Special Places part 5

Growing up in Georgia, one of my favorite places to fish was beaver ponds. They were everywhere, I lived in Columbus, an area of rolling hills, perfect for pond building, either by beavers or people. There were many beaver ponds near my home, and as I got into my teens I was allowed to ride my bike where ever I wanted as long as my chores were done and my grades were kept up in school.

My favorite was about 10 miles from my home, 8 miles on a road and two miles down a rail road track. I had my bicycle fixed up with baskets front and rear to carry my fishing tackle, food, water and anything else I may have needed. It wasn't a really large pond, most beaver ponds were 3 to 10 acres with the average being 5 acres.

It was a hassle to get to it and I never saw another person fishing in it, it was loaded with bass, catfish, and bluegill. They probably had never seen a fisherman before, as it was too hard to get

to, but that was the beauty of the place. I always had it to myself, I called it Roy's pond. As usual with bluegill, they liked any color as long as it was black, with a red tail. I caught them on just about any color, but black was the best 99% of the time. If the pond had a Catawba tree hanging over it, a long skinny green worm type imitation was magic. Catawba trees had green caterpillars on them that frequently fell in the water and many fish would hang under the tree waiting for the caterpillars to fall into the water, when I would cast my green worm fly under the tree it was met with an instant hookup, and usually from large fish as they kept the smaller ones

away from the best feeding areas. You never knew what you would hook as bass, bluegill, shellcrackers, ( redear sunfish ) catfish and even grennel, a prehistoric fish that looked like a catfish with scales and no whiskers, lived in the pond.

The grennel could weigh up to 15 lbs. and gave an amazing fight on a flyrod. It was almost always non stop action in my pond as there was an amazing amount of fish there as very few got taken out. I always released all the fish I caught, except a few kept for a shore lunch, as it was a long way home and I could catch enough for dinner anytime from the pond behind our house. Now you may ask, why would I ride my bike 8 miles on the road and push it 2 miles down a rail road track, when I had great fishing near my house? ADVENTURE!!!! My whole life has been about adventure, and fishing within sight of my house did not qualify as adventure.