Bait?

shiner catch

Bass bait! I won’t claim the thought didn’t go through my mind. When I caught a little shiner while bream fishing with my son at his pond, I naturally wondered what might happen if I re-hooked the shiner on a larger hook and pitched it back by the dock or near a shoreline bush.

I used to do that with other golden shiners at a creek near my house while I was growing up. It was fun, and I recall a bit of extra pride that came from catching fish on another fish I had also caught by rod and reel.

As luck would have it for the shiner, I only had the one light rod, which was rigged with a 1/48-ounce jig that had a No. 8 hook. It wasn’t worth hanging onto the baitfish and tying on a bigger hook — and my rod wouldn’t really have been suited for the job. 

So the shiner, which was a new species for me in 2026, got away with just smiling for a single photo before being tossed back into the pond. 

I really need to check some notes and write out my whole list, but with the shiner and some kind of chub or sucker I caught on another recent trip, I think the ‘26 species tally is at 22.

Bank Beating Boy

Asher has been pounding the pond this week. For the past couple of days, he's gotten to spend a couple of afternoon hours per day walking the bank and slipping a cast everywhere he can squeeze between the trees. If Asher is fishing, he is happy, but to make a good thing even better, the fish have been pretty cooperative. I believe both days produced five or six fish, and yesterday's catch included one 15-inch bass. (He toted around a cooler lid that had a measuring rule on it.) He has caught a few bluegills, but most fish have been bass.

Asher's approach has been simple. He has stuck with a Lindy Watsit Grub and mixed swimming it and hopping it along the bottom. Normally we have to vertical fish in the deepest part of the ponds to catch much during mid-December, but the weather has been so mild that the fish are still acting like it's mid-autumn.

Trading Places

"Hey. You're fishing for bass, and I'm fishing for bream," Nathaniel observed as we worked our along a pond bank, with me popping a Zell Pop and him swimming a micro jig.

In a way that's not unusual. When we fish ponds together, we often both have a bass rod and a bream rod rigged, and it's not uncommon for both of us to be casting for whatever is biting best or trading bass for bream rod from one cast to another. And with both spend time throwing things like Rebel Crickhopper and smallish grubs that appeal to the pond's bass and bluegills .

That said, the old guy definitely is the 'gill getter of the pair and the one who will stick with throwing little stuff. The young guy is the bass fisherman. So for me to be casting for bass and him for bream (for more than a few casts) really is a bit odd and warranted comment.

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?

Unplanned Swim

I still don't know how it happened. I've spent hundreds of hours in canoes, and the only two other times I ever flipped were in rivers: one caused by a strainer, the other by a high rock in a rapid. Yesterday I was on the pond and had just gotten in. I'd walked through the center of the boat to the back seat and sat down with no issues. The canoe wasn't partly grounded, and I wasn't standing or leaning for anything. Somehow my weight just shifted and everything went all at once. Next thing I knew it, I was standing next to an upside-down canoe, shoulder deep, and soaked from head down, still wearing my hat and glasses.

The good news is that I had taken out my phone and the little button gizmo for my keys (admittedly because I was bringing my 9-year-old out with me). Also, it's July, so neither the pond nor the air was cold, and Asher hadn't even gotten in yet, so two of us didn't get soaked. I'm also thankful that the only cameras I had with me were my waterproof point-and-shoot and a couple of GoPros, in their cases. (Too bad the GoPro wasn't mounted on the side of the canoe and running.)

The bad news is that I snapped two rods (including one I was particularly fond of) right in the center. I had to fish them out of the lake, so my best guess is that I stepped on them when I first found solid footing.

I did get back on the horse, so to speak. I found another rod I could use, and we still made one lap around the pond. We only caught one fish, but one is better than none. For Asher, I'm guessing it will be one of his most memorable pond outings, even with only one fish having been caught!

