26 May 2017
Let the Weekend Begin
Sorry for my delay in writing, the weekend wasn’t that busy, but I just didn’t sit down to type anything, no excuses and as I considered what Memorial Day was for, well, I just couldn’t bring myself to write much, so, we’ll start with the beginning of the weekend.
We finally caught a break in the weather and the daughter and I headed out to Boone. I had asked her if she wanted to go out early and she said, we seem to catch just as many when we don’t, so, let’s sleep. This allowed me to progress on a rod so I was more than fine with this, mornings are a bit rough anyhow.
The last time I was out, I had discovered that the aerator was no longer working, even after I had tried tapping it with a screwdriver handle. That has worked in the past, but I think it is no longer being effective. So as I was catching bait, I asked daughter to load up the livewells. I typically put the bait into a container for ~15 minutes, let them get that film off of them, then switch them over. Well I caught some bait, put them into the container, stepped, daughter had opened up the front livewell like I had asked and had it half full and my left foot found the bottom. It was a perfect step and did not hurt too awfully bad and after a few seconds of noticing that I was not in need of medical attention, she says: “is it ok to laugh now, cause that was hilarious?” I said sure as I mumble softly and shake the water off of my shoe.
Our flat line running behind the boat ends up getting hit, 3 times I think, they were big, distinctive striper hits, you know, sounds like a bowling ball being dropped in the water, but they never took the bait. It was odd, they hit at it like they wanted it, but never did take it. We never did land a big boy, but we were also hitting the banks for a few bass or whatever would bite.
Now for the year, 2017, the girl has yet to beat me, not that I would rub it in or anything, but typically, catching more fish than me is not hard, we just haven’t been able to go much with her work schedule and the weather and all the excuses that we can come up with, so I think I am like 2-0. Anyway, we have been out a while and she starts up with something like, hey old man, looks like I’m gonna getcha today, it’s 2-1 and we’re about done. I told her that be awesome I’d love for her to catch more fish, just let me know if you want me to try. Well that gets her going pretty good and she says don’t make excuses, you better try. I switch over to a mud minnow on me ‘ol Ned Rig and I kid you not, within 10 minutes I am ahead of her on the fish catching. It was pretty funny, maybe that is what she gets for laughing at the wet foot I had, anyway, we both did pretty good that day. A lot of hits, her using the PB&J and me with the mud minnow. A few pics above not sure if that is all we caught or not but we did have a ball.
Now if you ever hear us out there jawing back and forth to one another, that is just our way, we have a good time picking back and forth and never take it too far. Last year she whooped me not just in quantity but quality of fish, this year we have struggled a bit. The generators have been running wide open and I just haven’t found the stripers, however, I haven’t looked real hard, I figure I can just bass fish and if any are around, they can latch onto one of the shad. Probably in a month we will want some rain so I’ll just enjoy while it last. We went back out Memorial Day, I’ll try to add that trip on here as well, have a great week and God bless.
20 May 2017
Finally the Rain Held Off
Looking at the weather, I figured this weekend was a no go. My daughter’s high school graduation ceremony was Friday, congrats to her very proud, and Saturday was supposed to bring rain. Well I either did not look at the weather right or they missed it. I got up Saturday morning expecting to work on rods all day, I saw the weather, checked out the percentages, then realized I get to go fishing. Now the rain don’t bother me, but if there is going to be lightning, I don’t play games with that stuff. So I finished up one of the rods to the point of epoxy, loaded up the boat and off I went.
I chose to put in at Davis as it was not early (around noon), now let me explain. I didn’t sleep too late, got up at 7:00 (didn’t want y’all to think I was too lazy). The handle I was preparing had to be turned on a lathe, I was using burl cork, this all took a bit of time. I never get in a hurry on the rods, I’d rather take my time and do it right than to hurry and have to fix or start over. Anyway, I figured Sugar Hollow was going to be fairly crowded so Davis was the choice.
They had been generating and cold water was past Davis but some murky water was in the shallows. Just as a side note, Boone was low, I know you are thinking, it’s been low for a couple of years now, but it was lower than normal and dropped more before I had gotten back. Be careful because I had to use the trolling motor to maneuver due to the depth. Anyway, I through the cast net in the shallows on the mud bottom and ended up with 3 10” or better shad and a couple of smaller ones. I like using the big shad, they are just a bit difficult to find so I thought I would start in the cold water.
I put a big shad on a balloon behind me and a small one on a down line. The down line was only down about 5’ as I was moving into deeper water and the rod tip went down. I bent to grab it and it released, then went again, my thought was, this may be one of them trout. I saw a flash and it was white (don’t think it was a brown but can’t be certain). The rod bent again and this time it kept pulling, I grabbed the rod, just pulled and the fish got away with my bait. That flash I saw was very big, I would have thought it to be well over 20”, like well over, but no proof.
