TR Collins Pond

At first I didn't plan to fish at all. I just wanted to take advantage
of a fluke in the weather pattern to get myself and my hound dog out
somewhere where we could enjoy the day. But I stuck a fly rod in the
back just in case. ;-)

I put the old wagon on the interstate and headed for the Middle Fork
of the Vermillion River where I figured to meander around the too high
to fish river and let the dog chase frogs. Along about a quarter of the
way there, already fed up by the lunatics driving too fast and the idiots
driving too slow, I decided to get off the interstate and travel at a
more comfortable pace. As luck would have it the next exit put us just a
few miles away from a favorite pond.

So I changed destinations and drove to Collins Pond. There were two
trucks there already, so I put Kipper on a leash and walked over to
check things out. The two guys were fishing in the right spots, both
were using bait and appeared to be catching their share o little
bluegill. It takes about a half hour to circumnavigate the pond so
once we were well away from the fishermen I let hound off leash to
romp and sniff.

Winter had left some subtle changes on the familiar landscape, it was
like seeing an old friend after a few years and noticing that he's
grown a moustache. The beavers have been busy, as busy as ... well,
you know ;-), and the mud in the marsh documents the passage of deer,
fox, raccoon and possum.

When we get back to the lower end of the pond one of the fishermen
has inexplicably moved off the point he was fishing back into a cove,
so we walked back to the car to rig up. Kipper found a spot in the
shade and gave me the open-mouthed, loose tongue look that said, "You
know, I'd enjoy this a lot more if you could get the air conditioning
turned back on." It reached 80F here yesterday and I was a lot more
comfortable than the hound.

Used a little yellow spider and a 9' 3wt, made me think of Big Dale,
caught my first fish of 2004, a healthy little specimen and drank a
cold Bud while taking down the rod.

Took the back roads all the way home. The fields look PERFECT. We had
a very wet March, the soil is full of moisture but drying out just in
time for planting. It's looking like record setting conditions for
corn this year. I had the fleeting thought on the drive home to sell a
couple of corn contracts short before everybody and their cousin got in
on it, but luckily I sobered up by the time I got home. ;-)