24 May 2018
We began the Memorial Day weekend on Thursday after work. I took a vacation day Friday so we decided to head to the lake. We put in at Davis, the generators had calmed down a bit and thought we may have a bit of warmer water. We launched and threw the cast net about 20 minutes or so and had no luck, couldn’t even see any flips from the shad. Kayleigh had been tossing the swim bait in the back of the boat and we decided that it was time to break out the Ned Rig.
We found a bank and I had a bite before she even got her knot tied on for the Ned Rig. I was using a worm as we don’t like using the same thing until someone gets a bite. I finally switched mine as I was getting bites but I think they were mostly bluegill.
The thrashing I took that day began shortly after she got tied up. I can’t remember the order she caught them, but she caught a real nice catfish (sorry, I didn’t get that picture put in here, it wasn’t in my photos). I’m still getting bites and finally land a bass that was almost as big as my bait. You’ll notice no pics of my fish, all of them were small, and a couple were bluegill. After the catfish, we are trolling the bank and she pitches it toward a pontoon boat (just before I got hung up on the dock) and bam, she lands a nice crappie. I think she said it was 13″ or so, we tossed it in the livewell. Shortly after this I catch a blacknose crappie, however, it was short of 10″, we end up throwing back the one crappie that was a keeper.
Now she likes fishing rocks so we headed toward the other side of the lake, you know, where the fishing is better. This is where the real beating began, she landed a real nice largemouth, a couple more good ones and as she was pulling her line out of the water, what may have been the biggest one, came up after it and was just a second too slow.
I finally hook one that was pretty good, but after a short fight, he released himself prior to getting in the boat. I asked, but she said it did not count. We had a ball, we ended up catching at least 10 total, I won’t mention how few I caught, and missed quite a few. She was excited and I can tell you that I think I get more excited with her catching fish than I do when I catch fish. It is a blast to listen as she hooks a nice one.
My buddies boat is in the shop and I told him he could use mine whenever, but the advice I gave was, the front of the boat is apparently for fishing, and the back of the boat is apparently for catching.
We had a great day on the water and I’m not gonna give away what color she used, we may be heading out when the rain stops today. I hope everyone has a great Memorial Day weekend, God bless and enjoy the water.
20 May 2018
So the weekend rolls around and storms in the forecast, my biggest learning was don’t listen to the weather man. Friday too much to do, I think it was rainy but really can’t remember, I had 3 rods to mail out and fishing was not on the agenda. Saturday rolls around, I do my chores in the morning, the daughter works till 1:00 and watch the weather. The chances kept changing and when she arrived home, we loaded up the boat. We looked hard at the radar, nothing till 8:00, it’s time to wet a line.
We head to Davis, I stop to go in and borrow their facilities and when I walk out, a gully washer had popped up and it was coming down hard. The radar showing nothing, I’m thinking this will pass. We wait about 15 minutes, it lets up, then comes back, we just pull the plug and head home, we had already taken a bunch of water and everything was soaked, and we did get a line wet.
Sunday rolls around, we go to church, hit a buffet, then head to the house. I figured I needed to get the boat dry so we headed back out to the lake. The rain held off all day and we got to do some fishing.
We decided to throw swim baits for a bit, she usually is just ned rigging, but she may be switching things up. She just stated, I can’t catch a thing this year, I said softly, Lord please let her catch something. About 2 cast later, a striper or hybrid nailed her swim bait. She gets excited, it starts pulling, I don’t hear any drag and snap. Ugh may have been what she said, yep, just like on Charlie Brown. I told her to check her drag, she said, I tighten it when I get hung and must’ve forgotten to loosen. I showed her how she don’t have to do that, but a lesson learned.
We see shad flipping and catch three, that should be plenty. We put out two flat lines and continue on in our area. One line had a swirl, the balloon went halfway under, then came back up and nothing. Hmm, we keep on with swim baits and shad. We get back over to where she got her line snapped, I threw out, she had thrown out, she says dad hold this, one of the rods was having drag pulled. I put my rod between my legs, grab hers, reel it in and lay it down. I reel mine in and lay it down, then I grab the net. She is fighting it hard and finally having a great time, it’s pulling but she is gaining ground. We finally get it in, she grabs it and grins, I take the photo.
