Okie pond fishing

Sunday was my last day in Oklahoma before returning to Seattle. Scott Hood, the president of Trout Unlimited's Tulsa chapter and my new Okie fishing buddy, called me up Saturday night to ask if I wanted to try some pond fishing.

"Of course, I just need to be home for our family lunch."

We drove early Sunday morning from my old hometown of Broken Arrow to nearby Coweta to a pond that looked like a miniature bass lake. It had all the grass, tree stumps and beaver dams you'd see on a good Oklahoma or Texas bass lake. Instead of a Ranger bass boat, though, we could just mosey along at whatever pace we wanted. We covered about half of the pond by morning's end.

The wind was whipping up pretty good. We both brought our 6 wt. rods and cast part of the morning directly into 15-20 mph winds. With local knowledge, Scott got into the fish quickly. He landed a huge bluegill and then some nice bass. He also found time to give me a pointer or two on casting and popper retrieval, which helped.

Scott has fashioned a lot of creative bass flies out of things like broom handles, packing material and cork. Below is an almost comical frog pattern that seemed to excite the bass and bluegill.

I stuck with my Orvis freshwater popper, which produced 4-5 bass as well as this nice bluegill. Directly behind me in this photo is the man-made dam, where we switched to white wooly buggers (Scott had his own variation).

Most of the bass I caught were in the 1-1.5 pound range. Good little fighters who attack the surface stuff with some vigor.

I learned a lot on this trip. The most enjoyable lesson was that it's possible to expect to catch a nice fish -- rather than hoping to get lucky -- when you in put in the time, do the preparation and invite someone with real knowledge about the waters you're fishing.