It turned out to be a nice morning and I had some spare time so I decided to return to one of the many small ponds scattered around our area.
I had not fished this place in over a year. The pond had been a gem and catching 10+ fish in an hour was the norm. There was a healthy population of largemouth bass and the largest I caught pushed 4-pounds on the digital scale. The sunfish and bluegill were also quite large and it was a blast catching them on ultralight spinning tackle or a 4-weight fly rod. However the last time I fished there a group of people were rapidly depleting its inhabitants--nearly all below the legal keep length. It was disappointing to watch the carnage. Everything caught was kept by the six anglers and by the time I left they had filled half a five-gallon bucket with bass, sunfish and bluegill. There were no throwbacks. If it had fins, it went into the bucket. After watching this I left and did not return until today.
I began by working an olive wooly bugger in the structure close to shore but nobody was interested. I then cast to a deep ledge about 40 out. Nothing. So maybe they didn't like olive so I switched to black. That was the ticket. I quickly caught two bluegill. However while I was releasing the second fish two kids wandered over from a nearby field and began throwing stones into the pond. Then a huge flock of Canadian geese buzzed overhead, circled and landed right in front of me. That effectively ended my fishing session for the day.
EQUIPMENT: A 4-weight fly rod and floating line. Size 10 black beadhead wooly bugger.
