The Pond & The Swashbuckler

Several evenings each week, I can be found wading around our small reservoir, erratically stripping Water Boatman flies and grinning ear-to-ear with each hook-up. Many fish have fallen to my Water Boatman pattern that a friend named the Swashbuckler, because of the riotous fly retrieval, and showy strikes from fish. It really is quite exciting.

Pond Brown Trout with Swashbuckler Fly Photo by Zac Sexton

It took a while to figure out the secret of the Water Boatman bug. But since our streams are high and off-color, I have plenty of time to research our pond. Earlier this season I would see a fish rise every now and again. It didn’t matter what the weather was, and it didn’t seem to matter what bugs were hatching. Most the time only midges were visible, and fish usually just sip midges. We couldn’t figure what was causing the fish to explode from the water. But one evening I saw a Brown rush from the depths after a Boatman.

The bug got to shallow water just as the Brown swirled in the surface, missed its target, and shot back to deep water. That was what I needed to clue me in to what they were eating. I started to change my retrieve of the olive-brown generic nymph I was fishing, and immediately got hits, then landed several fish.


That night, I tied a few Boatman prototypes and found one to out-produce the rest. I have since caught all but two fish since early May on the Swashbuckler fly. By fishing a few key places, and using a particular retrieve, I have found it possible to catch several fish every time I fish our small pond. And we are excited to take our members and guests to share the excitement of catching hard-fighting trout in our pond.

Cutthroat Trout photo by Zac Sexton

Update: last night, I noticed some Mayflies emerging, and a few fish chasing ‘em…

In Wild Waters,

Zac