Dodging storms and hitting the neighborhood ponds in between showers has proved pretty productive as of late. Here is a taste of what I’ve gotten into in the month of April.
Dodging storms
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Tag Archives: Channel Catfish
Catfish and bream
When pushing a stroller around the neighborhood, taking my daughter for a walk, I’ve noticed that the fish in one section of our neighborhood pond will follow you as you walk around that section, to the point where they make tiny wakes trying to keep up with you. I guess someone’s been feeding them and has destroyed their flight instinct when it comes to humans. After I noticed that a few of the fish were big catfish I decided that it was time to educate them by way of the fly rod. Catfish are a lot of fun on the fly as is catching bream one right after another – at this spot you can do both.
Surprisingly once one catfish was hooked the rest scattered, the bream not so much. I can’t wait until Marin is a little bit older and I can introduce her to the sport as our neighborhood pond is the perfect spot to introduce a kid to fishing – non-stop action and right down the street.
Another arrow in the quiver
Took the family up to Alexandria this past weekend to visit my sister and her husband. Kurt and I spent a few hours Saturday morning on a local lake. It was a beautiful morning, conditions seemed perfect, but the bass were uncooperative. Kurt caught a small one and I blanked. After that all we could catch were tiny bream. Although I caught fish it still felt like a skunking. It was a nice paddle on the lake, I just wish the fishing was better. This red-winged blackbird kept me entertained for a little while, hopping from one lily pad to another eating bugs along the way.
Fast forward a couple days and at my door when I got home from work yesterday was a new fiberglass rod I purchased. I’ve been wanting to see what all the fuss with glass rods was about and with Cabela’s putting the CGt series on sale and myself having a gift card to spend, now seemed like the perfect time. I got a 7′ 3wt, which should be perfect for those small streams in Georgia and the neighborhood pond – which I had time to hit that evening.
I strung the rod up with 3wt line, grabbed a beer, and walked down to the pond for some non-stop bluegill action. I had a stealth bomber tied on and hung a zug bug underneath. The zug bug saw 90% of the action and caught mostly small fish while the bomber caught a few palm sized gills. I ended the evening fish with a solid bend in the glass rod courtesy of a healthy channel cat, who somewhat surprisingly ate the little zug bug.
I was impressed with the CGt, when you pick it up and give it the wiggle test(that most fly fishermen do, but have no idea why they do it) it feels good and flexes throughout like I imagine a glass rod would. After the wiggle test I was kind of expecting it not have a backbone, but it did and you could feel it when you shot a good bit of line out. I saw it during the fight with the catfish as well, it handled it like a champ. The cork on the rod seemed to be of a pretty good quality, very smooth to the touch. My wife liked the color of the rod blank and I do too, it’s not an ugly rod. I could do without the slip ring reel seat, which is not my favorite way to secure a reel, but that is what was offered on the 7′ 3wt version. So far I like it, I will continue putting it to the test in the neighborhood on the bass, bream and catfish and later this month in Georgia on some small stream trout.
Mountains to Marsh 