Small Pond Fly Fishing
I have been using my new 9' 6wt fly rod since I got it about 10 days ago.
It is a fish catching machine! I bought the "panfish" combo and boy does it catch panfish. I shortened the supplied 9' trout tapered trout leader and put loop on it. Then I took some 10# mono and made a looped leader out of it with a size 10 eagle claw bait holder hook barbless . On the hook I put Berkley honey worms either natural or red.
I make short casts close to the bank and let the bait drift naturally in the water. I would go out either in the morning or early evening when the temperatures are cooler.
I must have landed 50-60 small fish...40 bluegill & pumpkinseeds, a handful of yellow perch and about 24 golden shiners. I even got 2 fingerling LMBs. Because, I was fishing barbless I missed a lot of hookups but it did make releasing the fish easier to do.
The fish where not line shy or spooked by the splash of line, in fact, I think it might have attracted them.
It was a lot of fun catching so many fish. Furthermore, If I ever want to bait fish for lunkers I can catch my own live bait for free.
HAd simialr fun with flyrod and Bluegills this w/e too - sure do fight hard for their size. Another fun way is to use small bass poppers - they hammer them, or even tie a dropper off the hook of the popper with an emerger or nymph.