That really put a bad taste in my mouth, not just for Guntersville (where I struck out), but for fishing ANYWHERE in this heat. For example, the trip in question, Dad and I went to Guntersville a few Saturdays ago. We fished from 6-8:30. He caught a fish. One. I didn't have a hit. As you can see, we packed it up after 2 hours and came home.
I guess the silver lining in all of that was that we verified that the boat was working. Awfully expensive way to find that out.
With all the things going on right now like softball, kids sports, etc, it has been hard to find the time to fish. I have tried to squeeze it in a few times, without luck. But, this Sunday, things shifted around and we had some time, even though Aubree was out of town with my mom in Macon checking out Indian mounds and waterfalls.
Griffin had been asking to go fishing forever. Every time he saw a boat, or my fishing rods, he would start spouting: "Go fish? Catch fish? Ride boat?"
Now, remember that he is two. Tough to reason with him. He doesn't understand schedules. But, we got a lunch together, hooked up and drove to the Arsenal launch. We put in about 10am, which was a bit late for good fishing, but I didn't really mind. I wasn't there to fish. I was there to spend time with the family. Now, if I got some casts in, all the better.
After a good soaking in the water, I ran us just up river to some rip rap. I had eyed it before and filed it away. It is a great spot to fish on the wildcat tourneys. Not many people run down river, and those that do go to a handful of spots. This is a VERY small spot, but has all the intangibles. It has rip rap banks. I has a little pea gravel flat in the draw of it from being a field drainage. It has lay downs. It drops from 3 feet to 18 feet.
I had decided that I would start practicing using a shaky head, which is a football head weighted hook that you use a variety of plastic baits on...though normally a small worm.
What's the reason, you may ask? Well, I am a power fisherman. I like to cover a lot of ground with crank baits, swimbaits, and top water. The shaky head is a proven method for catching fish when it gets tough...which has been my downfall. At this point, I have been lucky enough to catch GOOD fish when it's tough. But some days, even the big ones don't want a big free meal. These are the days I completely strike out. A shaky head works almost anywhere. You just have to take your time to use it. And, in most cases, wade through the small fish.
On one of my first casts, I threw into a laydown just on the point of the area I was fishing. I was used to the current taking it downriver, but I noticed the line going up river! I snatched it and jerked the fish completely out of the water! HAHA!
So, I quickly obtained the goal. I caught a fish for Griffin.
I won't lie. I fished a little more, all without catching another fish. That was ok. Like I said, I was there to take the family (Minus Aubree) out. We ate lunch in the pavilion in the rec area, and went back out for a few more minutes. Since I knew that I prob wouldn't catch any more fish in this heat, I put the one fish I did catch in the live well. Griffin watched him the entire time! I won't lie, I did the SAME thing when I was younger.
But, the more we ran around, the more obvious it became obvious that Griffin wasn't going to make it much longer, and soon we discovered that he had fallen asleep in Alyse's arms while driving. So, we made him a bed.
As we got ready to pull the boat out, I pulled the fish out of the livewell and held him so Griffin could see him. As usual, he wouldn't hold him. So, I said "Give him a by by kiss!", which Griffin had no problem with. Except that he flopped out of my hand and tail smacked Griffin about 5 times! Whoops!
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