Welcome to The Bluegill Pond

As an enthusiastic consumer of all things flyfishing, I am regularly amazed at the streamside (or pondside) philosophers that endeavor to explain why we choose the flyrod.  Some describe our efforts as a sport that implies competition. Surely our lives, even including...

Another round of frog-choking rains postponed my quest to wade my beloved smallmouth streams. I packed my float tube and both  8wt and  4wt  outfits to fish a favorite pond to console myself. My despair was short-lived. To the business end of the 8wt  floating line...

Crappie, or as my Louisiana friends prefer, sac-a-lait usually are not well suited to ponds. They are prolific spawners, and without a massive food supply and sizeable predator species, they tend to over-populate and stunted growth results.  Ponds that are the...

The receding river water finally allowed a downstream wade to a series of deadfalls. My arrival provoked a Red Wing Blackbird to assault me with a raspy-throated tongue-lashing for the intrusion. This pool is my favorite place to intercept crappies intent upon...

Locally severe storms were forecast for late evening, so I bank-stalked a local pond hoping the unsettled weather would promote a fish feeding frenzy. While assembling a 4-wt rod, I noticed several rises, which were taken as a good omen. The initial cast of a size-10...

Recent rains eliminated a planned river trip and redirected my grandson and me to a favorite pond.  It was a warm afternoon with cloud cover, but the water remained cool. Predictably, the fish were scattered, so we opted for 5-weight rods, floating line, extended...