It Was Another Good Day of Fishing 5-3-09

Jeff and I split up this week and fished two different locations. Friday, Jeff played hooky and went up to the Pemi with another friend, Jamie, to try his hand hunting the Atlantic Salmon the State stocks. Jeff was fishing an Orange Bomber and I’ll leave it to him to post about his day.

I, on the other hand, had to work on Friday and with no one able to get out this weekend, I went back to my favorite pond to see if what I could do. So Sunday I packed up my kayak and headed for the pond to try my luck. It was an overcast day, around 62 degrees, no wind, and I had a window of about 3 hours before parenthood called me back home to run my son around. The pond wasn’t nearly as busy as it was last week but there were a few guys out fishing in canoes and kayaks. As I pulled up the fish were rising but I know enough about this place to know that just because they were rising, didn’t mean they would hit what I had to offer.

I started out with the rig that worked last week, I had a Elk Hair Caddis with a Bead Head Nymph dropper. But, unlike last week, they were hitting on top this week. Not a lot of action but I did manage to pick up a 10” Brookie within 15 minutes of being on the water. I thought this was going to be a great day! But that was it, nothing else even looked at my rig. I’m sure you know how frustrating it is to see fish rising all around you with nothing hitting what you’re fishing. Soon I started changing out what I was using. I noticed that in the beginning, I would only see swirls on the surface where the fish were rising but now I started to actually see them break the surface every now and then. Now I don’t profess to know how a fish thinks, nor do I profess to understand exactly what was going on but I did know they weren’t hitting my Nymph, I did get a hit on the dry but it wasn’t until the fly got pretty wet and started to sink a bit deeper into the film did I even get a second hit on the Caddis. I switched to a Crippled Elk Hair Caddis and my luck changed. I picked up another 2 Brookies, nice size, maybe 12” and 13” not bad. With the clock moving closer to my commitments back home, I headed to the boat ramp but started to actively cast the Crippled Elk Hair. I didn’t let it sit for long, just kept putting it out there, let it sit for about 30 seconds and cast again. As soon as it hit the water after 3-4 casts something hit it hard, nearly coming out of the water but I missed it. A few more casts and WHAM! I hooked into a 15” Tiger! Beautiful fish, I am only sorry that I didn’t have my camera for a picture.

Well that was it, I had to head home. For a quick 2 hour venture I picked up 3 Brookies and a nice sized Tiger trout. So far the season is off to a great start, let’s hope my luck holds for the rest of the season.