Sometimes we forget........

Little fish are better than no fish, and fishing a small pond is better than not getting to fish at all.

I've been super busy lately with my son's baseball team, and taking time to romance my wife. I took her to see a production of Grease at Casa Manana Theater in Ft. Worth Saturday night that she enjoyed immensely. That I haven't had much chance to grab a rod and fling some flies at fish. 

So, Sunday evening I headed over to the pond on my in laws property where we have caught some very nice largemouth bass in the past. Grasshoppers abound in our area lately, and it was a little windy so I tied on what has become my go to Bass pattern. A Green foam grasshopper tied on a size 8 hook. First cast I rolled it out past the weed beds, and the grasshopper hit the water with a realistic "plunk". I let it float for about a second when this nice Bluegill tried to inhale it.

          
It continued like this for quite a while cast-catch,cast-catch. I had a good time although I really didn't catch anything of any real size. I think that sometimes we get so caught up in the hunt for the next big fish. That we forget what it was like to be a kid and have a blast landing easy little fish after easy fish. I also think a common mistake people make when they first introduce someone to fly fishing. Is that they take them out after trout the first time when they should be learning on easy to catch bass and panfish.

As I mentioned earlier we have caught some really nice bass out of this pond. My father in law landed a 12 pounder out of there once. The drought conditions that we have been in the past few years has really taken a toll on our little pond however. We haven't seen a nice bass in quite some time. I did land some tiny ones. Maybe we'll get some good rainfall this fall and they'll grow up. 

    
The fishing related highlight of my Sunday was stopping by Cabela's and picking up ANOTHER new fly rod! I decided to jump back on the Temple Fork Outfitters bandwagon and I selected one of their Pro Series II 4wt's. I can't wait to go harass some trout with it! I'll be hitting the Lower Mountain Fork river at least twice this fall/winter, and the Brazos in December when they stock the Rainbows. So, I'll be using this rod quite a bit.   

    
Tight Lines!

Shawn