Clay Dogs and More Bass

Today began with a visit to my Dad's work, Redland Brick up near Windsor. A group of geologists, "The Friends of the Pleistcocene", we going to stop by to examine ancient strata from a long gone lake bed exposed in the brick yard's clay pit. Being that I am a bit of a geology nerd myself this was not something I wanted to miss. Plus I wanted to check out a pond that I may get a chance to fish sometime. Apparently it contains some big bass. The shoreline is rich with cattails, the perfect structure to cast a popper against and wait for an explosion. Although the clay pit has only been flooded since 2007, it already contains fish. The ones I saw were of the minnow family, looking similar to dace.

When the geoogists arrived they immediately began doing things geologists do. They peeled back strata to find fossils, took core samples, and poked around in the clay. One of the things they found were these small concretions of calcium carbonate, stones the brick yard workers call clay dogs.  

When we got back I fished that pond for the last time of the weekend, and perhaps for a while. Next time I plan to focus more on the fantastic striper fishing just a short distance to the south. But for now the bass and pumpkinseeds gave me a nice goodbye. Big Orange was not around for the farewell, but I'm sure at some point over the summer he will be around again.