We fish another half hour or so and were getting hot. We felt like we had a successful day as anytime on the water is good, especially if you are out with your family or friends. I got a couple more rod orders and one I am going to try to complete for “testing”. This blank is rated for 5/8-6oz lures, a swim bait rod. I’m hoping to saltwater test it later this year, but want to see how it throws some baits. I like this testing of rods due to meaning, I get to keep it. I’m starting to accumulate way too many, but hey, it is fun. I hope everyone had a great weekend, God bless.
04 May 2018
The Irwin Food City Bass Tournament was on Saturday and we were going to go down and stay the night prior to the event. However, with the past week we had, this just didn’t seem to be in the card, which left Friday open for fishing. Now I have 4 rods that I am building for customers, and this gets me stressed not being able to work on this, I don’t like being slow on things but it’s working out that way, the guides should be here soon. Anyway, I headed to Davis (Boonies) because fewer folks use this ramp.
After launching I head straight into Beaver Creek, hoping to pull out a crappie as I am using a roadrunner. I get a few bites and finally land a couple of bluegill. Certainly they were not wall hangers, however, no worries about being skunked. I headed to another spot to look for some crappie and nothing was around.
I then switched over to bass mode thinking that I may get one or two. I had been out for about 1-1.5 hrs and decided it was time to head back. I know, you’re thinking, why are you leaving that soon? You really don’t want to hear me complain, therefore, we will continue with the day. I got to a turn and thought I saw some shad scatter, no big bust but a scatter. I cut the big engine and trolled over that way. I am now armed with my new fishing rod, which I really like. It is an American Made blank and it feels great. I’m tossing a swimbait and I’d give you more info about it except it is about 5 years old and out of the pack so I have no idea the name brand.
Anyway, I make a couple of cast and a big, 20” brown “thang” had followed it to the boat. I thought that was a beast of a smallmouth, and adrenaline picks up. I miss a few hits and then one get it. I realize that it was not a beast of a smallmouth I saw, but a nice brown trout. I remember my daughter wanting to smoke one, so I tossed it into the live well. I am now pumped and I heard the indistinguishable sound of a striper eating shad, kinda like a bowling ball hitting the water.
I make a few cast and boom, it is time to test the rod. My drag was light and I mean light, it began screaming off line. I try to tighten drag, but didn’t want to do too much so I employed the thumb on the spool method. This method is not recommended, but I felt that if I wanted to try to land this fish, I had to do this. I hit high on the trolling motor and looked down, it was not locked in place. So I have line screaming, trolling motor coming out of the water, I only have two hands and I needed a third. Let me say that if you were watching, I do hope you had a good time laughing. I had one hand on trolling motor to keep down, one on the rod with thumb at the ready on the reel, and trying to get speed adjusted on the motor. Things finally calmed (fish got tired) and I landed that big boy (or girl, I hate to assign it a gender or anything). I got the pic as quick as I could, put it back in the lake, and it swam away.
I was pumped, fixed trolling motor lock and headed to the new “honey hole” (defined as any place I have caught a fish). It seemed, and this is probably exaggerating a bit, a trout followed my swim bait about every 4-5 cast, then another big hit. Test number two on rod and one on trolling motor lock. This was a fight as I had to employ the follow method yet again. We wrestled and I finally got it into the boat. Pic taken, fish released, I didn’t feel like cleaning any monsters today. I was wore out and read to go so I called the girl to see if she wanted to come on out after work. She said she was wore out so I just headed home.
Now she has been wanting smoked trout so we got the fish out and she did the cleaning, well, as best she could with the tools I provided. I really need to get a good filet knife, this would make the experience much better, well, without all the laughing. We smoked it Sunday afternoon, but I need to work a bit on the smoker, it’s new and I’m a novice, it was good for supper, but needed a bit more smoke.
Saturday, my donated rod was given away to someone who had helped the event tremendously. They raised a record amount of money for the Boy’s and Girl’s Club and I had a ball at the event. I would be really bad, but am considering fishing the tournament next year. Heck , someone has to come in 170th place, might as well be my boat, but we will see. I hope everyone had a great week, God bless.
