Sunfish Heaven Revisited

Watching my grandson again last week, so I figured I'd be able to visit the pond for some more fishing.  When I asked the Tri-lakes members to suggest warm water flies for the boys at Good Samaritan Boys Ranch to tie this fall, Paul made a few suggestions.  One that he said we should tie is the Briminator.  I don't have any Pheasant feathers, so I made a substitution to get almost the same look and, I hoped, action. I took my two Briminators with me last Friday morning to give them a try.

When I unlocked and opened the gate to my sister's place, I was greeted by a couple of cows. I didn't know if they had broken through the electric fence or if my brother-in-law had moved them over.  Either way, it meant they had the same access to the pond as I did. I drove past their yard and saw the gate closed, so I now knew there were cows in the same pasture as the pond I was going to fish. And, as I found out later, in the pond.

I decided to try the Briminator first, so I tied one on and walked down to the water. I started at the closest access point and caught a few sunfish. I moved over to the dam and caught a few more.  A few of the cattle decided they wanted to cross the dam, but after spotting me and the long rod, they watched me a while, decided they wanted to avoid me, turned around and walked to the other side of the pond.

Two or so hours of fishing and my Briminator was terminated. My thoughts about the fly, the fish and the pond are: I caught a lot of fish including two bass, but all small ones. There were several times when I had to get out the hemostat to remove a fly taken too deeply.  That wasn't a problem with the poppers I used two weeks ago. Instead of a six weight, I used a four weight that I built.  It was a real nice choice because none of the fish caught were very big.  The fish didn't seem to have any fight to them even on the lighter rod.

Sharing the pond



Sunfish caught on a Briminator

 

The next evening I decided to try my luck again and I thought I'd mix up the flies a bit. The fishing was the slowest this summer. All of the takes except one that I missed were easy takes, nothing hitting anything hard. I caught three bass and a few sunnies. The smallest bass, all of about eight or mine inches, gave me the best time as he broke water with nice jumps three times. The flies I used were a popper, a Briminator, and a bug-z.  I caught fish on all three.

Sunfish Heaven

Having no plans for the Fourth of July, I decided to head to my son's house in Chamois and fish my sister's pond less than 5 minutes from Randy's. If anyone else fishes this pond, they are sneaking in and doing such when no one is around.  So its about as close to my own personal fishing spot as possible.  My plan was to fish for a couple hours, twice a day, starting at about 6 AM and then again 6 PM.

I'm very fortunate to have an upcoming trip with Steve, author "Campeche's Baby Tarpon" in the latest issue of Flyfisher to fish for these fish he described. To fish for these baby tarpon I'll need to use an 8 weight rod, which I seldom cast.  So, even though I've been practicing some with my 8 wt., I decided to take it to the pond and cast on the water.  Armed with the 8 wt. with a helmet head sculpin and a 6 wt. with a Wilson Bug-Z, I decided to attack the sunfish and bass in this little pond. First I used the 8 wt. and to my surprise started catching sunfish. Yes, this is a lot bigger rod than needed, but again I need the practice casting a heavy rod.  When I got tired of the heavy rod, I changed to the 6 wt. and caught sunfish and largemouth of this as well, yes, I'm aware that the largemouth is also a sunfish. That 6 wt. really felt light after the 8 wt.



Sunfish caught on a Wilson Bug-Z
 

I returned to the 8 wt. and my sculpin pattern was eventually destroyed, so I tied on a large deer hair popper.  One bass that took this barely was able to get it in his mouth and the sunfish were only able to move it about. 

Last Monday, Sharon hosted a "popper" party at her and Joe's house.  She, Lou, Tom and I met before our Tri-lakes Fly Fisher meeting and tied poppers.  Those I tied that night, along with a couple I already had were my weapon of choice the other several times I fished. The fish loved them. I don't normally use poppers, but that may change.  As I said, the fish loved them, any that I threw to them.  After these sessions I can understand why Tom likes them so much.

I fished am and pm on both Thursday and Friday, tied some flies and went to a local church's fried chicken dinner on Saturday, then fished again Sunday AM.  Here are a few more pictures of the fish and the pond.  There is probably a different popper in each picture and I believe I'll have one more with a Bug-Z. 

One of Tom's poppers
 

Love the color this one shows
 

A Bug-Z fooled this one

Going back to Randy's the end of this week to watch Rowan, who informed me he wants to fish.  I just may forget the worms and give him a flyrod with a popper tied on.  Fishing this nice little pond early and again in the evening was very nice.