Time: 12:30PM – 3:30PM

Location: Two of the ponds

Curtain Ponds 06/17/2024 Photo Album

In an attempt to salvage my fly fishing day on Monday, I made the drive through the Eisenhower Tunnel in order to arrive at the Curtain Ponds. The drive consumed around an hour, and I decided to eat my lunch in the car upon my arrival before starting my afternoon session.

Tail of a Pond

I remained in my waders, and my fly rod was already rigged, so I was off to one of the ponds in a short amount of time. I began with a peacock hippie stomper and trailed a size 16 light gray deer hair caddis, and almost instantly I began to connect with small brook trout. I followed the curving shoreline for the remainder of the afternoon, and I managed to net twelve brook trout that exceeded my six inch minimum in order to register on the fish counter. In the early going most of the trout snatched the caddis, but a few indulged in the meatier hippie stomper.

Colorful

After an hour of this double dry game, I decided to test the waters with a double nymph dropper. I began with a bright green go2 caddis and cycled through an ultra zug bug, beadhead pheasant tail nymph, a prince nymph, and a partridge and orange wet fly. During this phase I landed a couple fish subsurface; one on the caddis pupa and one on the partridge and orange, but most of the action derived from the hippie stomper.

Magnificent

By 2:30PM the wind began to gust at ridiculous levels. At one point a gust whipped my hat off my head, and the hat landed ten feet away. I had the hat tethered, but the strong gust separated the clip from my fleece collar. The felt hat gradually began absorbing water, and I was convinced that it would sink to the bottom, so I began to wade toward it at a rapid pace; well, as fast as one can wade in water up to one’s thighs and through a soft sinking bottom. Through some miracle, the hat remained in a partial floating state, as I reached out my wading staff and prodded it within reach. It was a soggy mess, so I clipped it to my collar and allowed it to rest against my back, while I attempted to fish without a hat. I gained new appreciation for hat brims, as I had to use my hand to shield my eyes on several occasions.Wind and Waves

Eventually the ferocious wind dried my hat enough that I decided to mount it once again on my head, and the wet brim actually felt somewhat refreshing. For the last hour I spent my time fighting the wind. I should have quit after the hat incident. In one comedy act. my line got snagged somewhere on my backpack, and this forced me to remove my frontpack and backpack to locate the snagged fly and free it. When I hurriedly set my backpack on the edge of the bank, it slid down into the water for a brief second, before I grabbed it and threw it back on land. The wind created six inch waves, and that is quite large for such a small body of water.

Pretty Handful

For the last hour I decided to try indicator nymphing, as the pond narrowed, and this created much greater depth. I used a split shot, thingamabobber, beadhead pheasant tail, and a black balanced mini leech; but, alas, the effort was not rewarded, and I failed to add to the fish count.

The brook trout all fell within the six to nine inch range, but I was not about to complain about the action after the morning skunking at Clear Lake. I would like to give the Curtain Ponds another chance under calmer conditions. If runoff persists, I may get my chance sooner rather than later.

Fish Landed: 12