Run and gun brim fishing

There is a term called "run and gun" fishing I remember hearing and seeing on a fishing show that involved going full throttle in a motorboat across a bay, spotting a school of fish, and then cutting the engine and casting immediately with conventional tackle and baits to the school before they realized what was going on. It looked quite hectic.

This morning I had about an hour free before going to work and I stopped at a park close to work that contains a small spring fed lake that has several smaller retention ponds near it. Each has different size, depth and water clarity. So, I decided to do a kind of "run and gun" of all of them, albeit at a much slower pace and sans boat.

I first fished the main lake which has very clear water and caught several nice fish. The fly they eventually liked most of all was a #14 olive hare's ear. The fish in the shallow were mostly small and pale.

I then moved to the back of the next lake which has green off color water and is only about an acre in size. I know from past experience there are some big fish in this water having seen some 6 pound bass in the shallows during their spawn as well as huge bluegill and rio grande cichlid. This lake is also surrounded by lots of weeds and shaded by trees. I cast in one spot in the shade of some trees and found some brim willing to take a black foam spider. I caught a few nice ones and had some smack the spider pretty hard. When I switched to a bead head olive hare's ear, I caught one really nice redbreast as big as my hand. Nice!

Next, I went over to the last retention pond which is about a quarter acre in size and very shallow. It is mostly clear and fish are spooky demanding long casts to the weedline in the center of the pond. I did manage to catch several good size sunfish and one nice fat yet short bass that I had to horse around with the 2wt as I didn't want him to bury himself in the algae and break off the 5x tippet.

This may not appear to have the heart pounding excitement of the "run and gun" fishing I saw on TV but it sure was fun and satisfying to stink like fish as I went into work today.