David Lee
04-09-2009, 08:14 AM
Kienes B.B. buddy/good Friend/Bass lunatic Hairstacker Mike came up to Sacramento for a visit ......
Mike's visit is something that I always enjoy (I enjoy his visits enough that I want to hide his Car keys ....) - hopefully we can get some assorted fishes ! Only problem ?? It's nasty outside . Most warmwater critters are sensitive to cold fronts coming thru ..... what to do ??? Hmmmmmm .....?
Hit POND X !! The Mother of all small ponds !!!! How can we fail ??!??
The good news is .... we didn't fail .
While Pond X fell short of being EPIC , it was close enough to be ALMOST epic - We had a conservative body count of 50+ (probably closer to 65 or 70 .... I don't count that closely anymore ...)) between the two of us , mostly fair 'Gills and Shellcrackers , some in the 10-inch range ..... and several LMB , none over 2 lbs. . Kind of hard to believe that the water up the hill is still a bit chilly , but it is . Pond X level is down 4-feet from my last (2007) visit , and it is weeded in pretty hard . Access only 2 or 3 spots , the rest is overgrown . Wading impossible , unless you want to spend eternity as a fossill (yup , our old friend , the MUCK bottom ....) . The other pond in the area is totally overgrown , so we didn't fish it .
The hot fly was a scud-hook Olive beaded Birdnest , size #10 . We also used tiny poppers , a #8 Carey Special , and Mike's Hare's ear . A new Rust Woolhead Leech got me the Bass of the day .
Learned several things -
Killer Ponds w/ huge fish populations are almost weather-proof .
Mike will be adding the Birdnest to his top-10 flies soon .
Don't run thru fields pock-marked w/ varmit dens .
Wading on sucking-muck bottoms is best left to Herons (I knew that one already) .
The walk out sucks MUCH harder than the walk in (I knew that one , also) .
Mike needs to visit more often .
All said , a pretty pleasant day !! I'll post photos tonight ....
David
Mike's visit is something that I always enjoy (I enjoy his visits enough that I want to hide his Car keys ....) - hopefully we can get some assorted fishes ! Only problem ?? It's nasty outside . Most warmwater critters are sensitive to cold fronts coming thru ..... what to do ??? Hmmmmmm .....?
Hit POND X !! The Mother of all small ponds !!!! How can we fail ??!??
The good news is .... we didn't fail .
While Pond X fell short of being EPIC , it was close enough to be ALMOST epic - We had a conservative body count of 50+ (probably closer to 65 or 70 .... I don't count that closely anymore ...)) between the two of us , mostly fair 'Gills and Shellcrackers , some in the 10-inch range ..... and several LMB , none over 2 lbs. . Kind of hard to believe that the water up the hill is still a bit chilly , but it is . Pond X level is down 4-feet from my last (2007) visit , and it is weeded in pretty hard . Access only 2 or 3 spots , the rest is overgrown . Wading impossible , unless you want to spend eternity as a fossill (yup , our old friend , the MUCK bottom ....) . The other pond in the area is totally overgrown , so we didn't fish it .
The hot fly was a scud-hook Olive beaded Birdnest , size #10 . We also used tiny poppers , a #8 Carey Special , and Mike's Hare's ear . A new Rust Woolhead Leech got me the Bass of the day .
Learned several things -
Killer Ponds w/ huge fish populations are almost weather-proof .
Mike will be adding the Birdnest to his top-10 flies soon .
Don't run thru fields pock-marked w/ varmit dens .
Wading on sucking-muck bottoms is best left to Herons (I knew that one already) .
The walk out sucks MUCH harder than the walk in (I knew that one , also) .
Mike needs to visit more often .
All said , a pretty pleasant day !! I'll post photos tonight ....
David