A Slow Day and a Quick Release

I snuck out last weekend to hit a pond I like to fish on occasion. I haven’t fished it in a few years as there’s been a lot of development in and around it, and it’s not quite as easy to access. That said, with some nice weather, I thought it would be a good opportunity to try out that new Maxxon fly rod & reel.

I’ll cut to the chase, the fishing was sloooooooow. Real slow. This pond may fall out of the future rotation.

First, all the bankside structure is gone. I don’t know if someone pulled it all out, but there used to be a lot more submerged things in the shallows which I didn’t see this time.

Second, there was a thick mat of pond scum on everything underwater. That’s typically okay, but it did make fishing subsurface difficult. Almost every retrieve resulted in a gooped up fly.

Finally, I hardly saw any fish. You typically see bluegill and bass either sunning in the shallows or swimming the perimeter. I saw a handful of bass and absolutely no bluegill. That was a bummer.

I hooked into one bass using a topwater Boogle Bug popper that absolutely smashed my fly. It was actually a nice sized fish, but it did quite a bit of acrobatics to try and kick the fly. It was successful in doing so when I got it about 3 or 4 yards from my feet.

I’ll be honest, the Quill 4-weight fly rod is fairly light, and I don’t think I got the best hookset. It has a little backbone, but a 5 or 6 weight rod would have been the right tool for the job. Just doesn’t let you “grip n’ rip.” Can’t really blame the rod though, it’s not a largemouth bass rod. Looking forward to use it in a more appropriate small stream trout setting.

As for the Maxxon Slim reel, I really like it. It’s pretty damn solid for an inexpensive clicker. It feels sturdy without being heavy, the tolerance of the moving parts are tight, and it made a nice purr once I got that bass tight to it. The Slim reel is 100% a keeper.

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