Craig's Pond has always been a cool place to hang out. While members of the fairer sex may tend to disagree at times when some of life's common conveniences aren't readily available, it is a great place to camp, fish, barbecue, sit by the fire. have a few beers, and just simply have a good time. Originally stocked with everything from monster catfish to striper bass it has evolved over the years to more of a largemouth and panfish pond with the occasional channel cat roaming around along with a few other species. This place will always have special meaning to me. I will always think of the pond with fondness as it is a place that holds many childhood memories for me. From the time we were
kids Craig and I
would often fish the pond,
trekking back and forth between there and his parent's house. It's probably less than a mile on a graveled road with a very moderate grade to it, but kids that we were we felt more like serious outdoorsmen that were able to weather anything that nature threw at us, that was until we got bored or it was dinner time in which case it was back to the house. As kids it was a place of dock fishing for bluegills, making smores, camping out, and telling ghost stories by the campfire. Many of those elements are still there, but as we've grown so have many of our tastes. A steady supply of chips, soda, and the occasional hot dog that made up our camping rations as children has turned into all out barbecues with steaks, burgers, shrimp,
and chicken amongst other things. We've gone from root beer to real beer, and dock fishing for bluegills by hand has given way to putting a properly placed dry fly right above their noses or breaking out the heavy equipment and chasing largemouth and catfish. We've also made some really good friends as we've grown, like John and Austin, that are practically family now who have also fished and camped at the pond. Though we've gotten older and some things have changed the feeling remains the same. It's a neat place to go where I feel like a kid and an adult at the same time.
Second Creek is an interesting place. The 1.5 to 2 mile stretch that we fish is a catch and release, fly fishing only area, which in and of itself is great but it often feels like you need a PhD in trout to catch anything there. It is regularly stocked by the DNR a few times a year with Rainbows and occasionally Browns, which are really cool. Although it is a fly fish only area there is plenty of evidence of people coming in with bait and fishing areas of the stream out, which contributes to the difficulty in catching these fish. I've caught several really nice fish from here, but there have been just as many days where I've walked away having caught nothing. Then there are days when it just flat out kicks your ass. Like the time I went with Craig and Josh. Neither one of those two slayed the fish, but they both had caught a couple. I on the other hand landed the big goose egg, and to top it all off I lost my new fly box that I got for Christmas somewhere in the creek which had ever
y fly I had spent the winter tying. Since then I have fastened a safety string to the box so that it won't happen again. The best trip I've had there in recent memory was one that Craig and I went on a few years back where I caught an 18 to 19 inch Brown Trout. I noticed him quietly sipping tiny insects on the surface of the water so I put on a number 16 black ant that I tied myself and made a nice easy cast just above where he had been. The fly slowly drifted in the current downstream towards the fish and then BAM it was on. An interesting side note to this story was that Craig and I had brought my brother along with us who was more interested in hanging out than fishing. Having started his liquid diet early that morning he took up position on a swinging bridge just above us and was nearly three sheets to the wind around the time I caught this fish. The humor was in the fact that the setting almost seemed scripted like a scene from a River Runs Through It. There Craig and I were skillfully
fly fishing for trout. I had successfully spotted, stalked, and hooked a large Brown on a tiny dry fly that I tied. At the moment that I was about to land him Craig hollered out as he also hooked and landed a nice trout slightly upstream from me, scoring us the coveted and often rare feat of "Doubles" when both anglers catch a fish at the same instant. There we both stood, masters of our domain, conquers of both fish and nature and just as the heavens were about to open up and the celestial music was about to start we were both jolted back to reality by my brother bellowing from his perch on the swinging bridge yelling, "WOULD YOU TWO SHUT UP! I'M TRYING TO SLEEP."
