11-24-2011, 10:00 AM
I had owed Spike a fishing trip for about a year and a half and he contacted me last week and we got out there today. I picked him up at 3 at WT and it was foggy and rainy all around so we fished near the ramp for a while. First cast a 2lb bluecat hit my BG shad on a 1/16oz jig on the fall. Nothing like giving a guy some confidence in fishing open water! The fish were near bottom over 14 -15 feet of water. The next few casts produced a crappie and two small drum. I was hoping for crappie and we got a few here and there with a few yellow bass mixed in. The sky continued to be dark and so we continued to fish near the ramp until the fish really stopped biting and we just had to run somewhere to find some fish! Ran to a bluff a few miles away, through a little rain, and found them running water on the main lake pretty hard. First cast produced a good crappie but the fish were deep, at about a 10 count and with the current running hard the only indication of a strike was the line being too slack or a little bit too tight. We were holding over 43 feet of water. We continued to catch a crappie here and there and Spike finally figured out what a strike looked like and started to catch some. It was almost dark when Spike exclaimed that he had "something big" on his line and luckily I had set the drag on the rod with 6lb test light enough that the fish could run. The fish made many blistering runs, including some around the motor and under the boat, nearly breaking off each time. He did a fantastic job at fighting that fish! After a 10 minute fight a striper in the 15-20 lb range came to the surface and after the net man, me, missed a couple of times, we had the stiper in the boat. By then it was too dark to fish so we headed back to the ramp, what a great way to end a short trip! We ended up with 13 nice crappie, including one TARP. I dropped Spike at the ramp and headed back into the creek and found that the fog had rolled in and I had to run using the GPS to keep me from running onto the bank. I was praying the whole time that Jmax or another "nut" wouldn't be running out of the creek and meet with me with a crash. Here is a pic of Spike and the striper. I have a pic of the TARP but I will hopefully post it later.