Evening Pond Double Header

As chronicled in yesterday's post, Roscoe the lizard, low water and minimal bass action characterized our Sunday evening beaver pond stop. The beaver pond has dropped so low this summer that getting in and out and getting around to fish have gotten pretty challenging, so we decided to slide Nathaniel's johnboat into the back of the truck and move it to the upper pond.

It wasn't quite dark when we did moved the boat, so I suggested that we might need to make one quick lap around the upper pond. "Oh, I was already planning on that," Nathaniel said with a smile.

Good plan.

Although none of the fish were very large, both bluegills and bass were shallow and active, acting the way fish ought to act on a fall evening. We didn't count fish (Sorry Asher), but I'd guess we caught about a dozen fish in about 45 minutes. If it was 12 fish, that was 11 more than we caught from the beaver pond, so making it a pond double header definitely was the best decision.

Rain, Rain, Rain

Asher and I seem to pick our pond days to coincide with the days when afternoon rains materialize. The last three times we've launched a canoe or johnboat, the rain has set in soon after we launched. We don't mind the rain on its own. In fact, Asher would fish all day in a genuine drencher. Unfortunately, yesterday's rain brought with it rumbles of thunder and a storm that appeared to be getting closer, and the previous outing brought heavy wind gusts that made things iffy with an 8-year-old in a canoe.

The bad thing about both days shortened plans is that the fish were biting really well. Yesterday, we only fished about 15 minutes before the lightning threat pushed us off the pond, and we caught four fish and had several other strikes. Asher is becoming pretty skilled casting and working lures.

Some day soon I trust we'll get to get out there and really fish, and when we do I believe we will catch them well.

Bugs & Rain Won

Yesterday afternoon's pond outing was pretty short. It didn't take long to figure out that the mosquitoes were far more apt to bite than the bass or the bream, so when a drizzle arose and then turned into a steady soaker, we decided to steer it toward home. That's a nice thing about having ponds nearby, I suppose. You can decide on a whim to fish for a while and if you decide to quite early, little is lost.

Nathaniel Asher and I did manage a few fish (one apiece, actually). Mine was a bluegill, and it actually came from the house pond, where we picked up a canoe for Nathaniel to use. Nathaniel and Asher each caught one bass from the beaver pond. I had several surface hits on a Rebel Bighopper, but they seemed to be from bream that were a little too small to fully engulf the bait.

A week or so ago Nathaniel and I fished the house pond for bluegills and the bite was really good, with the fish all over little grubs. I might need to slip back out there with Asher one day vary soon so that he can experience some of the same.

Spring Trying to Spring

 

Waning writing productivity on Friday afternoon and a forecast for Saturday rain convinced Nathaniel and me that we needed to make a lap or two around the beaver pond to see if the fish were acting springish. Recent days have been chilly for the latter part of March in Georgia, and the radar even showed a few flurries near us yesterday morning. Still, some days have been quite warm, nights have been less cold overall, and flowers around the yard suggest that spring is trying to happen. 

 



Our test was admittedly quick. We had a little more than an hour of fishing time. Still, we found evidence that spring fishing might be trying to awaken. Despite it having been cloudy and only in the low 50s while were were out there, the fish bit fairly well and seemed to be in ambush mode. We caught five fish -- three on weightless plastics and two with a square-billed crankbait -- and missed a handful of others.

The next few days are supposed to remain damp and cool, but after that we're forecast to climb into high 60s and stay there for several days. My best guess is that we are right on the edge of the fish getting substantially more aggressive, and that soon Nathaniel will be creeping around the ponds' edge looking for fish he can target by sight.

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.