Divad
Whitefish
Last night I had an itch for some crappie fried fish sticks, a taste I recently acquired. So, I targeted a lowland pond/lake that usually produces. Right off the highway, the water doesn’t get a line much in summer but gets fished out during spring plants yearly.
Nothing was nibbling chartreuse, a go-to at this lake for crappie. I switched, confidence was in the brightest leech I had for such conditions.
After a long troll with 60ft of T6 I started to strip the fly fast in a disgruntled fashion, motivated by the thus far nibble-less outing. I was about 3/4 of the way through stripping in when THUD! It felt like I hit a suspended tree, rod bent, nothing moved. Time stood still, cars stopped moving, birds froze mid flight, and my heartbeat started to race as the ‘hooked something’ began to move.
I’ll spare the additional comments on the run it took, the usual desperation to keep 60ft from tangling or the amount of bugs I caught with my jaw in such surprise.
I’d say it was 30” but measuring was hard and I knew the temps weren’t loving of such fish out of the water, so I made haste and snapped the above shot quickly.
The oddest proportioned trout, extremely long and skinny, but with a massive tail. I believe it to be a steelhead plant from February that wintered over successfully. I’m a little dumbfounded; in a pond with low oxygen, high temps, a slew of invasives, and a usual (but this year vacant) algae bloom. I wonder what the meat looked like, now that the fish has become all chrome again? Or if anything was in its stomach? Oh well, hopefully a kid can keep it one day to answer such.
Somehow I didn’t land a crappie, but did manage to hook another large fish for a run but spit the fly.
And this little bow, 6 months from 1/2lb plant but strangely unclipped. Either he didn’t grow much from those plants (which this pond has few resources to do so) or another unicorn I was unaware the pond produces.
What a surprising body of water I thought I knew.
Nothing was nibbling chartreuse, a go-to at this lake for crappie. I switched, confidence was in the brightest leech I had for such conditions.
After a long troll with 60ft of T6 I started to strip the fly fast in a disgruntled fashion, motivated by the thus far nibble-less outing. I was about 3/4 of the way through stripping in when THUD! It felt like I hit a suspended tree, rod bent, nothing moved. Time stood still, cars stopped moving, birds froze mid flight, and my heartbeat started to race as the ‘hooked something’ began to move.
I’ll spare the additional comments on the run it took, the usual desperation to keep 60ft from tangling or the amount of bugs I caught with my jaw in such surprise.
I’d say it was 30” but measuring was hard and I knew the temps weren’t loving of such fish out of the water, so I made haste and snapped the above shot quickly.
The oddest proportioned trout, extremely long and skinny, but with a massive tail. I believe it to be a steelhead plant from February that wintered over successfully. I’m a little dumbfounded; in a pond with low oxygen, high temps, a slew of invasives, and a usual (but this year vacant) algae bloom. I wonder what the meat looked like, now that the fish has become all chrome again? Or if anything was in its stomach? Oh well, hopefully a kid can keep it one day to answer such.
Somehow I didn’t land a crappie, but did manage to hook another large fish for a run but spit the fly.
And this little bow, 6 months from 1/2lb plant but strangely unclipped. Either he didn’t grow much from those plants (which this pond has few resources to do so) or another unicorn I was unaware the pond produces.
What a surprising body of water I thought I knew.