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Follow my Fish of 2014
I think I have said several times in the last few months about how we wanted to make more of an effort in fishing the Ditto Thursday Night Wildcats. Well, sometimes that means making sacrifices. Like...when your wife has a GNO planned and you have 3 kids, one of which has soccer practice...you might have to hire a babysitter. Or two, in our case. You know, because the safety of the children is paramount.
In case you asked, that means to fish it cost"
$40 in babysitting (cheap, really...I probably owe them more)
$25 in entry fee
Now, if you cash a check, it doesn't feel so bad. That was my plan, anyway. Even if I haven't cashed a check during this tournament since 2011......
I did however, cash one just a week previous during our MFC Tournament.
There were 10 or so boats in the weekly Thursday night Wildcat out of Ditto. Not a bad turnout, especially as it has been incredibly tough on the river the last month or so. I mean, just downright brutal. If there is current, you might have a chance to get into a pile of fish. If not, you may be running around a lot looking for one here and two there.
When we pulled up on our first spot, there seemed to be a good amount of current, so I had hopes that maybe we could catch a good mess of fish. While dragging a texas rigged plastic in about 14 feet of rocky bottomed water, a fish dang near took the rod out of my hand. It thumped it so hard that a hook set was just for good measure. I knew immediately that it was a good fish, the question was, would it be one we could measure. We have caught a little bit of everything in this spot, so it wouldn't surprise me to haul up a largemouth, a smallmouth, a catfish, or a drum.
The fish didn't keep us in suspense for very long as it jumped several feet in the air! It must have covered 5 feet in its jump. It was a nice brown fish. Probably the first keeper sized smallmouth that I have caught this year.
That was the only fish we caught off the first spot. We headed to a new spot (for me) which was in the current. After tossing a sammy around for several minutes without any luck, I picked up the shakey head and tossed it behind some rock that was acting as a current break. As I reeled in the slack, I noticed that the line was moving a LITTLE too fast for the current. I snatched it and a fish came flying out of the water, tossing the bait. It didn't matter, as it wouldn't have measured. I made another cast and another fish picked up the bait. I set the hook again and swung it over the side. This fish came unbuttoned, skidded across the deck and into the water. Quick release...right? It also wouldn't have measured either.
We did manage to catch a small keeper before the bite died.
We spot hopped trying to find more fish, ultimately resorting to one last spot before we headed in. While dragging a C-rigged plastic on the bottom, Josh found some trash and became snagged. As he worked the bait and popped it free, something grabbed a hold of the bait. He wrestled it for several seconds before seeing it was a 4 foot long gar. We were both just a LITTLE surprised! I was going to net it, but when I saw what it was..I let him deal with it.
We did catch another decent fish, getting us to 3 total keepers. With the way the weigh-ins had been, we figured we might have a chance.
About half the boats weighed in one fish or less. We weighed in our 3 for a little under 6 pounds. The smallie went 3.30, but wasn't the big fish. That went to a 4 pound 10 ounce largemouth.
Believe it or not, it took 11 pounds to win, though 2nd place was right over 6 pounds. There were no limits weighed in. The 11 pound bag was 4 fish. We were two out of the money.
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