An Evening At Snyders Flats
How does one follow up three wonderful days of fishing? I don’t know about other people, but Darrell and I followed it up by spending the morning on a Credit River tributary, stocking Atlantic salmon, then continued the fun with an evening of fishing with the dogs at Snyders Flats in Bloomingdale.
Snyders Flats, also referred to as the Bloomingdale ponds or the Bloomingdale dog park, is an absolute gem of a place to visit. With four ponds, a stretch of the Grand River, and trails stretching in every direction, it is impossible to get bored with visiting this place. It happens to be a favorite destination for our dogs because they get to visit with so many other dogs, follow a plethora of new scents, go swimming, and best of all for Jack, they get to spend time fishing with us.
Molly
Jack
Molly and Jack really love to go fishing with us.
Our goal was to catch some crappie, but just getting out with the dogs was enough. The fishing was slow and we landed only a few crappie, yet plenty of other fish were willing to bite. Our first location yielded a beautiful smallmouth bass that was very quickly released, but it also produced far too many catfish. While Darrell and I weren’t pleased to land the catfish, Jack thought they were great and quickly positioned himself close to the line, apparently eager to help in some way. Despite moving to several different areas and casting in three of the ponds, the fishing remained slow.
No slab crappies tonight.
Hmm…not the target species.
Ugh, definitely not the target species! And there were lots of these.
The highlight of the night for me was getting a chance to photograph a resident osprey. I’ve been fascinated with these birds for a long time and couldn’t believe my luck when the bird landed in a tree not far from where I was fishing. I quickly placed my rod on the ground, grabbed my camera, and started making my way in for a better look. He sat in the tree for a while, keeping a close eye on me and still clinging to his dinner, but eventually I got closer than he cared for and he flew across across the pond to another tree.
Just chilling.
Keeping an eye on me.
And now I’m too close.
Goodbye!
It was a perfect evening to be out and enjoying the outdoors. While the fishing wasn’t productive, it was peaceful and relaxing and more time on the water. The dogs were quiet on the drive home and are now passed out on the floor, likely dreaming of fish. I love it when the dogs are happy and tired!
argosgirl
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Dave and I love Snyders Flatts – we only heard about it two years ago, and now head there quite often during the summer. Our pups love to be able to go for a swim, and we like to be able to join them 🙂
LOL we haven’t joined the dogs in the water yet. It was first place we took them for a walk after I brought Molly home and she wandered into the water after Jack, going just one step further than him and finding herself having to swim. She scared herself and she was careful about the water the rest of that day, but now she’s a total water dog.
We were angling specifically for catfish yesterday 😛 After the 4th, we’ll go for sport fish again, and we won’t stick to the marsh with the big cats.
I think the bigger catfish would be fun and a great fight, but these little guys are so squirmy and neither of us feel like getting stung. We’re not as bad as someone we know who will cut his line if he gets a cat on it 🙂
Sounds like an excellent outing, from stocking to catching to photographing an osprey (love the bird photos!).
I was really pleased with how the osprey photos turned out! Looks like I did a decent job of cleaning my camera’s sensor (a terrifying first-time task) because there was only one dust spot that showed up on the pictures, and in a spot that was easy to crop out. Much better than the five dust spots that used to be there. The outdoors is always teaching me something new, even if it’s just how to clean my camera so I can take pictures of all the amazing things I get to see outdoors.
There is a ifs prey at bechtal park right now with a baby in the nest. If you park right by the park there is a big nest on top the hydro pole. Also has some great trails and a leashless dogpark. Great place except there’s not as many fishing spots
We’ll have to check it out, thanks for the tip!
Hello
Can you tell me what kind of fish is on pic. 5 ‘ Hmm…not the target species.’
Thanks
It’s a brown bullhead. The larger pond is full of them. Thanks for reading!