Nice weather window

I was sitting this morning watching the news, and basically getting aggravated so turned that off and looked at the weather on my phone. Interesting, temperature pop of almost 20 degrees in a couple hours but wind was going to pick up. Got the lazy legs under me and headed for the garage and packed up for a pond trip. Looked over a few and settled on one that made me feel lucky. Got out of the truck and the smell coming off the pond reminded me of that spring smell when the bluegills are on nests, perch looking for food, and bass looking for a big meal. Could the pond be that alive? I get set up with the trusty rod and a 1/32 oz jighead with a grub. As I set up the wind goes from a whisper to a stiffer breeze and continued to grow. Third cast in rewarded with a fat perch. And a couple casts later two more the same size. This feels great! I use a countdown on each cast as usually the perch settle near the bottom. If retrieve starts too fast the 1/32 has zero chance of staying in the zone. All the while making sure no wind loops get onto the spool. 1/32 offers almost zero resistance on the line.

I make another cast and see the line twitch to the side on a 2 count. I catch up on the line and set and the rod bends over and does not come back. No drag pulling yet, but we are at a stalemate. Next thing I see is a beautiful rainbow trout a foot over the water in all its beauty glistening in the sun. What a wide body on this one! Now she knows she's hooked and the fight begins! Drag pulling, deep diving, every trick in the book! I am still attached! Took me quite a while to get her in the shallows but even there i could not move her the few feet to get her in even shallower water. Grabbed some pictures but really did not want to grab her and risk injury. "Dropped" my rod down for an estimated length. For those I fish with, they know I have very good eyes as I am the first to call short on close fish coming to the net! I have a very good record of being damn close! Let's say I start with at least 17 inches. Bigger? In my heart yes, but confident on sharing 17. I had zero plans of keeping her after that fight. Was able to give a little slack and the tiny hook popped out.

Next cast a beautiful brown trout, and then that pond went dead. Wind still picking up, and no more of that "smell" I was talking about. This pond is usually an early afternoon stop. Guess what, morning will be tried again!

I tried a few other lures and called it the day.

After the week I had, wow, just still sitting on a cloud.