Follow my Fish of 2014
With the looming (and now defunct) government shutdown, dad and I decided that Friday was a good day to go fishing....as if any day were a bad day!
Aubree and Alyse were off to visit my sister in Arkansas, so I still had to take Griffin to daycare. Sometimes you have to do what you have to do, even if that means getting on the water at 9am. I don't know if there was a morning bite or not, but we missed it if there was one.
We put in at Seibold, which is the lower end of midlake area. It was absolutely packed with boats. Comanches, iClass, etc. All high end boats plus at least 3 Pro rigs. I guess the folks eliminated from the FLW event at Pickwick decided that it was better to fish here than to go home. Here is a picture of the path we took today in our fishing:
I wanted to try my new swimbaits. So, that's pretty much all I threw all day while dad threw mostly a green pumpkin lizard. We worked a lot of different types of areas including creek channel transitions, 6 foot spawning flats, bank beating, etc. The clarity was very low because of the rain earlier in the week. The wind was really whipping at points in the day. The water temp was back down to 55 or so.
Fairly early in the day, while fishing a 6 foot flat, I hooked into a good fish. I wa throwing my swimbait on my custom swim bait rod. Thinking it would be an awesome PR moment,.....getting pics/vids of me catching them with all my tackle, I told dad to forgo the net and get the camera. The fish jumped a few times, and I could tell it was a chunk. About the time dad got the camera, and the fish got to the boat, it rolled over and looked at me. I could almost hear it snicker as the hook popped out and it went about its way. If only I hadn't been cocky....but, it was within a handle of the boat, so I called handle pick-me-up.
We got really shallow in front of Claysville middle school and dad started getting fish. He was literally throwing the lizard onto the bank and dragging it off. Good fish, too. 2.5 pound footballs. I, however, wasn't so lucky. We fished all the way south to the very back of the cove. I could see sporadic grass that was getting alot of action...but it was too shallow to get very close. It appeared to be early spawners. So, I threw my swimbait up into those holes in the grass. I had about 5 consecutive hits, but none were really eating it. They were bumping it or simply picking it up and moving the bait. I would try to "dead stick" them...letting it sit on the bed...to no avail. I swapped to a frog, hoping to get a bigger bite, but had the wimpiest hit on a frog, EVER. It finned it and went on its way. Perhaps the most frustrating part of fishing the spawn is KNOWING a fish is there, making it angry enough to swirl or even hit the bait , but not eat it. I had one hit so hard that it knocked the 3D eyes out of the bait!
After fishing the back of the backwater, we fished the mouth of the sailing club, again with out much luck. Fishing around one of the islands, dad had a hit. It was so light he didn't even feel it. He took up slack and it didn't move. He had cast directly on top of a big fish. The fish chugged for deeper water and dad did his best to keep up with it. Thinking it was hooked good, he gave it a respite while I got the net. Again, luck was against us and the 5+ pound fish spit the lizard and was gone. It was a hoss.
We fished all the way around the island to a spot in front of Marshall Baptist Retreat center. The area between the island and the Center is just a huge shallow flat. Using the Hummingbird 798 with sidescan, we found a lot of fishing suspending in 12 feet of water adjacent to 6 feet. Dad was able to coax a few fish out with the lizard, but I couldn't BUY a fish!
To add insult to injury, this boat...looked like a tricked out Ranger Comanche with dual power-poles came screaming by us, wide open, within about 6-10 feet of us. Close enough to get wet...which is too close. What an inconsiderate jerk. The worst part is that he just stared me down as he flew by. Guess these big shots think the water belongs to them, since we aren't all pros. Ugg. That was the last straw. I had enough, plus we had to get Griffin.
I don't know what it is this year. I had 250 fish by this time last year and now I am on a quarter of it! Sure hope the Thursday night Wildcat is better! I guess the jury is still out on my swimbaits, although I did get a lot of good bites and at least one quality fish to hit.
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