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.