I couldn’t hold out any longer. My fingers wouldn’t stop twitching, I was starting to get a pretty serious tick in my neck and I think I may have actually exhausted YouTube’s library of fly fishing videos. I had to get on some water. Really any water would do. I knew I was heading down towards to the Cape on Sunday to help my father rearrange his wood shop and figured I could convince him to go flail around on one of the many trout stocked ponds available on the Cape. In the end, we chose Peter’s Pond in Sandwich due to it’s easy and plentiful shore access and relative shelter from a growing wind.
Growing up, I fished a few of these Cape trout ponds for bass but had never encountered a trout since it was always summer, and the trout stayed well under the water column I’d be fishing (not that I knew what that was). I really wasn’t sure what to expect on this raw Sunday afternoon, but at the very least I’d get to explore and get some casting practice in.
By the time we arrived, there was a steady breeze. While we first investigated the beach located at the very northern point of the pond, there was no way we’d be able to cast more than a few feet into the steady headwind. My 4wt doesn’t provide much punch when it comes to cutting into a wind. We moved on to the boat ramp, located at the south east corner off Dunroamin’ Trail. Compared to the northern section of pond, this large cove was rather shallow. According to the chart we found, the center was 20′ compared to the 50′ depths located in the main pond. We began casting, working out way up the western shoreline.
I used this pond as an opportunity to try a new fly pattern I had been tying. The Dick Empie Golden Minnow, or “Goldie”. Made completey of Bills Bodi-Braid it almost gives the illusion of a gold or chromed spoon rather than any respectable fly. Perfect for blind casting into a pond. It wasn’t long, and we hadn’t moved far, before I had a decent take catch me off guard. I had been working a slow retrieve, keeping the fly close to the bottom but paying more attention to conversation. Once again, my master tactic of pretending indifference worked, and I had a decent fish on. Put one up on the board for the Goldie.
A quick fight, and I had it ashore. Measuring almost 20″, it was not only my first trout (in my life) but a decent specimen at that. After a few pictures and some brief awe, I quickly released it and was back on the rod. It only took a few retrieves before I lost my first Goldie to a snag on the bottom. Luckily I had more with me because once I tied a new one on the line, it only took a cast or two before I was into another fish. This one was smaller, maybe only 15″ but it fought harder than the first.
All in all, I pulled in three within about an hour. The old man unfortunately didn’t hook up with anything but a couple small perch. The afternoon was getting on, and the wind started to shift in our direction so after I lost another goldie to a snag and the bite died down we packed it in. I could not have asked for more. I went out with no hopes of anything other than escaping some winter boredom but instead caught my first three trout since I picked up this hobby. Despite the countless stripers, large and small mouth bass and bluegills I’ve caught on the fly, somehow I now feel closer to a “real” fly fisherman. Next up, pick up a river trout.
Really the only downside to my success on Sunday is that instead of alleviating my desire to fish and giving me some short term satisfaction, it has only served to light a fire under my ass. I’m already planning my week and deciding when I can get out again. I have more stocked trout close to me in Whitings Pond…and slightly more enticing, I’ve heard ok reports of holdover stripers in the Providence and Seekonk rivers.
Tight Lines
Hook & Spoke 