I tricked um

[dick tabbert]

Been fishing on the pond for awhile but doing little to no good so I'll set the rod down and throw in a hand full of feed and cast out and still very little actin but they explode on the fish food. Well tonight all that changed. I have all this foam on here for flies so I took a hole punch and punched me out about 4 hole punches (brown) put them in my pocket. When I went out tonight I grabed the 4WT fly rod with a bare hook put a punch on it and low and behold I'm in business again. The Hybrid Stripper took all my line to the backer and I ain't lying when I say what a blast. It took awhile to get him to shore but It was a great time and I'm here to tell you if I had the 2WT like I wanted I wouldn't have caught that fish I don' believe. The hybrid was a little over 18" then I caught a Hybrid Bluegill 8 1/2" and a gill at about 8".

[Jim Gronaw]

Dick...believe it or not we used to fish a small lake with young hybrid stripers in it and we caught them on, of all things, small round cabinet cushions...the kind that stick on to keep the doors from slamming loud! We would thread them on a small # 8 hook and just get it in the 'feed zone' and just hang on as they would just about spool an ultralight spinning reel!

Great fun! And that's a fine looking hybrid!

[dick tabbert]

I would try catching one every once and awhile but nothing worked not even live bait there  accustomed to the pellets so I made my own rubber pellets but I think what your talking about would work too it looks like a pellet. Thanks Jim.

[Tony Livingston]

Dick, the phenomenon you speak of is well known among folks who regularly feed their fish. Most people who don't feed fish just assume that fed fish are easy to catch...like shooting fish in a barrel. Well, I have both fed ponds, and unfed ponds, and our fish are much easier to catch in the unfed pond. When I'm full, I'm not interested in eating.... the same with our fish. Throw in a heavy dose of catch and release, and you have the makings of a pond full of lockjawed fish.

Look up a product called "Stubby Steves", an artificial "pellet" fly..... other people have this problem also! Nice solution, and good thinking Dick.

 

On another note, have you suffered any losses due to catch and release of your Hybrid Striped Bass in this heat? They are notorious for that, especially the larger ones. Of course, they ARE delicious, so keeping one for dinner sounds like a good idea to me.....

 

[dick tabbert]

Tony this is the only one I've caught since spring so I really can't answer that but i did take the pictures and let him loose and the dog got mad at me she thought it was her's. So hopefully I don't see it belly up in a day or two and thanks for the info.

[Allen Morgan]

Nice fish!  I see you've discovered the "pellet hatch".  Good solution!  I've heard of folks getting some colored fuzzballs from Micheals or Hobby Lobby, and just hooking them.

You can also catch catfish the same way; just soak the "fuzzball" in liver juices, shad guts, etc.

[dick tabbert]

Thanks Allen it was fun on the 4WT took all the line out to the backer. I wanted to catch one on my new 2Wt but after that I can't see that happening not a fish that big. I had one on the 2WT I think last week it zipped off line like there was no tomorrow and eventually broke off again got the blood pumping, it hit a rubber spider.

[Greg McWilliams]

Dick, Great report and way to MATCH THE HATCH!!!!!!!  Get your tube out and then try you 2 wt. you will get a ride and I BELIEVE you can land that RASCKEL!!!!!!! 

HAVE YOU GOT THE TUBE OUT YET???????

[dick tabbert]

No tube yet Greg. You know I took a picture with the fish and I actually think I broke a smile, snapped the picture and I got me from the neck down and the fish from his head down to about the top half so hey guess what still no visible smile but I'll continue to work on it. LOL and I really don't know about the 2WT yet but it was great with the 4WT can't imagine the 2WT wow.

[Lee]

 You caught that hybrid on your 4wt!!! Dang it that had to Put a Smile on your face!!!

 Good thinking on the punched foam!

[dick tabbert]

Lee I was smiling from ear to ear. Want to do the 2wt next, but don't know if it would be possible maybe when I get more seasoned.

[Joe Jacobsen]

Years ago we would fish an urban pond near the airport. We were targeting LMB, but there were some big Grass Carp in there as well. You couldn't even get close to them. There was a guy who would catch one on his fly rod about every time we were there. One night I asked him what he used to catch them, he coyly opened up his fly box and had 6 custom flys tied up. They looked just like a Kernel of pop corn.

[Mark Stine]

Congrats Dick! very resourceful, getting out of the box really produced some great fish. This may be the answer for a stocked pond I fish occasionally, Thanks.