pond fishin

[wetboot]

went out pond fishing today with a few friends...it was Great! took out my Shadow Stalker 9' 5wt and did surprisingly good on a mouse pattern!
Any one else have access to any ponds they are allowed to fish when the weather heats up?

 

[boychick]

LMB on the mouse are a good time. Try fishing the mouse after sunset or before dawn, hang on!

 

[PatrickC]

I was casting mice on a pond for a little while Friday evening. Fun stuff! I was tossing buggers just before that and my line shot all the way across the pond. I figured it was a catfish. It slowed down and I put a little pressure on the fish to get it to surface. A 4' grass carp shot straight up out of the water like a tarpon and the bugger came flying back at me. Truly spectacular and the largest grass carp I have ever had on the line. Not likely I could have landed it and I've never seen one jump like that.

 

[dc410]

Pond fishing is a lot if fun. I would like to give the mouse pattern a try. I'll look up some patterns to try to tie some, spinning deer hair is not my strong suit so it should be fun! I have a pond that I fish regularly with a few big hogs in it, might have to try the after dark thing.

As a spin off of Patrick's story, I was also fishing a pond Friday evening. I posted two photos in the photo section of two carp I caught. I figure that the mirror carp might have been pushing 15 lbs. I had one hooked in between those two that was significantly bigger than either of them. This was a fairly large pond and this fish very quickly took me into my backing. As my backing was disappearing I tightened up a few notches on the drag and applied some heavy side pressure to turn him. Just after I got him turned he got off. I was upset at myself for not checking my tippet and knot after catching the first fish. When I reeled it in I found out that he had literally straightened out the hook. It must have been weakened from the first catch. Big carp with an 8 wt outfit and that screaming drag! What a blast!

 

[FarmerDave]

Patrick, why shouldn't you be able to land it. I landed one with an 8 weight bamboo, but I only had 4X or 5 X tippet (can't remember). It wasn't 4 foot, but it did measure 3 and a half. It didn't jump straight out of the water, but I was definitely soaked by the time I landed it. I was wet wading but not looking for a bath.

Sorry, no pictures.

Anyway, back to the OP. I have a duck weed problem in my main pond and in order to catch bass on the surface all you need is something that breaks up the surface. It's actually too easy. I've been using spinning gear and soft plastic worms and the like with no weight added because duck weed doesn't stick nearly as bad to soft plastics as it does to spun deer hair.

Other pond is in the woods and very hard to fly fish, but I suppose it could be done.

 

[ryguyfi]

how do you solve the duck weed problem FD? There's a local pond that just opened to the public due to some people donating it upon their death and it has a pretty bad duck weed problem. Will an aerator or fountain do the trick?

 

[PennypackFlyer]

What Leader and Tippet length and wt were you using? It looks like a healthy Bass.

 

[FarmerDave]

ryguyfi wrote:
how do you solve the duck weed problem FD? There's a local pond that just opened to the public due to some people donating it upon their death and it has a pretty bad duck weed problem. Will an aerator or fountain do the trick?

I'm going to find out next year.

There are chemicals that I could use, but they cost half the price of an aerator f fountain and I don't like adding chemicals to the pond, so right now the duck weed problem is not solved.

Had very little when I first moved here and the pond was only a few years old, and it was confined to the cattails. Started having a problem with filamentous algae. Apparently the previous owner used copper sulfate. I used it first year, but eventually decided to stop. Switched to Cutrine Plus (TM) and it did kill the algae and has less of an effect on invertebrates and small fish. Lower copper content. Not cheap though.

Then I stocked channel cats, and no longer needed to treat for that F algae. For some reason, adding the cats solved that problem. When I would pick up a wad of that stuff, I could see tiny fresh water shrimp all through it. My bet is the catfish were eating thee algae for the shrimp. Whatever. Things were good. But then, there was still the cattails and they were spreading.

Along came the muskrats. They nearly wiped out the cattails, and then I wiped out the muskrats. Things were looking better in the pond.

Then came a hot summer with an oddball algea. When it died, it killed off all my catfish. Now that sucked. Hauled a whole bunch of them to the woods. they were big enough that their tails stuck out of the 5 gallon pales. I measured a couple of them at 27".

Catails came back.

