| Thanks, Thick One.
Sorry I couldn't be fishing today so you could drive down and see me weigh in![:((]
I had a great time the past week and a half. Cass was a blast. DaveJ is a great partner, and it was fun renewing aqaintences, and meeting new guys as well. Kevin G, Ted will be relieved to hear Merc is taking care of you. Told him after the meeting Tuesday night, after I found out he WASN't my pro. Thought I'd give him something else to think about! hehehe.
I had three great days of prefishing, and although very, very tired on Sunday, we got some great fish, and the biggest 5 would have went around 25 lbs. Monday slowed, and on Tuesday, the bite was definatley tough.
Wednesday was day 1. It started a little rough as my pro turned into the wrong cut, and clobbered his lower unit on a closing dam. Ouch!! A quick check found no great damage, and off we went. 1st spot, no fish. Then we locked down to Pool 4, and trolled a stretch of the Wisconsin channel. Picked up a small legal, and tossed it. Went to the top of the lake, and trolled and jigged, no fish. Returned to the channel, hit a good fish, and another small one. Dumped the small, don't know why, but it was his call. We had a rough day. He must have gotten a bad spool of line, as one rod kept breaking the line on snags, at least 6 crankbaits were lost!
Then I had a big fish on, or so I thought. After 10 minutes, it finally came to the surface. At first, my heart sunk when I thought I saw it come in tail first. Then a little closer look revealed about a 15-20 lb Snapping Turtle!, hooked in the front foot, and trying to bite at the lure. This thing was nearly the size of a snow saucer!! Several boats slowed to idle while I was fighting the big "fish", so as not to interfere, and to watch. As soon as I saw it, I yelled, "It's a f'in' turtle. As one, they all hit the throttle, and zoomed away.We weighed the one fish at 2 lbs. 9 oz. Not a good day one. I learned that you never win these on day one, but you sure as heck can lose them on day one.
Day 2 and a new pro. As we were early starters, he wanted to fish for an hour, and then lock down. Good strategy, as the first flight on day one took almost an hour to lock down. We hit a slew and started trolling, while more and more boats showed up riggin' and jiggin'. Within 45 minutes, there were at least 75 boats in this area, with only a few of us trolling. We hit two nice fish the first hour. Pat asked me what I thought about staying put, and I agreed. The presentation was not killing them, but we were getting some pretty decent fish. We picked up three more fish, and kept 2 before 12:30. another 2 small ones went back, and at around 2:00, a nice fish hit. As I picked the rod out of the holder, I felt 2 or 3 very good head shakes, and then nothing! arrghh. A good fish just wasn't hooked well enough. That was the last fish, and we weighed the 4 for 9 lb. 11 oz. Brought me from 194th to 98th place, and in the money.
In all, I had a great time. One of these times, I'll put 2 good days together. It's all in the luck of the draw. Get a pard on day one, weigh some big fish, and you got a chance. I learned alot, and met some great people.
Note to Zach. In Cady's words, "That river is a sewer!" LOL
Now it's back to the family, and fall piggies!
Tight lines,
Shep[:sun:] |
