Pond Boss Forums FISH & FISHING Show off your catch Pond Fly Fishing

Hard to believe, I was fishing on 8" ice Monday evening, by Wednesday it was 3" of sketchy, honeycombed ice, imagine by Saturday it will be 100% open and I could probably pop some BCP or YP. Low of 5 last Friday, was 60-70 Wednesday thru today.

Good times in early March with a Stubby Steves Pellet on a hook...

Well done!

That's a chunky LMB!!!

This bass is from our neighborhood 1/4 acre pond.

The LMB have came out of the winter looking to be pretty plump.

My WAG is between 2# and 3#.

Yup, that's about right, Scott.

Getting closer to the 3 lb mark, but not quite there yet.

I got an inexpensive 8' 3 wt fly rod about a week ago and have fished with it 2 or more times a day every day since, despite wind every day but today. Just occasional gusts today. I put 3 wt line on it, and is cast well, good distance and fair accuracy, considering the wind. But it seemed as though the rod was too stiff for the line, so yesterday, I tried it with 4 wt line. Much better. Great distance, for me,and much better accuracy. I haven't tried the 3 wt line on the 7' 3 wt, but I'm afraid it's going to be too light that rod too.

I agree my TFO 3wt rod does much better when I put the 4wt fly line on it. Really slows the action down.

Turtle, what have you been catching???

Mostly nothing but FA. It's been windy for weeks until today. What I've been catching since I started fishing almost exclusively with flies are almost exclusively BG. They range from 3 oz up to 8 or 9 oz. One of the last ones I caught was the biggest yet - maybe 12 oz. I caught a crappie a week of so ago that might have been pushing a lb. It was the biggest crappie I've caught so far. When the pond was a couple ft higher and before the FA got so bad, I caught a few 3/4 LMB and an occasional shiner.

Still experimenting. I tried an inexpensive 490-4 with cheap, 5 wt WF floating line yesterday. Too windy for amature fly fishing, but when I caught the wind just right,I got "great" distance. I caught an averagee BG, then a small LMB that jumped like crazy, then got a nice BG on but lost it when my knot came untied. I've had a lot of trouble with my poorly tied improved cinch knots coming untied, so I've tried the Davy knot. It's a simple knot, but I still managed to mess it up. Just the same, it was fun, even if it was frustrating.

Turtlemtn, if your clinch knot is coming loose, you might try a San Diego jam knot. Almost exactly the same knot, but it finishes a little differently. A double San Diego is a great knot for traditional fishing as well. Whichever you use, be sure and wet it before you cinch it up.

Keep at it, it sounds like you're doing great.

Took the 5 wt down to the pond this afternoon. I stocked a few HBG last summer, and wanted to see how they were doing. They are still pretty small. I caught 7 or 8, all released. They were all near the surface. I could see them from the dam. Tied on a little black (I don't know what it is) I found in an old box of flies. They would hit it right when it hit the water, or not at all. Fun to catch, but I think I could use a lighter rod.

I use a Palamar knot (may be misspelled) it can be a pain to tie when using 2 lb line. Fly fishing, not tying, glasses help a lot. The knot will get tighter as the fish fight and pull the line and is an easy knot to tie.

Tracy

Try the "Orvis knot" for flies.....Google it or look on YouTube for instructions. I also use the same knot when tying lures to the line on my baitcaster. Been using it for over 20 years and it is simple and VERY reliable. For LMB or BG fly fishing you only need 2 knots....the Orvis knot and a "surgeon's knot". The surgeon's allows you to tie together 2 pieces of mono either the same size or different diameters. But a nice, level short 4 foot piece of mono looped or tied onto the loop at the end of your fly line is all that is needed....LMB and BG don't care and are way less picky than a trout.

The Davy knot looks simple and is supposed to be simple, so maybe I can eventually master it. I'm always interested in simple knots that are good enough. I'm not looking for the one that retains 99% of the line strength rather than 98%. I tried to tie a loop knot today and ended up with a sort of slip knot. I tied an overhand knot in the tag end of that and called it good. It was in a tapered leader that broke with a fish earlier today. I caught 3 LMB in the 12 to 16 oz range this evening with it, so it's holding. I tied on a little (4F, whatever that means) flatfish, and the LMB liked it. The BG did too, at first, but it's too big for them.

Best knot site that I've found.

http://www.animatedknots.com/

I like that Orvis knot. I've never seen it before. Looks just as easy as what I've been doing, maybe a bit easier with my worsening eyesight. (Just age related, but I hate hassling with cheaters)
Thx

Tracy, between arthritis in my hands and my eyesight issues, I gave up on 2 lb line about 20 years ago.

One cast, one HSB. George would be very happy his babies are doing well. Don't think I'll ever match James Holt's HSB success, but I'm ok with that. Caught on a skull head chartreuse streamer. My scale's set to 10ths, so I think it works out to 8.24 in ozs.

EDIT: I just checked. 2#'s over the TX private water state flyrod record. Another good day here.

Pretty fish , good job! 8# is nice

Never eaten one of them, how are they?

Al, I was not aware you had HSB in the pond. Nice fish for sure. New state record, Outstanding! Not sure I will ever get mine to 8#'s but I do enjoy the 4 lber's I have in the pond now. Mine like your's look very healthy!

No state record here. I know there are much bigger HSB caught and are never claimed, but I was extremely happy with that fish. I was thinking they would be closer to 5-6 pounds. To be honest, once the HSB started that first straight line pull, all I could think about was getting it in.

I put 20 in right before George started slowing down, so they should still have some growth in them. The majority of them time they're ghosts, and I rarely see them.

Awesome fish Fire.