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.

Double Fun for Fly Rod Bluegills

Nymph or popper?

I carried two fly rods during a recent pond outing and had a terrible time deciding which to pick up to cast to any given spot. Yesterday, as Nathaniel and I prepared to hit the pond for an afternoon outing between the rains, I looked at the same two flies and fly rods and thought, "Why am I not fishing those flies together?"

Lacking any good answer to my own question, I snipped the Tellico Nymph off one leader and grabbed the fly rod that was already rigged with a Sneaky Pete. I then tied a foot and a half of 4-pound-test Gamma fluorocarbon to the surface fly's hook and tied the nymph to the end of my newly created leader. "Doubling" is actually one of my favorite ways to rig for warm-water fish, but for some reason the notion had never struck me the other day.

The tandem rig performed wonderfully, producing a dozen or so bream in about an hour and saving me from having to decide whether to throw a surface fly or a nymph. I caught all except three on the nymph, but I don't think I would have found the same success fishing it alone or even fishing it together with another subsurface fly. The Sneaky Pete gets their attention when you twitch it on the top, and then they see that little yellow nymph, which looks like such an easy meal, dancing or dangling beneath it. Most fish hit a moment or two after a series of twitches, about the time the nymph settles beneath the top fly. (Of course the Sneaky Pete also serves nicely as a strike indicator, which is a fly-fisherman's fancy term for a bobber.)

A Sneaky Pete is not a true popper because of its pointed nose, but you fish it the same way, with quick little twitches that cause it to dart on top like a misguided terrestrial insect and to create a bit of sound. It's one of my favorite flies for bluegill and bass. A Tellico Nymph, compact, seriously buggy and easy for fish to see with it's bright little body, simply looks like dinner to fish, whether you're talking about trout or warm-water pond fish.

Other poppers or floating terrestrial flies and other nymphs or wet ant patterns would work nicely as well. Those flies have just been very good to me over the years so I am quick to grab them when I look into my fly boxes. Take whatever combination you own, and give this approach a try. I don't think you'll be disappointed.

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.