a walk in the park

Due to the weather forecast, I did not return to Passaic, New Jersey today. Instead I took a walk in Central Park this morning. The thought of being on a river during a thunderstorm was not too appealing to me. I took a subway ride and my 3 weight fly rod. I entered Central Park at 59th street and walked to the pond. this was my first time fishing The Pond. In case you don't know, its located behind the Wollman skating rink. Once I got set up I began to fish with a number 12 white woolly bugger. This is one of my go to flies. after a few spey casts, I hooked a bass(warning: do not false cast at the pond).

And from there I walked to the Lake at 72nd St. The Lake was windy and covered with rowboats. I noticed that the water level at the Lake was down over a foot. I got a few nibbles but no real takes, so I headed north to the pool at 103rd St. There I discovered, after several years of fishing the pool, that largemouth bass are not the only inhabitants of the pool. This afternoon I saw several channel cats swimming from the rock outcropping on the southern shoreline. In addition to that I caught a big bluegill with a pheasant tail fly. In total, at the pool, I caught a largemouth bass and a meaty bluegill.

After that I headed to The Meer at 110th St. There I was surprised to find that The Meer was more than 80% clear of algae! The water was almost gin clear. I hooked a few more bluegills, nothing special, and headed home on the number three train; just before rush hour.

Instead of walking straight home after the subway ride, I turned right and entered Prospect Park for a few more casts. There was a lot of duckweed in front of the boathouse. However, the main part of the Lake was free of duckweed. The weather began to look more threatening, so I packed up and went home.