Quick updates from the team.
In the City Of Allen:
Celebration Park. Our team has been using the North and East Ponds at Celebration Park for testing two fly patterns - Bread Fly and Cigarette Egg Fly, created by one of our members. Both fishing flies have been successful at catching Bluegill, Sunfish, and Catfish and are designed to imitate a piece of bread.
To fish them, we have been chumming with bread to attract the fish, and then casting the fly to the chummed spot. As we are fishing a community lake where a number of park goers feed the resident ducks, the fish have grown accustomed to feeding on bread. We were concerned about the ducks and seagulls eating the chum before the fish at first; however, the birds tend to stay away as long as we kept the bread within 20' to 30'.
The North Pond is a sure bet for Bluegill and Sunfish with the Cigarette Egg Fly producing excellent results the first time we tested it. No dryfly floatant is applied. Instead, as the fly became waterlogged, it slowly sinks below the surface at the same rate as the bread. Even more enticing is the coloring of the filter material, the nicotine stains produce a color pattern that closely resembles a rolled piece of bread with its brown crust.
The East Pond is also good for Bluegill, Sunfish, and Catfish. Our best Catfish so far is a 20" Catfish (slightly over 2 lbs) caught with a Bread Fly fished wet and pulled slowly through the chummed spot. We have not tried the Cigarette Egg Fly in the East Pond but plan to do so once the weather clears.
Also, in either pond, we have found the Prince Nymph and Gold Ribbed Hare's Ear Nymph patterns work well for Bluegill and Sunfish.
FYI: Instructions for tying the fly patterns have been posted on the Web Log. If unable to locate the posts, use the Blogger Search Function on the top of this page, entering "Bread" or "Cigarette" as the search criteria.
Other Locations:
Frisco Commons. Frisco Commons is still seeing trout activity after receiving its stocking 9 February with Salmon Eggs being the preferred bait. Earlier reports indicated lures and fishing flies were taking trout; however, recent reports suggest fishing with bait.
Towne Lake in McKinney. Towne Lake is scheduled for its trout stocking this weekend. To kick-off the event, the city of McKinney is hosting a Trout Derby on Saturday, 23 February. From previous trout stockings, we have observed lures and fishing flies work well the first week (sometimes two weeks) after a pond is stocked. So, fishermen who want to take trout on artificials should plan to fish Towne Lake this weekend!
Denison Dam Tailrace. The tailrace is seeing some activity with reports of smaller-sized Striped Bass being taken on shad imitations. Overall, it is still hit or miss for fishermen given the a large number of shad in the area. A lot of bait, live or dead, is in the tailrace; therefore, fish are being more selective. Give it a try and check the generation schedule and the release schedule for Denison Dam to get a feel for when they are releasing water / generating power (see link posted in the sidebar).
Good luck and good fishing!