Filamentous algae came back.

Muskrats came back.

I left muskrats alone until they wiped out the cattails.

Allowed a neighbor to trap muskrats last winter.

Muskrats gone.

Catails still gone (with a minor exception which I will kill this week.

Used some Aquashade (TM) this spring to help control the filimentous algae. Definitely helped.

Muskrats also nearly wiped out all the water lillies much to my wife's chagrin, but they are coming back. Just no blooms this year.

Pond seems to be healthy this year with the exception of the duck weed which is worse than I have seen on my pond. But I doubt it hurts the fish. Provides shade and might be controlling the F algae.. Completely covered until the last couple rains which washed some out.

Next year I think I will add a fountain and some catfish from proceeds of selling a brown calf.;-)

Yea, I know that an aerator is better for the fish, but wife would rather see a fountain and they don't cost all that much more. Gotta run electric down there either way.

 

[GenCon]

I have a local pond I fish. Before the heat wave hit. I was catching between 15 and 20 bass per evening. Also about a dozen or so crappies. It is great fun. In fact I am going tomorrow night. Should be a blast. Also I found if they wherre not hitting top water too much a 4'' long chartruse and white clauser did the trick. I use simple leaders. 2' 30 lb, 2' 20 lb 2' 15lb. Works great for casting large bugs.

GenCon

 

[geebee]

FarmerDave wrote:

I'm going to find out next year.

There are chemicals that I could use, but they cost half the price of an aerator f fountain and I don't like adding chemicals to the pond, so right now the duck weed problem is not solved.

FD - i read somewhere that putting bales of hay/straw in small ponds stops duckweed - its something to do with a chemical reaction from the submerged hay bales i think ?

they put bales of hay in the ponds before ice over, and the duckweed never grows back as bad.

it doesn't harm the fish or birds either.

GB

 

[PatrickC]

FarmerDave wrote:
Patrick, why shouldn't you be able to land it. I landed one with an 8 weight bamboo, but I only had 4X or 5 X tippet (can't remember). It wasn't 4 foot, but it did measure 3 and a half. It didn't jump straight out of the water, but I was definitely soaked by the time I landed it. I was wet wading but not looking for a bath.

I was using my 3wt and 5x. Maybe I should have more appropriately said...not patient enough to land it. I'll post a pic later of a 36" grass carp I landed on the 6wt with 4x...that took nearly an hour.

 

[wetboot]

i make my own leaders pennypack...but i believe it was 6x ha im not a hundred percent...on a 5wt too....it was a fun fish...did two narly head shakes out of the water

 

[wetboot]

i meant to say 3x whooops

 

[PennypackFlyer]

....Thanks for sharing the Leader/Tippet information Gents....It's great to know that information. Throwing large poppers/streamers is always a challenge for me - and I am in constant change of the formula to get better results. For small poppers and streamers I use a 20/10/6 lb or a 14/6/4 lb test at 3' 5' 3' ration with my 5wt. Knowing that I can up the line wt to 30lb at flyline level is good to know.

I will also re-think the pre-made Leaders a little more. So far I have not had real good results.

 

[PatrickC]

Here's the 36" that I landed on the 6wt FD. Not sure it would have been worth the time with a 3wt.

 

[FarmerDave]

Wait a second Patrick. You were using a 3wt when you hooked the 4 footer? ...while using a mouse pattern in a pond?

I assumed a heavier rod.

Pretty tough casting I'll bet.

 

[kenbo5733]

all my biggest bass come from little ponds, if you can get access to any you should definitely check them out its worth it.

 

[PatrickC]

FarmerDave wrote:
Wait a second Patrick. You were using a 3wt when you hooked the 4 footer? ...while using a mouse pattern in a pond?

I assumed a heavier rod.

Pretty tough casting I'll bet.

I was tossing a small deer hair mouse....not a rat ;-)

I hooked the carp on a woolly bugger before I put on the little mouse.

 

[FarmerDave]

Still... 3wt is not the best tool for tossing bass bugs and the like. But use what you got. 4 ft carp on a 3 wt would have been wild.;-)

 

[PennypackFlyer]

It is all in the challenge and learning how to tire and land the fish. Pat: lets go to Salmon River with our 3wts.