I eventually headed to point 10 with no more activity in the cold water. After getting lines out and getting the Ned Rig ready for the banks, the balloon darted right then left, then it went to go under and popped. The rod and rod holder turn directly toward the action and a fish was on (I just didn’t want to end a sentence in a preposition). I go back to battle knowing it is big (big bait, big fish), but the line is not screaming off. Typical striper will run hard and I began to think this may not be a striper. He was fighting hard, but it was just different than usual, and as I chased him around and not pulling too hard, he got closer and I saw the problem. Somehow, that feller had taken the shad but had hooked himself on the underside of his gut. Since I know that metabolism is not that fast in the striper (I’m not biologist, but) I figure after he took the bait, he turned and the hook must’ve gotten him then. I put the blame on him as I was in the front of the boat when all this happened. Anyway, it was great, nice striper.
I started again with big bait #2 and began bank fishing. The PB&J was on fire as I fished this area for about 45 minutes and got hits very regularly. I boated 2 small mouth, missed 10 or more little ones, and got into a fight. As I was pulling in the finesse TRD, a smallie nailed it. I am using my medium light 7’6” rod (you may be thinking why, well, fish are awfully fun on this one and since I am not in a tournament and need to get in the boat quickly, I like the fun). The fight was on and I was winning, then I saw him, this feller was probably pushing 4lbs, he was nice. I knew that I would probably need the net with my present tackle. Headed to the back, grabbed the net, when I bent down, I removed a little pressure from the rod and apparently that was all he needed. That smallie got off and ultimately won the fight. Oh well, it had been a good couple of hours on the water, I was hot, had caught some fish and can’t really take too much of the heat anyhow, time to head home.
I will post a little side note hear, my daughter broke her rod, he friend had slipped on some rocks, the rod hit the rocks then it broke later. If you have a graphite rod, try not to bang that thing on anything that may weaken the rod, it will come back to haunt you. Anyway, I have another but I am busy with a couple of rods right now but convince her to try to build it. This may be a process as she says; “I don’t have the patience”, but I’m hoping that she will give it a go. Anyway, hope everyone had a great weekend and with the long one coming up, hope your livewells stay full. Have a great week and God bless.
Another Week Begins
15 May 2017
First off a big thank you to all the mother’s out there that have committed to raising youngens, it is a difficult job, but can there be anything more rewarding. I am saying a big thank you to my mother, whom I was able to spend time with yesterday, and the mother of my children, whom I was able to spend time with yesterday. Thanks ladies, job well done, but you’ll never be able to retire from this one, as I am sure none would want to.
My fishing trips this month have been almost non-existent. Between the weather, my many excuses, laziness, and other reasons I shall not discuss, I am left with an empty net, yet a proud feeling. Over the past few weeks, my daughter has taken to the banks of Boone Lake almost like an invasion. In the past 7 days, she and a friend, or me, or just by herself, she has been fishing at least 5 times. So I am just going to be writing of our one trip and a few of hers.
I took her to the dam one day to give this place a whirl. She hadn’t been here yet and it was an exploratory trip. We hadn’t been there long and I landed a small one, told her she was much more photogenic and took her picture. Now she is a bit competitive therefore I informed her that the score was 1-0. We fish a bit more and I get hung up and had to break my line. As we were fishing our way back and the sun was setting, she begins laughing and I look and she had pulled in my Ned Rig that had broken off, I was tickled and had never seen that happen before. We got a few bites but couldn’t get anything for the next hour and a half or so, as it began getting dark, we got back to the boat ramp and no one was around, I told her to fish that ramp. She says why, I said, I think I caught a fish on a ramp once and now I love to fish every boat ramp, it’s a thing. Sure enough, she lands a real nice small mouth, in the pic above. At the same time I landed a bluegill that was about the size of the Ned Rig finesse TRD, it was small. She had landed a nice one, the day was complete.
So sometime every evening, she has been heading out and doing a bit of fishing, I won’t tell her spot, but she has done pretty good. Yesterday she landed a catfish, one day it was 4 bass. They’ve been getting bites but some days she has been catching nothing, but she is figuring this stuff out. Our schedule hasn’t let us get the boat out as work days I have got to be in bed, nobody wants to be around me if I don’t get to bed on time, but maybe soon. This weekend is the graduation ceremony from High School, so things should open up after that. She is having a great time going and taking friends, I sure wish I would have gotten her a lifetime license when she was a baby.
Also, a congratulations to my son, he graduated North East State Technical Community College last week and did well, It is amazing how fast they grow up. He’s been busy with school and work and he is ready to start with the fulltime. I couldn’t be more proud of him.
I hope everyone has a great week and I started a new facebook page https://www.facebook.com/tfrcustomrods/ stop by and give it a like, it started this weekend and I plan to only post rods so it will not fill up your timeline. I hope everyone has a great week and God bless
