05-16-2016, 04:15 PM
I had planned to hit Lincoln Beach Saturday morning with my buddy Dave. He texted me Friday evening indicating that something had come up and he would have to wait till next week. No problem I thought, I have 2 neighbors within 3 doors of my house who had said they wanted to go. Nope, both of them had other commitments. I tried another buddy, Ryan, and he had family in town and was playing tour guide for the weekend. Then I remembered that my 3rd son had just graduated from college and was bored stiff waiting for his job to start next month.
He said “Sure, what time in the morning?” When I said 5:30 AM the phone went silent…”How about I meet you out there at 8 or 9, is there really life on the planet at 5:30 AM?” College students! So he agreed to text me when he got to Lincoln and I agreed to pick him up on the North Jetty.
I got to the ramp at about 6:15. One guy had just launched and the rest of the lot was empty. I used the south side of the ramp and promptly dropped my trailer wheels off the end of the ramp.BE FOERWARNED!! It looks almost as bad as last October. “Where has all the water gone, long time passing?” Maybe that was flowers?
forgot that letting the boat float off the trailer takes more water than backing it off under power, but I got the boat in and the trailer out. While I was launching Ice Sled arrive. It was great to meet him in person and find out we have the same employer. He seems like a great guy. Even if he did catch more cats than I did.
Water temp in the lake started out at 60.8. I eased out and started dragging bait on one rod while casting tandem jigs toward shore with the other. By the time I made it to the 3rd spring I had one nice channel about 23 inches and 7 white bass. Well 6 because the first one volunteered for fresh bait duty and the first channel approved.
It was close to 8 AM when I decided to head east and fish between the slough mouth and the SF River. Good choice. Somewhere in between the two I shut down the motor in about 5.5 FOW and put two kitty rods in. About 3 minutes later the slip bobber rod got hit. I set the hook on a decent channel and barely settled into the fight when dragging rod pulled free of the line holder. Holding some tension on the bobber rod I managed to tighten down on the other and set the hook. I had another sold cat on so I loosened the drag a tad and put the rod deep into the holder (Sometime it is good that they don’t come out easy TD
To my surprise, the second fish seem mostly content to just wander while if landed the first one. I say mostly content because I one point the line took off and the rod danced erratically for about 20 seconds, then went quiet again. The first fish was about 4 pounds and as soon as he was in the net, I removed the hook and sent the bobber out for more. The second fish was another “new” cookie cutter about 4 pounds. When I went to see if he had hit the upper hook with the shrimp or the bottom one with the white bass, I discovered the bottom hook was broken off? I was just starting to look for it in the kitties side when the slip bobber took off again! This time when I set the hook, I knew it was a better fish. Five minutes later, and with a tired arm, I landed a 26 channel. Good enough to put in the contest, (for now I hope) so I got out the board and took some pictures.
After the flurry ended I looked again at the second kitty from the double. There were no hook marks and no evidence of the missing hook with the WB meat so I surmised that that hook had been inhaled by a 3rd cat. The erratic activity must have been when the last one got hooked, making two on the same rod and the smaller of the 2 then broke off in the struggle. It had to be the smaller one right? So I had three fish on two rods and landed 2. “Don’t be
cause 2 outa 3 ain’t bad!”
I got one more cookie cutter and then Jeremy texted and said he was at the jetty. I had thrown out a marker when I got the double, so I went to pull the gear and go get him and another cookie cutter hit. “J-man you’re gonna have to wait til I boat this fish, then I’ll get you.”
I picked him up about 8:45 and got him jazzed with my stories of cats circling my marker and wouldn’t you know it, we couldn’t find the marker! I know we were somewhat close from the landmarks along the shore, but we couldn’t find it. We decided to intentionally go farther East and then zig-zag in and out hoping to find it.
Over the next 2 hours fishing was not hot, but it was steady. Jeremy got a couple of cookie cutters and one ugly black one about 25,” and I got a couple more cookie cutters.
The whole time we fished we could hear the constant roar of the surf breaking against the southern shoreline and see the waves splashing…only there weren’t any waves to crash since the wind had shifted from South to East to West and back. What was splashing ALL ALONG the southern shore were Carp in their frenzied spawning ritual. If you have been waiting for this to go shoot some WAIT NO LONGER! It literally looked like surf crashing the shore as far as we could see in either direction.
With all the commotion in shallow, we decided to see if the kitties were in there too. We moved the boat into 18” of water and threw out an anchor. Over the next hour we got 2 channels about 18”, one fat one about 24 inches and a mudder. It wasn’t as consistent as it had been out in 4-5 FOW, so we turned on the trolling motor, headed out to 4’ and then turned toward the harbor.
By 11:30 A.M. things had slowed out deeper as well. The hits came about as often, but many were pop and drops and we had two good fish come off after they were hooked. We managed only 2 more channels before we cleaned the 8 or 9 smaller ones we kept.
Around noon the water had warmed to over 65 degrees.
If you are thinking of going to Lincoln, the channel depth is 1.8 feet at the shallow
point halfway out and the buoys (training aids?) are still in the channel. Somebody seems to know that the lake isn’t going to get any deeper this summer.
A fiberglass runabout was at the dock headed out when I was tying up to go get my trailer. I cautioned the woman driving that the out drive needed to be raised up pretty high or there would be trouble. The man got in after parking the truck and 5 feet from dock I heard “clunk, bump, and thud. Then the out drive came up and I think they made it out OK. BE FOREWARNED.
ll in all we had a good day and saw plenty of action. My introduction to Willard a few days ago was fun, enjoyable and I learned a lot, but after catching only one crappie in 5 hours there: “Sometimes this old pond feels like a long lost friend. Hey it’s good to be back home again!”