One is Better than None

OK. We're not in Ohio to fish. We're here so Nathaniel can teach and perform at a dulcimer festival. But, hey, it never hurts to throw a few rods in the car. Right? You never know.

Turned out we got to town just early enough to make one quick walk down the bank of a lake right in town before Nathaniel had to get to work. It didn't yield much, but one is better than none. And I think I figured out my strategy for catching bluegills a little later. I'll report whether it works!

Dog Fish

Kenneth sheds. In fact, he sheds a lot. So when he got a bath yesterday, I got a big pile of black dog hair. If it turns out to be good jig material I'll be set for a long time. There's a big pile of it drying outside.

I tied one quick little Kenneth bug yesterday, just to see how manageable the material seemed, and I took it along on a short pond outing. All I can claim at this point is that the bluegills like Kenneth bugs. We'll find out about trout soon, I suspect, and I might have to whip out a few 1/8-ounce Kenneth bugs to test next week at Sturgeon Bay.

The hair looked good in the water, and the jig stayed together well. The material was less buoyant than I expected, so I might have to mix with other materials or tie bugs thicker if I want a slower sink rate.

Pond Play & Child-Friendly Rigs

Three of my children (Asher, 9; Autumn, 7 and Eli, 5) often go with my wife for an hour or two of afternoon pond play, usually with swimming as the primary focus. On Monday, I decided to tag along, and of course I toted a few fishing rods. I rigged simple hook/bobber rigs for Autumn and Eli, and we dug up some worms before we left home. I gave Asher a 4-inch YUM Dinger, rigged weightless and nose hooked with a 1/0 Daiichi Circle Wide Bleeding Bait Hook.

Next time, I might rig all three with the latter, especially if the bass are still up shallow. The worms produced some gills, but bobber rigs get twisted around the ends of rods pretty easily and hooks require nearly constant rebaiting. As long as weeds or brush aren't too thick for an open hook point, it's tough to go wrong with A Dinger on A small circle hook. a child can cast out a Dinger, and whether he simply lets it sink, reels it back or hops it, a bass it apt to bite, and with a circle hook, by a child realize a fish has hit, it usually is hooked.

Spring

Word has it spring sprang early this afternoon. While my friends to the north remain unconvinced, (something about a foot and a half of ice makes it seem less springy, I hear), we're enjoying perfect weather in North Georgia today, and it feels like the first day of spring. Mid 60s, I'd guess, sunny, and with a slight breeze. Truly the only thing that's not good about today's weather is that I probably won't have the opportunity to get out in it and go fishing.

Our winter has been cold, as yours most likely has, no matter where you are reading this, so our flowers and fish behavior and such clearly are behind where they'd normally be. It doesn't look as springy outside as it should in mid March, and it I could go to the ponds, I'd probably need to fish more slowly than would feel right. The forecast looked good last I peeked at it, though, and it won't take much weather like today's to make it seem like spring in every way.

I sure do wonder what the fish are doing on the pond today!

One Quick Pond Lap

The primary purpose of today's pond visit was to slide out in the canoe and grab a few jigs and bobbers we left hanging in trees and bushes yesterday when I bank-fished with a few of the smaller members of my crew. But as long as we were headed that way, Nathaniel and I figured we should tote along a rod apiece. Always time for one quick pond lap, right?

It was indeed a quick lap -- half an hour at the most -- but we did manage to each catch a fish. Nathaniel caught a nice bluegill on one of his first casts, and I snuck one bass out of the corner of the pond. Of course my favorite thing about the fish I caught was that it ate an Ugly Bug (my hand-tied jigs) -- one with a sparkly white body and a pink tail that was already tied to the rod.

Now back to writing fish stories.

Pond Play

Rain is coming tomorrow, followed by more cold, but this afternoon warmed up nicely and we had a little time, so it was a good afternoon to visit the pond with three of my children. Asher, Autumn and Eli all like to fish as often as they get a chance, and there really haven't been a lot of good chances so far this year.

