Surprises come in small packages. Even big surprises. Such as the largemouth bass I caught in a retention pond right in my backyard.
Back up: I live in one of those cluster developments (I like to think it's because I'm into green living, but in reality, my wife loved the house and, well, I do, too), and it has dock access onto a tidal spill just off a pretty decent-sized salt/fresh water river. I kayak out there and fish when I can, mostly for trout and redfish.
But being a cluster development, which means there are common green spaces and lots of trees, but the houses are insanely close together with practically nonexistent yards, there was some mitigation to be done with the low-lying waters that once graced the woods that were there before the homes. Thus, there are four retention ponds on the property — one at each corner.
The two up front are purely retention; the two in the back are bigger and they have fountains.
I always heard they were stocked with bass, but why waste my time here, when I live in one of the most vibrant fishing areas on the East Coast?
My father-in-law, that's why.
See, while I was slaving away at my desk one Friday afternoon, he decided to take his fly rod and plink some bass flies into the ponds.
My wife called and said he'd caught three bass.
Now, I can't concentrate on work at this point, so I'm figuring out ways to get out of dodge and join him on the bank of a suburban development pond.
Fish are fish, after all.
I did, and as luck would have it, I got a half-hour or so to see what he was up to.
I didn't bring my own rod knowing that dinner was on the stove and we'd have to be back shortly, but when I got there, Tom handed me his rod with some sort of wooly bugger on the end. I plinked it in, jiggled it, and within a few minutes the bass (pictured above) was fighting for its life.
:)
The next day, we went out fly fishing on my favorite river just southeast of where I live on the Sea Islands. We were skunked — the river still wasn't warm enough for the reds or trout — but there were a couple of nibbles and some good conversations from folks who stopped by to see what we were in to.
The next day, when the baby was asleep and dinner was being prepped, Tom and I went back out to the retention pond.
We each landed a fish. This time, mine was a smallmouth bass.
But it was a fish.
