Monday started out windy so Dale headed us across the lake to a pocket on the south end of the east arm. We started on the outside edge of that pocket and stayed in there all day long. Didn't do too bad, either. We ended up with 9 fish between us, nothing big, but enough bites to make for a fun day. I thought I had a good one when I snagged a turtle on the leg. Not much of a fight but it sure felt heavy. For a couple of years I had suggested we spend one day just tying up in a good spot and staying there all day long. This was pretty close to that and I enjoyed it. Certainly more fun than getting beat up fighting the waves while running all over the lake. I actually caught a bass on my very first cast of the year. Experience tells me that is almost as bad a sign as winning the first hand in a poker game.
We went in about 3 pm and I headed right back out again with Rhandy. The winds had dropped a bit so we spent the rest of the day hitting main lake points and secondary points on the outside of pockets. Again we ended up with 9 fish, nothing of size, but enough bites to make it fun. I called beer-thirty a little before sunset at 7:30 pm when I caught my last fish. Not bad to catch a bass on my first and last cast of the day.
Our big adventure of the afternoon was the weather. Skies were darkening a bit as we went out so we decided to stick close to the ramp and see what happened. The darkest clouds passed on by so we headed across the lake to fish points. We had been there 45 minutes or an hour when we heard a boom of thunder directly overhead. A small thunderhead had built up right on top of us. We immediately started reeling up and when I laid the rod down I got a good static electric shock. I had one more rod to move and when I sat that one down I got a second shock. Not good! Static electricity is a warning of a possible lightning strike, and SOON. We got locked down and Rhandy floored it across the lake to the ramp where we sat til the small shower passed by. He took a risk gunning it through the stumps, but it was the better risk to take versus a lightning strike. That's something I hope I don't experience again.
Tuesday the weather was much better with much lighter winds. Dale took us around to a number of great spots but the fish just were not cooperating. We ended up with 6 for the day, nothing of size. Dale hooked one pretty good fish but it got off and we never saw it. It had him doubled up pretty good.
Once again we went in about 3 and I headed back out again with Rhandy shortly thereafter. Since the weather was no longer an issue, Rhandy turned north and we headed all the way up to Running Creek. We found water temperatures up to 73 degrees up there and that usually makes for good fishing. Rhandy started us out in the creek channels but we only got one bite. That bite was a 2 pound crappie that ate Rhandy's worm. Eventually we moved shallow and we could see and hear lots of bass spawning right on the bank. Nothing big, but there were lots of fins, tails, and splashing going on all along the bank. I caught one on a Texas rigged fluke, even thought it wrapped me up on 4 different stumps on the way to the boat. We hooked several more but they either got off or wrapped us up before we could land them. We might have been better off fishing from the bank there. There are just too many stumps up there. We headed back at dusk.
Rhandy took us out a bit later on Wednesday, about 8 am, and we spent the whole day hitting different spots and trying different techniques trying to make the fish happy. They were having none of it. I caught one all day. After 9 hours on the water I called beer-thirty and we went in to drink away our troubles. They just were not playing our game.
Thursday we decided to head to Lake Cypress Springs for some crappie fishing. Rhandy had been doing well in previous weeks, but our bad luck continued. I caught 1 small Kentucky bass and a little crappie that jumped off at the boat. Rhandy caught 2 big crappie on a brush pile, but those were the only bites we had. We blamed Obama. Rhandy made me 4 nice filets with the help of his supervisor, Bud.
Perhaps the best explanation I have heard for the tough fishing was that we were fishing February water in April. The cold and late winter we have had has water temperatures running well behind where they should be this time of year. With the exception of the very shallow water up in Running Creek, most of the water temps we were seeing on the main lake were still in the 50's. Hopefully by the time I get back later this month things will have warmed up a bit.
No comments:
Post a Comment