On a Mission
Let me start by saying I love fishing regardless of whether I catch a ton of fish or not or if I catch a pig or not. I can be content with spending a beautiful
day on the water alone or with friends.
I’m not a huge fan of the skunk but I definitely don’t have to produce an
epic trip to enjoy fishing. That said, I
do have a competitive side that gets the best of me once in a while and I just
NEED to catch the big fish. I just have to
show myself that all of the time, effort and money I put into fishing can come together to fool that big one.
Since it had been a while since I had caught anything of
any size, AND I had entered an online Kayak for the Cure tournament, I set
out on a mission to get some big fish in the boat. The tournament is a two fish bag and lasted the entire month of May. As of the last weekend of the
month, I hadn’t entered a single fish. I actually caught some decent fish the first trip of the month but had forgotten to register. So I set
out on a mission to get two fish big enough to submit and hopefully finish in a
respectable position.
I decided to go to one of my favorite, somewhat secret,
locations. I had never caught anything
real big there but always catch quality fish and I just knew there had to be
some big ones to be found. As I launched
I noticed one of the pins had sheared off my rudder. Not the end of the world but the wind was
already picking up so I knew I was going to have to battle a little bit. But I was on a mission.
The standard pattern at this lake is to fish along the shore line with a Texas rigged worm. The entire lake is surrounded by reeds, weeds, trees or hydrilla and it drops to 10' almost immediately. The idea is to cast right to the weeds along
the bank and bounce the bait down the drop.
It will usually get hit on that first drop but today, after two trips
around the lake, I had nothing to show for it.
Usually I would at least have caught a snakehead by now.
So my next move was to nose up to some of the thick mat
and hydrilla and do some flipping.
Although I have a hard time standing and fishing from my Ride 135 in
open water, I learned that if I get the nose of the boat in the grass the
stability increases quite a bit. So I
worked my way through the thick stuff for a while. Not much going on but I did miss two fish due
to momentary concentration lapses. I was running out of options but I wasn’t leaving without a big fish or two.
I was on a mission.
I knew from earlier trips that there was a bit of a flat
on one end of the lake with a pretty abrupt drop off so I decided I would go
check that out. On the way over to that end of the lake I threw the Super Swimmer from Bruiser Baits a few times just in case. On about the third cast, a snakehead hit it like he was mad at it and I was on the board. I usually catch a couple of shakehead at this lake but at 30 inches, this was the biggest I had caught this far north. Not what I was looking for but the skunk was
off and I had at least put a big fish in my boat.
My spirits lifted, I was ready to find that big bass now.
I paddled around using my depth finder to locate the big ledge. It is a nearly vertical drop from roughly 5
feet to about 20 feet and I could see some sort of structure right at the edge. I am guessing a bush or grass. So I marked the spot with a buoy and moved
into the deeper water so I could cast back.
It is then I realized my anchor trolley line was pinched under my
seat. I was too impatient to paddle the entire length of the lake to get to a place where I could pull the boat out and fix it so I was determined to go without the anchor. That turned out to be an
exercise in frustration. The wind was
blowing hard enough that by the time I cast and retrieved I had drifted way out of position. This wasn’t working. So I had to improvise a little bit. I would paddle a good bit east of my marker and to ahead and cast. I used the paddle to control my drift a bit (remember I don't have a rudder at this point) and then had to time my retrieve so my bait would cross over that ledge at the right spot. So I basically would get one shot at it on each pass and have to circle around and do it again. The entire cycle probably took 3 or 4 minutes so this had the potential to get old fast......................... but I was on a mission.
Fortunately, it only took two attempts to get some
action. Right at the marker buoy I felt
a strong tap on my Super Swimmer. I reeled down and set the
hook. I had a lot of line out so I
wasn’t sure what I had but the rod was doubled over so I was hopeful. The fish broke the surface and her bucket of
a mouth was a beautiful site. Soon I had
landed a good solid tournament fish, just shy of 20 inches. I had been so frustrated and now it all
seemed worth it. I was so pleased with my victory I almost packed it in. But what if there was another one
down there? I could turn in two fish for
the tournament. The mission was not
complete.
The next time around I caught a 14” fish but farther up
on the flat. There seemed to be more
grass on the flat than there had been in the past and it was holding fish. Things had definitely turned around so I
continued my unorthodox drift method. Three more times around and nothing. So I decided I would take a slightly
different angle at the drop. Sure
enough, right at the marker, another thump.
This one looked even bigger as she jumped and shook her head. I couldn’t believe it. Did I really pull this off? Uh, oh.
She was tangled in the marker buoy line.
Great. A few tense moments later
I had the fish, the buoy, and a bunch of tangled line in my lap. She measured at just over 22 inches! I had made quite a mess of tangled line and it seemed pretty chaotic but I had done it. I had two good
fish to turn in for the tournament on the last possible day.
I haven’t seen the final results of the tournament and I
am sure I am no threat to win. I suspect I will be in the top 20 but I entered the tournament to help raise money
for a fellow kayak fisherman whose daughter has been diagnosed with cancer so winning
wasn’t my primary motivation. I saw a good opportunity to challenge myself to
use my knowledge, skills, and equipment to locate and catch some quality
tournament fish on the last available tournament day.
Mission accomplished!
