Spring Fishing Fling...

[SkunkedAgain]

Last night I ran down to the launch at 6:30, it was too late, but it was all the time I had so I wanted to use it wisely... I ended up fishing a few minutes later, love having a boat that will get up and move... Anyway right off I had a nice carp grab it and take off like a rocket putting off a wake as it headed for deeper water... turned into a fun fight and even though it wrapped around the anchor rope, I was able to land it... Next cast I missed a channel that probably wasn't too big, rebaited and casted back out... This time a polite 22.5" channel grabbed it and I had a great fight with that one..  Got a second fish on my contest scoreboard, so I think I beat my last summer total already, except last year was 27" in one fish...  Anyway back to fishing, within ten minutes I had another cat grab it and this one felt big, I fought that fish for several minutes before I could get it close enough to the boat to finally horse it up to where I could see it... I was really disappointed, it ended up measuring 23", but it sure fought a lot bigger...  Next I missed another channel that rolled over on it's back and stuck up it's middle fin above the water surface as it spit out my hook and took off... Not a very polite fish...  Anyway then the yellowbellies showed up and I caught 4 and missed more from there until about 7:45 when it was getting dark enough I needed to get home... Fun night, not often that I get over ten hits in an hour...  The fish are shallow, in the warmest water... They liked nightcrawlers and I did get one channel and a mudcat on fresh carp chunks...  Fish seem healthy so far, so I hope the sickness is past and this year will be better than the last couple have been...  Nothing with much size so far, but it's still fun to catch the torquey catfish, and turbo carp... They can really make my reels sing, and I like that song... Anyway in case you're still waiting for the fish to get active, they are... Time to go fishing... Later J