Sunday Fishing With New Friends

Last year while fishing a local lake, I met a nice couple who also enjoyed the dark side of fly fishing.  It is rare to find other fly fishermen on this lake let alone others who enjoy the dark side of fly fishing.  We struck up a conversation, pleasantries were exchanged as well as fish locations and what flies were working.  I gave them the address to the blog and we parted ways.  A month or so ago, while working my full time job, I ran into them again.  At first I must admit I didn't recognize them but after we started talking some, I remembered who they were.  Contact information was exchanged with the promise of getting together in an effort to chase some bass and panfish on the fly rod.  Well this past Sunday, 04/15/2012, we were finally able to get out for a few hours.  I took them to two ponds that I know of in the area.  One is fished only by me.  The other gets regular traffic and what some would consider heavy fishing pressure.  The fish seem to see a lot of worms and bobbers.

Sunday around here in Maryland the temps were in the low 80s.  It was a great day but would it be a great fishing day?  We had had some cool, read cold, evenings as of late with the temps dropping down into the low 40s.  The previous few days it had only been in the high 50s and 60s.  As we arrived at the first pond and descended down the hill, we all had high hopes.  We were generally excited.  The excitement of fishing new water coupled with the excitement of fishing with new friends.  I explained to them that the pond was rather small but held a lot of fish.  Upon arriving on the shore, we could see schools of bluegill and bass holding in the shallow end.  In fact we could see fish everywhere.  They were holding just underneath the surface warming up.  We started throwing flies and praying.  I was the first to hook up.  I managed to land two gills on a purple and black Road Kill.  After everyone lost interest in that guy, I switched to a Monocacy Bumble Bee.  Boy it was like crack.  I had to beat them off with a stick.  It was fun to cast, watch the fly land and see several wakes from fish charging the fly heading towards it all at once.  I was doing well with the Bee until some damn tree behind me ate it.  It was high enough that I couldn't get it out and so I had to switch.  While that was going on, the female half of the couple manged to get a few hookups with some gills.  The male half wasn't having any luck what so ever.  I switched to a chartreuse Panfish Persuader and again had some luck.  As always, I managed to miss more than I landed but that is half the fun isn't it?  The request was made to move to the other pond which we finally did.  As we struggled up the hill back towards the car, I explained that we might actually do worse at the other pond given the pressure it gets but then again I only managed 7 gills at this pond so who knew what the other one might yield.

We arrived at the other pond within minutes.  The only other fishermen there was a father and son combo dunking worms in search of panfish.  We stayed until dark and had a blast.  This pond turned out to be better than the one before which shocked me given the pressure it receives.  Of course we didn't land anything like Bill over at Fishing Through Life has been landing but a fish is a fish is a fish.  They all count in the end and most importantly we all had a good time (or so I hope).  I continued to use the chartreuse Panfish Persuader and it worked like crack.  Speaking of crack, I gave the male half a Panfish Persuader to try as well.  The first one is free.  He immediately started hooked up with bluegill.  I was kind enough to inform him that you can buy them from us a dozen for $10.  A real steal if you ask me.  Anyways, I digress.  We fished until dark and everyone caught fish.  Again, nothing huge but fun just the same.  I finished the day with 17 bluegill from the second pond to make it an even two dozen for the day with both ponds combined.  I had a great time and it was a pleasure to fish with new friends.  I look forward to going out again in the future with this couple to chase fish on the dark side of fly fishing.