Greg has a huge pond. The pond is actually a dammed up portion of Camel Creek and fed by a natural spring. Because it is creek fed, the pond enjoys the run-off offerings of several local farm properties...it's well fertilized to say the least. That is good in one sense, because it is nutrient rich, which makes for great production in the lower end of the food chain. The pond is tough to fish this time of year because it is covered with Duckweed.
We decided to pile into Greg's canoe and casted large poppers with the fly rods. Although I have caught as many large bass on small top-water offerings as large, a small popper would never work in the Duckweed. Working the large poppers was tough. The poppers, and often our line, were caked with Duckweed at times. The Duckweed hampered the movement of the poppers at times. As for the bass fishing tactic of casting a popper, making a few pops and letting it set for a while, well, the Duckweed did help much with that either.
We really struggled in landing fish on this outing. The bass would hit the poppers and swim straight at us. There were times when we could not strip line fast enough to keep pressure on the fish. The other problem was the Duckweed that was packed on the poppers. Often times there was so much Duckweed on the poppers that the hook was never set. The bass would hang on for the ride for a few seconds and then spit-out the popper/Duckweed glob.
It was a great evening and great fun. We didn't land all of our hook-ups, but we got some casting in and confirmed our tactic of using large poppers in the Duckweed could be productive. Don't over look those waters covered in Duckweed. Yea it is messy and challenging, but your efforts will be rewarded.
