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Saturday, Jul. 19, 2003 - 11:19 p.m. After a morning of rummage sales (bought nothing to speak of) and grocery shopping, we managed to throw the fishing tackle into the Grand Am and head to the big Army Corps of Engineers lake south of Mohall (I think I will finally give this lake a easy to remember name- how about �Favorite Lake�, because that is what it is to me? From now on, whenever I write �Favorite Lake�, that will be the short name for the Big Army Corps of Engineers Lake south of Mohall�) But I digress�.. We decided to fish in the large rock area above the dam. This is as sure a bluegill spot during the summer as I have. The topography of the area is perfect for attracting fish- the shoreline tapers down at about a 40� angle, with large rocks (limestone) covering the taper down for at least another 20 feet from the edge of the water. Bluegill heaven. The nice thing about this area is how many other fish make the structure their home. It is not unusual to catch crappie there anytime of the year, along with nice largemouth bass (this is where I caught the two largest largemouth bass of my life- one earlier this spring) One more thing- we have also had the good fortune to catch schooling white bass here a few times in summers past. That was what I was hoping for today. Lease had mentioned last week how much she enjoys catching these hard-fighting fish. When I caught all of those whites a few weeks ago with Moose, it only reminded her how much she missed this action. We arrived at the lake around 4 pm. That was too early for the whites. They like to hit the surface near dark. No problem, though- we brought a carton of nightcrawlers to feed the bluegills. I don�t want to guess how many Lease caught (I spent the first few hours throwing spinners instead of fishing for the �gills). Easily over 50, but that is as close as I can get. My left hand is raw from removing the fish. That should tell you something. Like I said, I spent this time tossing a small Rooster Tail spinner (the one I used was the same color as the photo in the left-hand corner) at whatever wanted to hit it. I was surprised at what decided it was dinner for them- I caught more bluegill on this lure today than I had before, ever, in my life! I must have landed 15 or so of the larger males who thought it was a small minnow. I also caught 7 largemouth bass! None larger than 2 pounds, but a surprising number of aggressive fish, none the less. Lease caught the only crappie that ventured into our area. With all of the other action, we didn�t mind not catching any more of these fish. But the best was yet to come� Around 7 pm, we started noticing schools of white bass breaking the surface. They were corralling schools of small fish (minnows? Small gizzard shad? Who knows for sure) The only problem was this action was happening about 100 feet or more from the shoreline. All you have to do is drag any minnow-like lure through one of these �boils�, and you catch white bass. Fine, if we were in a boat. Any boat-even the Hillbilly boat, would have done the job. I tried the best I could, but I couldn�t cast my lures that far. I managed to pick up 4 stragglers during the next 30 minutes or so by running up and down the rocks, trying to hit the edge of these schools. Around 8, I noticed something very good for our chances of catching white bass- the �boils� had moved onto the now-abandoned beach to our left, and were eating these small fish only 10-30 feet from the bank. I ran the rest of the way towards the beach, crossed the narrow area where a creek feeds the lake, and made my first cast towards the massive school of fish. One cast, one nice white bass. I caught 4 fish on the next 4 casts. On my 6th cast, I broke my line because of a loop in my reel (technically known as a �bird�s nest�- it caught my line as I came forward, causing the lure to snap off and float free towards the water). That caused me to spew a mouthful of profanity. It also meant another long haul towards the rest of my tackle, back where Lease was sitting. This was about 100 yards away. She was ready to join me, so we hauled everything back to the shallow water next to the beach. In the next 30 minutes or so, we caught 31 fish (according to Lease�s count). Every cast brought a strike, sometimes more than one (if the first fish didn�t get hooked). The only thing that kept us from catching more fish was bad luck. The line broke on both of our rods more than once. Since it was getting progressively darker, it became hard to even put the line through the eye on the hook of whatever lure I tied onto our lines. This was the perfect example of being in the right place at the right time. If I had a house in the town of Favorite (where the dam is located), and didn�t live 40 minutes away from this fishing hole, I would be tempted to fish this spot a lot more. The older I get, the more I am leaning towards moving down there when we retire. Lease is looking forward to get away from the high-crime town of Mohall anyway. Might as well move to a nice (fishing) town like Favorite, eh? I�ll leave you with something I received in an email yesterday from Foo at work. I don�t usually forward these things, but it actually made me laugh out loud.: THINGS THAT ARE DIFFICULT TO SAY WHEN YOU'RE DRUNK :
Indubitably Innovative Preliminary Proliferation Cinnamon
THINGS THAT ARE VERY DIFFICULT TO SAY WHEN YOU'RE DRUNK:
Specificity British Constitution Passive-aggressive disorder Loquacious Transubstantiate
THINGS THAT ARE DOWNRIGHT IMPOSSIBLE TO SAY WHEN YOU'RE DRUNK:
Thanks, but I don't want to have sex Nope, no more booze for me Sorry, but you're not really my type Good evening officer, isn't it lovely out tonight Oh, I just couldn't. No one wants to hear me sing.
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