bream -- as I tend to at the pond -- and Nathaniel mixed his offerings. We caught a did handful of fish (three apiece, I think) but I would have expected a few more strikes than we got.

That's not a complaint. It was a beautiful afternoon, and a nice lap around the pond with Nathaniel was a mighty nice way to wrap up the workweek. And now the boat is back where we like it to be and handy for the next afternoon outing. Will that be today?

Durability Lacking

Well, I guess need to work on my tying mechanics. The fish made pretty quick work of an Ugly Bug yesterday. The good news is that the damage was done by a dozen bream and bass landed in about 45 minutes. So apparently it looked OK when we started the afternoon. It just wasn't put together very well. And it wasn't just that the fish were so aggressive that anything would work about the same. Nathaniel and I each tried other miniature offerings -- proven 'gill getters at times -- and those didn't do the job nearly as well.

A little better finish and a dab of cement would have served me well, I suppose. In fact, I ought to invest a bit of time watching a few videos about tying mechanics. One way or another, I know I need to get some more feathers on that jighead soon! Maybe before tomorrow, in fact. Trout waters await, and I sort of think the trout might like the same pattern.

Brisk Autumn Morning

Gloves would have felt good on the pond yesterday morning. It was pretty cold for early November in Georgia, and the chill in the air was magnified by the fog settled over the pond. I'm not complaining, though. We were there because we wanted to be there, and I certainly could have worn gloves.

The pond was beautiful, as things around here tend to be this time of year, especially in the early morning sunshine. The fish also bit pretty well. We didn't count our fish, but Nathaniel and I caught quite a few bream and bass in just a couple of laps around the pond. The bass were all small, but the bream were decent sized, and we mostly fished with panfish tackle.

We called it quits relatively early because of other Saturday plans, but neither of us really minded that because the chill sort of dug deeper as we fished. The warm truck and hot coffee at home were both nice after a brisk but fun morning outing.

76 Fish, but Who is Counting Anyway?

Nathaniel and I are not big fish counters, especially when the bite is good and our focus is simply on having fun catching the fish. However, Asher, my 8-year-old, always wants to know numbers. Therefore, when we saw that the action was going to be fast yesterday afternoon, Nathaniel and I went ahead and started counting, confirming the count aloud with virtually every fish caught. We could have missed it by one or two, but I'm confident that our tally of 76 fish in about three hours was pretty close to accurate. The catch included crappie, bass and bluegills, with some hard-pulling, hefty 'gills in the mix.

The top producing baits were the smallest size of Lindy Watsit Grub, which we fished on ultralight spinning tackle, cast close to the bank and worked slowly with little twitches of the rod tip. However, I also caught several fish on a fly rod, which was rigged with a Sneaky Pete and a Tellico Nymph, and Nathaniel caught several bass on buzzbait.

We only caught three crappie, but all three were somewhat noteworthy. I dropped a tandem-rigged pair of Watsit Grubs beside the pond's spillway, got hit immediately and set the hook into what turned out to be a pair of black crappie.

About 15 minutes later, while I was casting my Watsit Grub for bream and Nathaniel was buzzing for bass, I suddenly heard racket behind me and Nathaniel calling out, "Whoa!" I turned to find him scrambling to grab his ultralight rod, which was about to go out of the boat. It seems his Watsit had been hanging barely in the water, and a seriously aggressive crappie that wasn't the least bit scared of the boat had darted up and grabbed it. He rescued the rod and landed the fish! (Photo below.)

It was one of those fun fishing days where everything just worked, and the result was a big number of fish caught in only a few hours and a big dose of summer fun.

Pond Fish for Everyone

The plan had been that Asher and I would make a lap or two around the pond in the canoe while Autumn and Eli played at the beach with my wife. However, soon after Asher and I launched the canoe, the skies turned black and some strong wind gusts began sweeping the pond. Wanting neither to get flipped by a rogue wind nor caught on the wrong side of the pond if a thunderstorm suddenly came upon us, we pulled out the canoe and fished from that part of the shore, landing a few bass and bream.

After finishing there, we drove to the beach side of the pond to visit with the others and make a few casts from the dam. The second part of that got Autumn's and Eli's attention, and soon there were four of us walking the banks, three rods going and bream and bass being caught by everyone. Autumn caught one bass completely on her own, casting a weightless worm from the shore, working it back, hooking the fish when it bit and landing it. Asher then jumped in and took over unhooking and coaching his little sister on how to hold the fish. Eli and I tag-teamed efforts with a Road Runner Original Marabou to catch a couple of big bluegills and his first bass. Asher worked solo and caught several bass on the Asher Rig.

Nathaniel wasn't with us because he was fishing other ponds with a friend, and apparently they caught about 20 bass and bream between them, including a couple of pretty good bass. Sarah was kind enough to stay home with little Holly, who needs to at least start standing before she can fish, so everyone else could play.

Followed by Feeding Fish

"It was the hardest weedeating I've ever done," Nathaniel told me about some work he did with a friend a couple of afternoons ago.

I expected the report to follow to tell of rubbery plant stems that defied cutting, terrain that was tough to traverse, mechanical problems or maybe encounters with biting insects or other pesky critters.

None of the above.

Instead, Nathaniel was doing fairly routine weedeating, except that he was working along the banks of a pond, and as he walked and cut he was sending a buffet of 'hoppers and insects into the water. He actually had a mixed school of bass and bluegills following him along the lake's perimeter. He could see them swimming close to the surface, waiting to ambush every insect as it landed. Even a small snake that Nathaniel inadvertently scared into the pond only swam a few feet before a bass devoured it.

Being every bit as adamant a fisherman as his dad, spending a couple of hours working and watching those feeding bass and bream with no rod in hand was almost more than Nathaniel could stand. The good news is that this afternoon he gets to return to the same pond with another friend -- this time to fish instead of working. I wonder if the fish will feed as voraciously or if he fed them too well the other day!

Slower Saturday Evening

Should have brought a fly rod, I suppose. The bite last night was much slower than it has been for the past two Saturdays, with Nathaniel, Asher and I each catching only one fish in our final-hour Saturday outing. Fish were out in the middle of the pond, sipping tiny insects from the surface from the time we arrived until dark, so I think they had bugs on the brain.

We couldn't tell if it was a mix of bream and bass or all bream, but since the bass weren't on the banks hitting the offerings that normally produce well, I'm quite certain most of the fish on the pond were keyed in on the bug diet. At least one other time, a summer or two ago, the water almost seemed like it was boiling with fish feeding on the surface and we couldn't draw a sniff with our normal lures.

If we get back out to the pond some evening soon (which we probably will), I'll definitely bring a fly rod and some tiny dry flies and nymphs so I can test the theory.