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He said “Sure, what time in the morning?” When I said 5:30 AM the phone went silent…”How about I meet you out there at 8 or 9, is there really life on the planet at 5:30 AM?” College students! So he agreed to text me when he got to Lincoln and I agreed to pick him up on the North Jetty.
I got to the ramp at about 6:15. One guy had just launched and the rest of the lot was empty. I used the south side of the ramp and promptly dropped my trailer wheels off the end of the ramp.BE FOERWARNED!! It looks almost as bad as last October. “Where has all the water gone, long time passing?” Maybe that was flowers?
forgot that letting the boat float off the trailer takes more water than backing it off under power, but I got the boat in and the trailer out. While I was launching Ice Sled arrive. It was great to meet him in person and find out we have the same employer. He seems like a great guy. Even if he did catch more cats than I did.
Water temp in the lake started out at 60.8. I eased out and started dragging bait on one rod while casting tandem jigs toward shore with the other. By the time I made it to the 3rd spring I had one nice channel about 23 inches and 7 white bass. Well 6 because the first one volunteered for fresh bait duty and the first channel approved.
It was close to 8 AM when I decided to head east and fish between the slough mouth and the SF River. Good choice. Somewhere in between the two I shut down the motor in about 5.5 FOW and put two kitty rods in. About 3 minutes later the slip bobber rod got hit. I set the hook on a decent channel and barely settled into the fight when dragging rod pulled free of the line holder. Holding some tension on the bobber rod I managed to tighten down on the other and set the hook. I had another sold cat on so I loosened the drag a tad and put the rod deep into the holder (Sometime it is good that they don’t come out easy TD
To my surprise, the second fish seem mostly content to just wander while if landed the first one. I say mostly content because I one point the line took off and the rod danced erratically for about 20 seconds, then went quiet again. The first fish was about 4 pounds and as soon as he was in the net, I removed the hook and sent the bobber out for more. The second fish was another “new” cookie cutter about 4 pounds. When I went to see if he had hit the upper hook with the shrimp or the bottom one with the white bass, I discovered the bottom hook was broken off? I was just starting to look for it in the kitties side when the slip bobber took off again! This time when I set the hook, I knew it was a better fish. Five minutes later, and with a tired arm, I landed a 26 channel. Good enough to put in the contest, (for now I hope) so I got out the board and took some pictures.
After the flurry ended I looked again at the second kitty from the double. There were no hook marks and no evidence of the missing hook with the WB meat so I surmised that that hook had been inhaled by a 3rd cat. The erratic activity must have been when the last one got hooked, making two on the same rod and the smaller of the 2 then broke off in the struggle. It had to be the smaller one right? So I had three fish on two rods and landed 2. “Don’t be
cause 2 outa 3 ain’t bad!”I got one more cookie cutter and then Jeremy texted and said he was at the jetty. I had thrown out a marker when I got the double, so I went to pull the gear and go get him and another cookie cutter hit. “J-man you’re gonna have to wait til I boat this fish, then I’ll get you.”
I picked him up about 8:45 and got him jazzed with my stories of cats circling my marker and wouldn’t you know it, we couldn’t find the marker! I know we were somewhat close from the landmarks along the shore, but we couldn’t find it. We decided to intentionally go farther East and then zig-zag in and out hoping to find it.
Over the next 2 hours fishing was not hot, but it was steady. Jeremy got a couple of cookie cutters and one ugly black one about 25,” and I got a couple more cookie cutters.
The whole time we fished we could hear the constant roar of the surf breaking against the southern shoreline and see the waves splashing…only there weren’t any waves to crash since the wind had shifted from South to East to West and back. What was splashing ALL ALONG the southern shore were Carp in their frenzied spawning ritual. If you have been waiting for this to go shoot some WAIT NO LONGER! It literally looked like surf crashing the shore as far as we could see in either direction.
With all the commotion in shallow, we decided to see if the kitties were in there too. We moved the boat into 18” of water and threw out an anchor. Over the next hour we got 2 channels about 18”, one fat one about 24 inches and a mudder. It wasn’t as consistent as it had been out in 4-5 FOW, so we turned on the trolling motor, headed out to 4’ and then turned toward the harbor.
By 11:30 A.M. things had slowed out deeper as well. The hits came about as often, but many were pop and drops and we had two good fish come off after they were hooked. We managed only 2 more channels before we cleaned the 8 or 9 smaller ones we kept.
Around noon the water had warmed to over 65 degrees.
If you are thinking of going to Lincoln, the channel depth is 1.8 feet at the shallow
point halfway out and the buoys (training aids?) are still in the channel. Somebody seems to know that the lake isn’t going to get any deeper this summer.
A fiberglass runabout was at the dock headed out when I was tying up to go get my trailer. I cautioned the woman driving that the out drive needed to be raised up pretty high or there would be trouble. The man got in after parking the truck and 5 feet from dock I heard “clunk, bump, and thud. Then the out drive came up and I think they made it out OK. BE FOREWARNED.
ll in all we had a good day and saw plenty of action. My introduction to Willard a few days ago was fun, enjoyable and I learned a lot, but after catching only one crappie in 5 hours there: “Sometimes this old pond feels like a long lost friend. Hey it’s good to be back home again!”
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