23 and 27 May 2019
Sorry I have taken so long to post this, I’ll just combine the two trips together. It’s been busy around here and I have got a list of chores growing quickly. However, walk is pressure washed, plumbing has a band-aid on it, and part of the garage has been cleaned up. However, a lot of things lie ahead.
Thursday evening, the daughter and I headed to the lake, we are going to meet a friend of mine out there to make it his 3rd fishing trip. Daughter and I fish close to the ramp as we are waiting and trying a new spot. She spots a snake on a rock and informs me to take a look. The snake then spots us and slithers into the water. The entire snake is floating on top and I could not remember if that meant poisonous or not, but it swam straight toward the boat. Not being sure if he was looking for a boat ride or not, I started trying to fend him away from the boat. I whacked at it numerous times to shew it away, he disappeared under the bow, I hit high speed on the trolling motor and we got away. We looked back and he was left swimming. It was a bit of excitement and by the way, daughter does not like snakes. I was not real excited about the potential of that thing slithering up the trolling motor, which may or may not be possible, but I wasn’t taken any chances.
We continued on fishing for the day. My weapon of choice was a Ned Rig Mud Minnow. I would have gone with the green pumpkin, but apparently I am all out of them. The daughter went with PB&J and Javier went with the mud minnow. The catching started with a small largemouth. My daughter took the pic on the phone and apparently still mad that I whipped her fishing cause she did not send it to me, however, I’m just kidding, it was not very big. We got quite a few bites, most were probably bluegill, but I did catch another largemouth (smaller than the first) and a couple of what we call Rockbass (not striper, think warmouth).
I then got a hit, tried setting the hook, the bass came to the surface, shook, left me with a loose line. It looked like a pretty nice one, but all those that get away look nice. I caught one more fish, a mud cat, no pic but it was a couple pounds or so. I ended up catching 5, the girl had a tough day, I think the snake may have gotten in her head. But she did catch a few from the bank with her buddy the next day.
This was Javier’s first time pitching, flipping, whatever we were doing. He picked it up pretty quick, in hind sight, I did not give him the best rod for that, but he picked it up pretty well. He got a few bites and even tried setting the hook a couple of times. Now understand, the young man is on his 3rd fishing trip of his life, he did well and it looks like he may be landing some fish pretty soon.
Monday morning rolled around and I woke up at 5:00am for some reason. I got ready and left the house at 6:00 am. I started off with the mud minnow, switched to a 1/8 ball jig, and had missed quite a few fish. There were numerous fish in the fishfinder, but not going real well early in the morning. I see a striper or two bust some shad, but no real hard feeding. I decided against trying to catch bait and just continue down the bank.
I finally switched rods to the spiral wrapped rod I had made and used the rootbeer pig and jig. This used to be my Boone Lake go to bait. I make a cast, decide to pull out some line, no backlash, but some loose line. When I go to reel there is a fish on the line. I set the hook, just so it looked like I was the one that made this catch happen and began to reel. I was tickled to have finally got one in the boat. Released the feller and kept going down the bank.
A few cast later, as soon as the line hit the water, it began moving, I set the hook and cranked the little guy to be photographed and released. I was running out of bank and headed back up the lake a bit. I began looking for striper and possibly crappy. I made a few cast with a striper jig, I got a couple of hits, but my guess is they were trout, they don’t tend to take that big bait, just bit the tail.
The sun began getting pretty warm and it was getting close to time to leave, I headed back to the dock. Another gentleman was taking out, so I cast a bit while waiting, I landed one more, too small for pic, but it was nice to end the day that way. I took out and thought this early morning fishing is pretty nice. 3 hours of fishing, not much traffic on the water, quiet for a while, I’m gonna have to get the girls to go out this early a time or two. I hope everyone had a great Memorial Day weekend and you took a minute to appreciate those that have sacrificed themselves for our freedoms. Have a great week and God bless.
04 April 2019
So earlier in the week, the forecast was rain all weekend, some pretty good rain. Well, I had just planned to not fish very much, however, I looked at the map on Friday, the forecast had changed, but Friday was a no go. However, Saturday morning, or really anytime prior to 3:00pm looked to be pretty good. I loaded up, not early, and headed to Sugar Hollow. It was packed pretty good. I guess I could’ve parked, however, knowing around 3-4 a storm was coming, that is it began there would be a lot of folks at the ramp, I just decided to head to Davis.
The storms we’ve had this year have adjusted the dock at Davis. If you put in there or come to the dock to go into the store, be careful, it’s shallow and structure is around. Anyway, I put in and started the big motor to do some touring and looking for shad and big fish in the screen. Low and behold, not real long after running the big motor, I found shad a plenty. Now this is good as I’ve not located many this year, enough to fish, but not like I typically see.
I drop the trolling motor and start fishing with my Jig, within the first 10 minutes, I had 5 bites. So after I fish this thing for an hour or more, I caught some bait. I’m getting bites on the jig or I’d switch, but no takers, just nipping at the tail. The wife came and met me out there. I loaded her up, baited some flat lines, and off we went. I’m still getting bites periodically, then her line gets active. It bobs a time or two, then goes halfway down, she yanks, fish is off. We decided these hit more like trout, let him get it good.
She becomes very patient, as the balloon is moving across the water, it bobs once, she sets the hook and fish on. She reels it in for the pic, and release, it was a nice one. We continue on seeing many shad schools being broken up, these appeared to be trout as well. I am using the jig, getting bumps, seeing two follow it to the boat and one bit the tail of the swim bait on the jig, but I am using too big for the trout.
Wife in the back of the boat has another messing with her shad. Her patience is much, she sets the hook. Another nice brown to the boat, this one had swallowed the hook good and was bleeding pretty bad, we took pic then put in the livewell. Shortly after this we hear thunder, being someone who does not like to be on the water holding a 7’ graphite lightning rod, we headed back to the house.
It was a good day on the water. A couple fish landed, bites o’plenty, activity all over the water, and just being out was a great break. Only boated one striper this year, but, it’ll come soon enough. I learned a long time ago, catching fish is just the cherry on top, being outdoors, on the water, enjoying God’s creation, that is what I enjoy. When we do land a few, well, it makes it just a bit better. Have a great week and God bless.
