Rick beat us to the lake and started chumming with corn, we arrived a little after 1PM. It was cool with a steady cold breeze coming from the west. The sky was perfectly clear, not one cloud but the sun was warm. It did get a bit colder as the wind picked up. Luckily the wind died at 3PM and it didn't get much below 40 degrees that night (Jacket, poncho and hand-warmer (I did burn the piss out of my wrist w/ those damn chemical warmers) weather but no need for the electric heater or Gortex poncho). Rick got into some Beautiful pale channel cats. The first was a 3lb'er+ and he hooked into another 6 cats in the next hour and a half. Dad and I weren't as lucky with the cats. Dad did catch a nice 1lb bass on a worm and a very small cat. I was having no luck! I kept getting nibbles but couldn't hook the little buggers. I did have a first, not totally successful but a first. The dock store gave us one tiny waterdog, the smallest mud puppie I've ever seen, with our two dozen minnows. I had dad hook Mr. Dog through the mouth and lowered him to the bottom in hopes that one big whiskered friend would put an end to Mr. Dog and in the process get a hook stuck in his face. I've been fishing with water dogs for 25 years without a single nibble! This day that ended! My line started slowly moving to the left and my pole got heavy! I waited til the tip dipped and yelled for dad to set the hook. Dad grabbed the line and gave it a quick jerk. The problem was, I wasn't using my pole holder (the pole was resting on my laptop/rig) so when dad jerked the line my pole flew off its rest! I felt his weight for the split second before my pole-tip fell and my line went slack. UGGGGG! 25 years of waiting and I missed my chance! Let's hope I don't have to wait until I'm 57 before the next bite on a mud puppie! In case your interested, Mr. Dog didn't make it! He gave his life valiantly to pursuit of a big wile catfish! Mean while, Rick was catching catfish after catfish! He caught seven in the first two hours; three over 3lb's, two 1.5lb'ers and the rest weren't keepers. The cats were being caught 50ft down, as Rick pulled them up quickly they got the Bends! No joke! As soon as we netted them there would be a large pop followed by a growling wusssh of air. Apparently, the catfishes swim bladder was quickly decompressing with a big puff of air out the fishes mouth. Two catfish had such a drive to live they found a way to break free their chains of bondage and excepted (physically and metaphorically)! The first to make a run for it (quite literally) was a 1.5lb'er. After landing the the little bugger, he actually started walking way using his bony dorsal fins! We caught him before he could make it to the water, seeing his effort, Rick had pity for him and let him go. Saying, "Any fish that actually walks deserves to be set free! Hell, he maybe the next evolution of walking channel catfish!" But wait, we hadn't seen anything yet! We had placed the three big 3lb'ers+ on a steel fishing stringer (you've seen the type, solid steel chain with big steel "safety" clips that you latch through the fishes jaw). Apparently, they devised a plan of escape! Through sheer tenacity and strength of will, they managed to twist and pull until one actually broke the steel clip and escaped! He didn't just unclasp and slip off, he twisted so hard the metal actually snapped! Now that's a true desire to live! Unfortunately for his co-conspirators, they were immediately placed in the fish baskets once the plot was unearthed. They met an unfortunate but, all be it, a very tasty end! Rick was all over the catfish, he even managed to catch a 1.5lber while he was away from his pole out getting us more minnows! Dad caught one tiny cat an I only got the one water dog bite but don't fret, we made up for the slow start with later crappie! Seeing as we couldn't catch a cat, dad moved on to crappie (around 4PM) and immediately hooked into a 1lb slab crappie. The lake Gods must have looked favourably on Ricks sacrifice because soon there-after we got into the crappie! He managed to catch 5 more crappie and big bluegils in the next ten minutes. I switched over to crappie and got into them pretty quick. Over the next 2 hours dad and I caught 9 crappie and 5 big bluegils. Rick still hasn't been able to get the crappie bite going but did land a few big bluegils and got hit by a few crappie. We tried our new green sinking crappie light (in conjunction w/ our old floating light) but didn't have much luck drawing in fish. I was able to land one additional crappie. Rick and I both saw a large crappie lurking around the lights. It chased my minnow and hit Ricks minnow but we didn't hook him, bummer! The night was perfectly clear, the stars were extremely bright and I saw a UFO! Rick said it was just an airplane on approach with its red blinking lights on like the five other blinking red lights flying behind it. I don't know, it was Flying, totally Unidentifiable (as it was dark) and for sure an Object! :-p
I think we had a great night, one of the best of 2009! Fish Count: 9 crappie, 7 bluegill, 2 large mouth bass and 9 catfish (5 keepers & 3 brought home by Rick) Total: 27
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