I got away for some camping and watching the foliage very slowly turn up in VT this week. Since I was pretty sure I was too early, I brought the float tube and bass gear, just in case I got time...

I first went to a pond I saw reference to on line and got both skunked and the joy of a long kick back to the put-in against the strong wind that had come up.

So I paid a visit to wonderful folks the Fly Rod Shop and got two suggestions. The next morning, I drove out to the first pond. It was covered by white caps. Not in the tube...

So I got back into the truck and headed to the second suggestion a reservoir. When I got there it was quite still, so I setup and headed out. In 2 hours, I worked over the eastern shoreline quite thoroughly covering every visible piece of visible structure and the inner ranges of the weedbeds with poppers, my worm-like fly and streamers. Not a single hit or sign of moving fish.

So I started to work on the outer edges of the beds. My first cast with a popper got blown slight off target as the wind had started to come up a bit. So I started to retrieve back with quick strips to re-cast closer. The popper had moved about 5 feet when there was a big splash that had sliced through the 20lb fluorocarbon tippet like butter.

So I put on a steel bite guard on, another popper and re-cast to put it back there. The same quick stripping retrieve got a couple more hits but I could not get it to stick...

So I continued to work the outer edge of the weeds with out further action. I then went off and tried another arm of the reservoir that proved to be way too shallow and so after wasting a bunch of time I went back to the western shore and had one hit that looked more like a largemouth but didn't stick either. So I put on a mouse pattern without a weedguard hoping the bare hook would find home. But to test that you need a hit, which I didn't get. Hmmm... But then out of the corner of my eye I noticed something yellow floating out near the middle of the bay, so I went to take a look. It was my missing popper with 4" of fluorocarbon sticking out from the hook eye.

So I picked up the 10wt with the intermediate line and attached a red/white bulkhead to the bite guard. One cast, a tug to get the fly to sink, strip, strip, strip and bang it just stopped like it hit something really solid. Two hard strip strikes and a strong lateral set with the rod and it started to take off. It towed the tube a good distance before slowing and I was able to gain line on it, but a strong flash of a tanish tail and it was off again. Four more times i got it close only to have it sound again. The last time I got it close enough to get the "boga" grip firmly on the lower jaw. I measured 9.5 pounds on the scale. I tried to get a length with multiple passes on the 18" tape on the spray skirt, but she was not into that and started to struggle, but I guess 36".



If you are going to have a one fish day this was certainly the correct one fish... A nice first Northern Pike.

Now, I just need to figure out where these gals live in the Charles and Concord rivers.