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Harry (On the fly), Harlan and I launched at Unicorn Lake in Millington, MD this morning at 8:00 a.m. Note the glassy surface as Harlan and Harry leave the ramp.
A.jpg
After the pervasive winds we have been battling this spring, being on the water without a ripple was very welcome. Better yet, we were the only anglers on the lake. There were a few people fishing from shore. But essentially we had all 43 acres to ourselves.
Each of us carried fly rods and spinning tackle. I brought a 4 wt., a 7 wt. and a light spinning rod. I threw floating line on each fly rod.
Harry broke the ice almost immediately with a bluegill.
I was not as fortunate. It took over an hour of pounding the shoreline before I hooked a bluegill on the 7 wt. with an olive colored wooly bugger.
B.jpg
I had just tied on the wooly bugger. Prior to that I had tried unsuccessfully to entice a bass to the surface with a popper. I hooked none but I did get a few swirls.
That little bluegill also happened to be the first fish I caught in my new Native Watercraft Ultimate 12. I like the rich colors of bluegills from Eastern Shore ponds, especially those deep orange bellies. The Ultimate is a wonderful platform for pond fishing, by the way. It glides through the water with ease and is very stable. It’s a joy to fish from.
A long dry spell for me ensued after that first fish. I cast a small popper on my 4 wt. to no avail. I threw a spinner on spinning rod with no strikes.
Then Harlan radioed that he had picked up a pickerel – trolling no less!
I left “bass mode” and saddled up for pickerel. I put a Clouser Minnow on my 7 wt. and nailed this devil on my very first cast:
D.jpg
Then I got another pickerel almost immediately on the Clouser. The key was vegetation. The pickerels were hanging on the edges of these plants:
C.jpg
While I was catching them in vegetation Harry radioed that he was into pickerels on the opposite side of the lake. He was catching them on a wooly bugger.
I got a third in short order on the Clouser, again near vegetation. Now that I knew where they were I tried the popper on the 4 wt. They didn’t disappoint and rose to the surface to attack my offering. This pickerel hit the popper:
E.jpg
Three more hookups followed with surface hits on the 4 wt.
To end the day, I really wanted to catch a pickerel on a spinner. It didn’t take long. This guy obliged:
F.jpg
Overall, I caught one bluegill in the first three hours and 8 pickerels in the last hour.
These are the flies and the lure I used:
I.jpg
Someone mentioned in another post recently how satisfying it is to catch fish on flies of your own creation. That’s true. I tied the three flies and I also poured, painted, tied and assembled the jig spinner.
Oddly, we saw no bass today. Harry and I had a brief discussion with a DNR employee at the lake as we were leaving. I asked the gentleman where the bass were. It’s very odd to work an Eastern Shore pond as hard as we three did and to catch no bass. He said they’re present but he admitted that bass and pickerel are cyclical at Unicorn. He said pickerels are in an up cycle at the moment. He also said the DNR had recently removed some larger bass from the lake and “hid them" (his words) for other uses.
Lastly, I’m a baseball fan. I love the game and its history. Unicorn Lake is only a few miles from the town of Sudlersville, MD, birthplace of Jimmy Foxx, one of the game’s greatest right-handed hitters. I took a quick detour on my drive home and saw this tribute to Foxx on Sulderville’s Main Street.
G.jpg H.jpg
Imagine, Babe Ruth and Jimmy Foxx, playing contemporaries, both from MD and two of baseball’s most prolific homerun hitters.
So ended my latest visit to the Eastern Shore.
A.jpg
After the pervasive winds we have been battling this spring, being on the water without a ripple was very welcome. Better yet, we were the only anglers on the lake. There were a few people fishing from shore. But essentially we had all 43 acres to ourselves.
Each of us carried fly rods and spinning tackle. I brought a 4 wt., a 7 wt. and a light spinning rod. I threw floating line on each fly rod.
Harry broke the ice almost immediately with a bluegill.
I was not as fortunate. It took over an hour of pounding the shoreline before I hooked a bluegill on the 7 wt. with an olive colored wooly bugger.
B.jpg
I had just tied on the wooly bugger. Prior to that I had tried unsuccessfully to entice a bass to the surface with a popper. I hooked none but I did get a few swirls.
That little bluegill also happened to be the first fish I caught in my new Native Watercraft Ultimate 12. I like the rich colors of bluegills from Eastern Shore ponds, especially those deep orange bellies. The Ultimate is a wonderful platform for pond fishing, by the way. It glides through the water with ease and is very stable. It’s a joy to fish from.
A long dry spell for me ensued after that first fish. I cast a small popper on my 4 wt. to no avail. I threw a spinner on spinning rod with no strikes.
Then Harlan radioed that he had picked up a pickerel – trolling no less!
I left “bass mode” and saddled up for pickerel. I put a Clouser Minnow on my 7 wt. and nailed this devil on my very first cast:
D.jpg
Then I got another pickerel almost immediately on the Clouser. The key was vegetation. The pickerels were hanging on the edges of these plants:
C.jpg
While I was catching them in vegetation Harry radioed that he was into pickerels on the opposite side of the lake. He was catching them on a wooly bugger.
I got a third in short order on the Clouser, again near vegetation. Now that I knew where they were I tried the popper on the 4 wt. They didn’t disappoint and rose to the surface to attack my offering. This pickerel hit the popper:
E.jpg
Three more hookups followed with surface hits on the 4 wt.
To end the day, I really wanted to catch a pickerel on a spinner. It didn’t take long. This guy obliged:
F.jpg
Overall, I caught one bluegill in the first three hours and 8 pickerels in the last hour.
These are the flies and the lure I used:
I.jpg
Someone mentioned in another post recently how satisfying it is to catch fish on flies of your own creation. That’s true. I tied the three flies and I also poured, painted, tied and assembled the jig spinner.
Oddly, we saw no bass today. Harry and I had a brief discussion with a DNR employee at the lake as we were leaving. I asked the gentleman where the bass were. It’s very odd to work an Eastern Shore pond as hard as we three did and to catch no bass. He said they’re present but he admitted that bass and pickerel are cyclical at Unicorn. He said pickerels are in an up cycle at the moment. He also said the DNR had recently removed some larger bass from the lake and “hid them" (his words) for other uses.
Lastly, I’m a baseball fan. I love the game and its history. Unicorn Lake is only a few miles from the town of Sudlersville, MD, birthplace of Jimmy Foxx, one of the game’s greatest right-handed hitters. I took a quick detour on my drive home and saw this tribute to Foxx on Sulderville’s Main Street.
G.jpg H.jpg
Imagine, Babe Ruth and Jimmy Foxx, playing contemporaries, both from MD and two of baseball’s most prolific homerun hitters.
So ended my latest visit to the Eastern Shore.
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