Return To Covid Pond

[The Mad Duck 0]

So an early morning run to my covid escape pond was an odd one this morning. It was already 72 degrees at 7:00am this morning,so I'm thinking it will be a nice topwater Bream bite this morning. I tied on a fly that I modified from a swap fly I received last year onto the 3wt and off I went (First Photo)

I started at the medium size pond. This pond has been yielding large Bream and Shellcrackers (Redear) for as long as I have been fishing there. Today, Nothing, not even a swirl. I walked the edge of the pond and found ZERO beds. Very odd. They had the pump on and had a pipe flowing some nice water in. In years past, you could flip anything in by that pipe and watch the fish fight to see who got to eat the bug. Today, nothing.

I moved to the smallest pond (maybe 1/4 acre,very small) Same thing, water flowing into the pond with a nice current where you could float a bug like a trout stream. Nothing. Wow

I moved to the big pond which has been covered with what we affectionately call snot weed. They had sprayed and the only snot weed that was left, were small patches. On my third cast I hooked up with a small bass. I thought, hummm, looks like this is the place to be. I worked my way down the far side of the pond and started picking up bass on a fairly consistent basis. I made it down about 1/2 way down the bank and heard voices approaching me. I looked up and here come 4 kids armed with 2-3 Zebcos each. They walked right by me and asked if I had permission to be there. I kind of laughed and told them I had known the owner longer that they had all been alive...total. Anyway, they spread out about 30 yards apart and started bombing the water with their Zebco's. I had a "hey you kids...get off of my lawn" moment,then turned around and headed back the way I had come. On my way back, I caught a few more Bass in the big pond

I stopped at the tiny pond on the way out and switched to a big foam hopper type pattern and tried again. On my first cast into the current a Bass 1-1.5 pounds blasted my Hopper and we cut up the pond for a few. I released the fish and hit the current again and had another Bass blast the hopper. I walked the perimeter of the pond and caught a bunch of small to medium Bass. I did manage to find ONE Bream.

22 Bass

1 Bream

1 Shellcracker

I saw NO Bream beds at all. This is worrisome to me because last year, by now, the Bream had already spawned twice. I'm taking a kayak over tomorrow to cover the ponds from the water and see if I can find where the Bream are bedding.

 

[skeet3t 0]

Good story and very good photos. Glad you had a good day. Good luck finding the bream beds.

[mikechell 0]

It's a waning Moon.  You might have missed the last full Moon's spawn ... or your a little too early for the next full Moon.

[The Mad Duck 0]

13 minutes ago, mikechell said:

It's a waning Moon.  You might have missed the last full Moon's spawn ... or your a little too early for the next full Moon.

I would agree, but I have been fishing these ponds for over 20 years now, and the Bream beds are ALWAYS in the same places. This year, I have found no beds in any of the usual places. This is VERY odd for these ponds.

[niveker 0]

Very odd for the change to be so drastic, nice fishing report, though.  

[The Mad Duck 0]

OK, I was back over at the ponds today and think I may have figured out what's wrong. Today, the pond was about 2 feet lower that it was last week. Its been dry here,but not that dry. I did some more walking and found a potentially catastrophic issue. One edge of the large pond borders a creek. I found an area on the backside of the dirt berm that borders the creek where water is leaching through the pond berm and into the creek. It looks like part of the wall had slid into the creek.This means that the pond is losing water quickly through this leaching. Additionally the berm will be weakened to the point of it being totally compromised and the berm wall may collapse. I think the fish can tell that the water is dropping and have moved into deep water to spawn. I found the land owner and pointed this issue out to him. He is calling a pond/excavation specialist in the morning. The slide must have occured in the last couple of days because he hadn't seen it and it wasn't there last week when I was there.

I did manage to catch a few fish,but most of my time was spent with the landowner looking at the issue. I caught few Bream today and one really nice one about 10 inches. I also caught a half a dozen bass as well.

No photos today. Left the phone in the car again..DOH

[Steeldrifter 0]

Some fun size bass to play with for sure. Hope the landowner is able to get that fixed up in a  hurry.