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My favorite kayak fishing occurs in freshwater ponds. I like the calm water and the overall peaceful setting that ponds offer.
Our Eastern Shore offers many millponds. Some were created in the 18th and 19th centuries to support industrial and agricultural activities such as saw mills or grain mills. Many are still surrounded by farms and some have bald cypress trees growing in their midst that were once harvested for their wood. Now these ponds are prime recreational areas for humans and home to birds, amphibians, mammals, reptiles, and very willing fish.
I visit our ponds in MD and DE as often as I can in spring and early summer for panfish. I return to them in late fall and throughout the winter for pickerels. Last evening, I made my final warm weather trip to an Eastern Shore pond for the year. As usual, the fishing was stellar. I caught over 3 dozen bluegills, most between 8.5 and 9 inches, a pickerel, a redear sunfish, a largemouth bass and a yellow perch, each on flies. I fished approximately 5 hours from 2:00 to 7:30 P.M. with a short break for a sandwich. As the sun drops the fishing heats up. That is why I like visiting them in the late afternoon and staying until dusk. By the way, the same time schedule is ideal for pickerel fishing in the late fall and winter.
There’s no matching the hatch in this kind of fly fishing. The flies I use in spring and summer look like nothing that exists in nature. These three provided all the action last evening – and on recent prior pond outings. They show their use:
IMG_6587.jpg
They are tied on size 6 streamer hooks. That hook is large enough to deter most small bluegills and also large enough to hold the occaisional bass or pickerel. They caught over 200 fish combined on several recent outings. I cut them from my leaders because their work is done for the season. Each got swallowed, chewed on, spit out and occasionally stuck in a tree or on a submerged log many times.
Here’s a few photos of them at work yesterday:
P1050774.jpg
P1050773.jpg
P1050789.jpg
And this nice redear completely swallowed the white foam fly. It also turned the bow of my kayak 180 degrees. A redear this size pulls hard:
P1050776.jpg
No harm done. I crush the barbs on my flies which makes removal easy.
My target areas when fishing ponds are dark waters like these shaded by trees:
P1050767.jpg
P1050768.jpg
Sending casts side-armed under the branches is a good tactic. It would be very difficult to cast a lure on conventional tackle into some of these areas without getting hung up.
Occasionally, I must wait for a few pond residents to pass before casting to a likely area:
P1050769.jpg
I have watched the above geese grow from goslings to adults this spring and summer. Now I cannot tell them from their parents.
So, if I find pond fishing so enjoyable, why will I not continue? Here is the answer:
P1050790.jpg
Organic matter builds in these ponds throughout the summer. Slime, algae and thick pods of hydrilla will make fishing difficult. I lost quite a few fish yesterday that got tangled in the slime you see above and eventually wiggled off of my hook. The organic matter will slowly die off in the fall and eventually disappear completely in winter. The dark waters will become gin clear allowing me to occasionally to sight cast to pickerels. And even if I do not see them before I cast, I often see them strike my flies in the cold clear water. That’s something I really like. By the way, my pickerel flies are much larger than the ones you see above. I target picks with colorful gaudy streamer flies that are size 1 to 2/0.
But pickerel fishing is months from now. Now it is back to my nearby tidal waters and the good kayak fishing they offer.
However, I thoroughly enjoyed my spring and early summer pond fishing outings this year.
Our Eastern Shore offers many millponds. Some were created in the 18th and 19th centuries to support industrial and agricultural activities such as saw mills or grain mills. Many are still surrounded by farms and some have bald cypress trees growing in their midst that were once harvested for their wood. Now these ponds are prime recreational areas for humans and home to birds, amphibians, mammals, reptiles, and very willing fish.
I visit our ponds in MD and DE as often as I can in spring and early summer for panfish. I return to them in late fall and throughout the winter for pickerels. Last evening, I made my final warm weather trip to an Eastern Shore pond for the year. As usual, the fishing was stellar. I caught over 3 dozen bluegills, most between 8.5 and 9 inches, a pickerel, a redear sunfish, a largemouth bass and a yellow perch, each on flies. I fished approximately 5 hours from 2:00 to 7:30 P.M. with a short break for a sandwich. As the sun drops the fishing heats up. That is why I like visiting them in the late afternoon and staying until dusk. By the way, the same time schedule is ideal for pickerel fishing in the late fall and winter.
There’s no matching the hatch in this kind of fly fishing. The flies I use in spring and summer look like nothing that exists in nature. These three provided all the action last evening – and on recent prior pond outings. They show their use:
IMG_6587.jpg
They are tied on size 6 streamer hooks. That hook is large enough to deter most small bluegills and also large enough to hold the occaisional bass or pickerel. They caught over 200 fish combined on several recent outings. I cut them from my leaders because their work is done for the season. Each got swallowed, chewed on, spit out and occasionally stuck in a tree or on a submerged log many times.
Here’s a few photos of them at work yesterday:
P1050774.jpg
P1050773.jpg
P1050789.jpg
And this nice redear completely swallowed the white foam fly. It also turned the bow of my kayak 180 degrees. A redear this size pulls hard:
P1050776.jpg
No harm done. I crush the barbs on my flies which makes removal easy.
My target areas when fishing ponds are dark waters like these shaded by trees:
P1050767.jpg
P1050768.jpg
Sending casts side-armed under the branches is a good tactic. It would be very difficult to cast a lure on conventional tackle into some of these areas without getting hung up.
Occasionally, I must wait for a few pond residents to pass before casting to a likely area:
P1050769.jpg
I have watched the above geese grow from goslings to adults this spring and summer. Now I cannot tell them from their parents.
So, if I find pond fishing so enjoyable, why will I not continue? Here is the answer:
P1050790.jpg
Organic matter builds in these ponds throughout the summer. Slime, algae and thick pods of hydrilla will make fishing difficult. I lost quite a few fish yesterday that got tangled in the slime you see above and eventually wiggled off of my hook. The organic matter will slowly die off in the fall and eventually disappear completely in winter. The dark waters will become gin clear allowing me to occasionally to sight cast to pickerels. And even if I do not see them before I cast, I often see them strike my flies in the cold clear water. That’s something I really like. By the way, my pickerel flies are much larger than the ones you see above. I target picks with colorful gaudy streamer flies that are size 1 to 2/0.
But pickerel fishing is months from now. Now it is back to my nearby tidal waters and the good kayak fishing they offer.
However, I thoroughly enjoyed my spring and early summer pond fishing outings this year.
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