Welcome to The Bluegill Pond

The overnight temperature had dipped into single digits, and the gauge in the SUV still only registered 17 degrees at midmorning as I parked downstream from the emergence of a spring branch. I expected smallmouth bass to move from the river into the warmer spring...

Snowflakes swirled near the window beside the tying bench as tea steeped in my steaming cup. My ritual cleaning process began by removing four seasons of dirt, moss, and unidentifiable debris from my rods, reels, lines, and fly boxes' contents. I used a small bowl of...

“Unseasonably warm” doesn’t seem adequate to describe our recent weather. Christmas day visitors were clad in shorts and T-shirts instead of heavy winter coats and boots. I couldn’t help but wonder how the fish locations in my favorite pond were affected. With our...

Two consecutive unseasonably warm days sent me to a small pond expecting that the sun had sufficiently warmed the surface to invigorate the bluegill population. This is one of the few circumstances that induce fish to ignore sunlight penetration in exchange for a few...

It’s my good fortune to have “double-header” rivers nearby. These are streams fed by large springs that are cool enough to support trout, while other sections of the same rivers host a variety of warmwater species. Most anglers are attracted to the trout water, while...

A heavy blanket of dark clouds draped over the river valley as a chilly north wind pushed dead leaves across the gravel bar and swept an armada masquerading as sailing ships downstream. The water that swirled around my waders caused me to shiver. The river and,...