It was a simple outing, walking the banks. Eli, 5, and Autumn, 7, both fish with worms on ice jigs under floats. Asher, 9, mostly threw a Lindy Watsit Grub. Eli had the hot rod of the pack, managing his first bluegill and his first bass of 2014.

I cast when I could with a little Road Runner Original Marabou, but I spent most of my time pulling hooks from branches, grass and shirts, re-baiting lines and undoing knots. No complaints there. That's all part of the fun. We also left a couple of float rigs out of reach from the shore in bushes. Nathaniel and I might have to retrieve them with the johnboat one day this week. I suppose we'll have to make a few casts when we do!

Georgia Ice Fish

We really did have to pull our fish up through holes a hole in the ice.

Granted, we weren't standing on the ice, but were in Nathaniel's johnboat, but to get to the area where we usually catch fish during the winter, we had to crunch a little path through a thin coat of ice with the boat. Nathaniel then jockeyed the boat back and forth just a little to open the hole enough that we could fish off the side of the bait, and we presented worm-tipped Lindy ice jigs vertically, just as we might have if we had been further north.

No. It wasn't true ice fishing, but I'd say it's about as close as we'll ever come n Georgia!

Shopping for Bass

No amazing deals on the pond today, and the  fish didn't even bite especially well. We managed a few, though, and with or without them, I'd have sure rather been out in the johnboat than near any malls on the Friday after Thanksgiving.

We fished the same pond as a couple of days ago, with a friend and me in his boat and Nathaniel and Asher in Nathaniel's boat. While the wind wasn't howling like it did on Tuesday and the water had gone down some, it was still quite muddy. Even black or chartreuse baits disappeared less than a foot beneath the surface.

The two fish I caught both hit a spinnerbait with gold Colorado blades that sent out a fair amount of flash and thump. Both were tight to the bank, and I'm guessing I pretty much landed the bait on their heads. Nathaniel also caught one bass on a flashy metallic-colored jerkbait, fishing it really slowly and hooked and lost one other (the biggest of the morning, of course) on the same bait and presentation.

Couldn't Not Go Fishing

High, muddy water from yesterday's all-day rain, 38-degree air, and northwest winds blowing 20 and gusting higher all suggested that today was a day to stay home. So what did we do? Of course, we went fishing. We didn't fish terribly long. Maybe an hour and a half. The sun had come out, though, and we'd gotten it in our heads that today was a pond day, so it seemed the only way to get that out of our system was indeed to go fishing.

The wind made boat control a challenge and the fish bit about the way I would have expected, giventhe chocolate milk water (one bite). I did really like the one fish that I caught because it ate one of my Ugly Bugs, which is what I like to call the jigs I've been tying lately. Specifically, the fish ate a Road Runner tied with dark Flashabou and a bit of marabou in its tail and some dark but shiny chenille for a body.

I actually don't think all my Ugly Bugs are ugly, and I'm looking forward to taking some of them to a trout stream some time soon! We also may hit the pond again Friday, and the water should be a better color and the wind is supposed to be gone. Both would be good things.

Plans Stuck in the Mud.

It seemed like a good plan. Nathaniel wanted to bring his boat back to the pond-side spot where he most commonly keeps it, and we had a few hours of daylight left in the evening.

Warm and calm, it seemed like a fly rod night, so I rigged a Sneaky Pete on one rod and a Tellico Nymph on the other. Nathaniel, meanwhile, rigged his baitcasters with a buzzbait and a floating worm. Prospects were looking good.

What neither of us considered was that recent rains had one spot in a pond-side field we've driven across dozens of times seriously soft. The tires started spinning and the truck sinking, and soon we were stuck. Long story, short: Just before dark, a friend gave us a ride ride home, with the truck still stuck and not a cast having been made.

Tomorrow we'll resume trying to get the truck out, and maybe I'll find a chance to try casting those flies! I do believe I had chosen a good line-up.