Welcome to The Bluegill Pond

Years ago, I encountered a man fishing a small creek’s entrance into a backwater lake. When I asked how he was doing, he said he had already put five 5-pound Largemouth Bass on his stringer, which he proudly held up, revealing that none of the five fish would have...

Thick gray clouds were draped over the river valley like wet laundry on a sagging clothesline. I assembled a 7-wt. rod and attached a reel containing 6 i.p.s. full-sinking line. A size-6 Zonker with a silver body, gray rabbit strip wing, and a matching wool head...

The wild sounds of hundreds of geese dominated the river valley as I crunched along a gravel bar toward a favorite pool. The river widens where a spring branch enters, delivering a year around infusion of 54-degree water. Just below the spring’s entrance is a deep...

The stream thermometer read 53 degrees as I entered the clear water with a 5-weight rod and intermediate sinking line. The only sound was the rattle of dry leaves as they raced across the gravel bar. I knotted a size-12 North Fork Nymph to the 4X tippet and cast down...

Cool evenings demanded a return to waders and the comfort of a favorite flannel shirt. Both caused smiles while walking downstream on long gravel bars past a pocket water summer hotspot to a deep bluff pool in search of smallmouth bass. A Bald Eagle glided silently...

Cooler weather has prompted crappies to migrate from area reservoirs into the streams that feeder them. The purpose of their move is to feed heavily before returning to the lakes for the cold water season. Approaching a shaded pool with two deadfalls draped into its...