Spent 4 days at Lake Fork this week and managed to once again prove my title as the Lake Fork Rain God. Monday I met Dale at 5 am and we watched lightning and heard thunder off to the west. Things did not look good so we decided to postpone our start til the weather improved. I went back to the motel and it rained off and on for over 4 hours. I will fill that lake to the spillway yet!
Rhandy stopped by my room about 1 pm after it had finally cleared off. He had just bought a new (used) boat and said we could head out about 2 pm. Off we went and everything seemed to work fine with his new ride. I think I only caught 1 fish, but we had a good time testing out his new equipment and checking out some good spots. Unfortunately the rain returned and after a couple of starts and stops we decided to give it up for Monday. It was just too wet and the fish were not cooperating.
Things started better with Dale at 5:15 Tuesday morning. After a rare June cool front I needed a jacket and I kept it on all the way until 11 am. Lower than normal temperatures and a stiff north wind kept it cool all day long. We started off on deep water spots and boated 3 fish before switching to shallow water along windy points. We found another 8 takers with the biggest being a 6.5 pounder Dale caught. I had several in the 3-4 pound range and it was fun.
After a truly epic siesta, I met up with Rhandy at 4:30 pm and he had boat troubles right from the start. Things went from bad to worse but we still ended up getting some fishing in and I even caught one! Rhandy was very frustrated, but I'm sure he will get all the kinks out of that boat soon enough. As frustrated as he was, he hooked a great big fish just before dark and it ran under the boat and got off. He said it was the biggest fish he had hooked all year and maybe of his lifetime. He never had control of the fish and it just went where it wanted. Always good to get a reminder of what Fork is all about. Especially when your boat is giving you fits.
Wednesday I met up with Dale at 5:45 and we headed out with a cloudless sky and much warmer temperatures. We hit a number of deep and shallow holes and found a total of 4 fish who agreed to play our game. My biggest was about 5.5 lbs out of a deep water hole, early. Note I still have my jacket on in June! The last fish had swallowed a hook from an earlier breakoff and Dr. Dale performed the surgery to remove most of the leader line protruding through the poor fish's gills. I ended up catching 2 on a shakey head in shallow water and 2 on a carolina rig in deeper water.
After many more boat repair adventures, Rhandy met me at 4:30 pm (following another good siesta). Things worked smoother than Tuesday but there were still a few glitches. His fancy new electronics works great at fish finding, but not so great at fish biting. I had 3 decent bass around 4 pounds, all from the same deepwater hole. We hit several more good spots but only caught a catfish. Even when we found a screen covered up with fish we couldn't entice them to bite.
Thursday started ominous with more worries about weather. After much discussion, Dale decided to risk it and hope we could get in half a day. I caught 1 small fish but otherwise we did not get bit. After about an hour and a half the wind shifted, cranked up, and the dark clouds started rolling in. We fled as whitecaps started rolling across the lake and won the race to the ramp as dozens of other boats had the same idea. As we pulled up to the shore the first lightning bolt streaked across the sky and that was all she wrote for Thursday. I drove through some pretty good rain coming back to town. Again, doing my part to fill Lake Fork!
Finally, I just had to snap a photo of the computer mouse at Hook Line and Sinker. Cracked me up.
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