TL;DR: Walden Pond. Smallmouth bass. Easy pickings.
With family and work schedules pretty chock full, there won’t be any trout fishing for me in the coming few weeks.
Of course, I think about fishing pretty often. It’s a sickness, an obsession or both. So, I started to think about local waters near my house or work.
Many, many years ago, before I owned fly tackle, my wife and I were taking a walk around Walden Pond in Concord, MA. Some fly fishermen were in tube floats casting to some trout in the shallows. I was mesmerized and jealous. I vowed that when our children one day didn’t need as much time, I would get a fly rod.
So, yesterday morning, I decided to pack my Helios 2 and a fly box into the car. After work, I drove by Walden Pond and headed out, fly rod in hand and some curious smiles from the couples and families out for an evening stroll.
I looked at the map and wondered if a small cove might hold fish. The spot is easy to find; GPS coordinates here.
I put on an unweighted green Mop Fly with a black hen soft hackle. I like this fly’s color combo. I don’t know, it just looks fishy. I threw it out. Soon, I was onto smallies and panfish. Nothing too big, but one fish jumped a few times.
The cove was pretty loaded with fish. After they got used to the Mop Fly, I trailed a small pink SJW behind it. That got them going again.
And, after a bit, that felt like it was enough.
I walked back to the car and chatted with one of the swimmers en route. We both agreed that it was a great time to be outside and to enjoy the weather.
A bit later, the sunset was simply arresting. Here is a no-filter photo.
Soon enough, I’ll be back out looking for trout. The weather will be crisper, the leaves will start to yellow, and the Farmington brown trout might be willing to be duped.
But, for now, as Ashu wrote here, it’s about the little things.
And, I am fine with that.
Walden ‘s has a great bass fishery as more people fish for the trout and leave the bass alone, there are some very large smallmouth in there and the crayfish population is very prolific.
Didn’t realize that about crayfish. So, some bass must get pretty big, then? That cove was loaded with small bass, panfish and minnows.
I was impressed with how clean the water was. And, there wasn’t a lot of underwater vegetation that I usually associate with pond fishing: constantly cleaning up weeds from a fly.
Honestly, I’ll be back. My early fishing days as a kid involved bass and panfish, and they’re fun to catch.
It’s a great and fun pond and there are some big browns in there as well.
There is nothing like catching fish on a fly rod, I don’t care what the species is. As a youngster the first fish I caught fly fishing was a couple pound smallmouth on a popper at Quabbin on my Ted Williams Sears fly rod I had saved up for. I was ecstatic and that started my love of fly fishing. I wish I still had that old Ted Williams “approved” fly rod.
Love that story!
Great report Jo! Smallies are fun competition on a fly rod. Thanks for the shoutout!
Thank you! Study hard, fish often! Next time you’re in my neck of the woods, let’s grab a coffee?
Sure!
We were walking at Walden recently and I spoke to a fishermen there who said he avoids the bass fish at the pond because apparently they have worms. So be careful.