See Chris Fish
05-09-2010, 02:45 PM
Hoping to get off work at 3pm. Get the ok and am stoked. My wife calls at 1:23. The dog, German Shepherd, got sick in her crate and I was allowed to head out then. I'm sure they were thinking, yeah right. If only they knew!
Got all THAT cleaned up. Packed up, kissed the wife goodbye and headed to the Vine.
Got to the tackle shop and said hi to all the staff. As always, friendly and with current knowlegde of the lake conditions. Thanks, Jimmy, for the advice. Trolling was most definately the way to go.
Found my buddies, John and Dave, all set up at the campsite. Cracked a beer and let the BS begin!
We're just talking and scoping out the lake conditions when three guys walk by with their "goodie" bag. We forgot that you can do the early check in. We grab our paperwork, a beer and walk over to the check in.
The booth is set up at the gate. Say hi to Hatch and we get our passes and the "bag".
Now that was a goodie bag. I've had ones where it like last years items or the stuff that no one bought or not species targeted.
Not this one. Proper size hooks and weights, correct size lures and line, etc. All new and current items that I will be using. New PB flavor, too!
Get back to camp and start getting the fire going. We get visits from Team 57 members Sue, Bruce Watson, and Frenchy. Bruce is such a great guy. He freely give us advice on downrigging and techniques. Love the "poor man rigger" idea!!!
It starts to get close to sunset, so let the campfire begin. My buddy Dave has some dead trees on some land that he has, so he bring wood. Dave, CAMPFIRE, not BONFIRE, dude!!!! This guy just cracks us up all night by "adding" logs all night.
Cook up some hot dogs, cheesey brauts, and regular brauts. Good food and good friends.
Lake staff friends, Jimmy and David, stop by. We pry "secret" info from them with offers of hot food!! LOL
John, Dave, and I discuss what the plan will be in the morning, bait or troll. No final decision made.
Wake up early and head out to the tackle shop for a BB and finish the paperwork on the boat rental.
Weather is clear, slight clouds but cool with a light breeze. PERFECT!!
We motor out and park to soak some bait. I'm not seeing anything on my portable fishfinder, so I "request" we swithch to trolling. I LOVE trolling. John, not so much.
It's just about time for the sun to peak over the mountains and we get all set up and ready to troll. It's a little challenging to troll with 3 guys in those little rentals. We get going and I want to loop thru the boat dock area, so I swing towards trout island to head back in. BAM!!!! My pole goes bendo and I'm pulling it in. Nice 3.7 lbs. This fish INHALED this lure!!! Took us a while to get it out. Start out again and make the same loop with nothing. Decide to aim to the dam and use west shore as the route. Get about half way down and my pole got nailed big time. I'm fighting this thing and it ain't giving up. Nice battle, lots of runs and head shakes. Get it landed and it's a 4.5 lbs with a full tail and fantastic colors!!
Bite really slowed down. I get one more on the troll. John was able to only land one trout. We metered a school of fish really shallow in deep water and set up. He dropped his line in the water and was hooked up before he could put it down to grab another rod. We didn't weigh it, but it looked like a 2.5 lber.
Dave pulled the WTF fish catch. At the same spot that John caught his fish, Dave gets his fish. Now we're in 60 feet of water and the fish are registering at 12-18 feet. He throws a nightcrawler on and set it to go down maybe 7-10 feet. BAM!!! His pole goes big time bendo! His drag is just screaming. He fights it for a good 10 minutes and we land it. It's a CATFISH!! At 10 feet of water!! Never heard of that before. We laugh and joke, at least you beat the skunk.
We just start saying to each other that we hadn't seen Bruce and Cindy the whole day. We get a glimpse of them on the other side of the lake. Too far to say hi. We look the other way and see Big Daddy coming towards us. He having some issues with the equipment on the boat while fish on, but we still say hi and throw some encouragement his way. He already has fish on the stringer using that fishing machine he's created.
He did say later that he hooked into a Daiwa rod and reel combo on the lake, in the water!!
Bite shut down at about noon. We didn't catch anything else the rest of the day. We tried more trolling, bait and wait, jigging, in-line spinners.
I go to weigh in and hear that the biggest is only a 6.5 lber. Hey I might be in the running here. I end up with a 3rd place finish. Got a big load of stuff. Neatest were these personalized lures by Cooks Hooks.
The tournament was just awesome. Cash prizes, lots of rods, reels, tackle bags, etc. Someone got three tagged fish!! Can't wait till next year on this. Sponsers and tournament staff went all out on this one. Lots of fun.
The best part was actually when the tourney was all over. A kid won the grand prize of a week on a houseboat. He is coming back to where his chairs were and I hear him saying to his dad, "Bass, trout, wipers, .....it's ALL on me dad, it's ALL on me!!" Me and my buddies just start cracking up and head back to the trucks.
A great day spent on the water enjoying the MADNESS!!
Got all THAT cleaned up. Packed up, kissed the wife goodbye and headed to the Vine.
Got to the tackle shop and said hi to all the staff. As always, friendly and with current knowlegde of the lake conditions. Thanks, Jimmy, for the advice. Trolling was most definately the way to go.
Found my buddies, John and Dave, all set up at the campsite. Cracked a beer and let the BS begin!
We're just talking and scoping out the lake conditions when three guys walk by with their "goodie" bag. We forgot that you can do the early check in. We grab our paperwork, a beer and walk over to the check in.
The booth is set up at the gate. Say hi to Hatch and we get our passes and the "bag".
Now that was a goodie bag. I've had ones where it like last years items or the stuff that no one bought or not species targeted.
Not this one. Proper size hooks and weights, correct size lures and line, etc. All new and current items that I will be using. New PB flavor, too!
Get back to camp and start getting the fire going. We get visits from Team 57 members Sue, Bruce Watson, and Frenchy. Bruce is such a great guy. He freely give us advice on downrigging and techniques. Love the "poor man rigger" idea!!!
It starts to get close to sunset, so let the campfire begin. My buddy Dave has some dead trees on some land that he has, so he bring wood. Dave, CAMPFIRE, not BONFIRE, dude!!!! This guy just cracks us up all night by "adding" logs all night.
Cook up some hot dogs, cheesey brauts, and regular brauts. Good food and good friends.
Lake staff friends, Jimmy and David, stop by. We pry "secret" info from them with offers of hot food!! LOL
John, Dave, and I discuss what the plan will be in the morning, bait or troll. No final decision made.
Wake up early and head out to the tackle shop for a BB and finish the paperwork on the boat rental.
Weather is clear, slight clouds but cool with a light breeze. PERFECT!!
We motor out and park to soak some bait. I'm not seeing anything on my portable fishfinder, so I "request" we swithch to trolling. I LOVE trolling. John, not so much.
It's just about time for the sun to peak over the mountains and we get all set up and ready to troll. It's a little challenging to troll with 3 guys in those little rentals. We get going and I want to loop thru the boat dock area, so I swing towards trout island to head back in. BAM!!!! My pole goes bendo and I'm pulling it in. Nice 3.7 lbs. This fish INHALED this lure!!! Took us a while to get it out. Start out again and make the same loop with nothing. Decide to aim to the dam and use west shore as the route. Get about half way down and my pole got nailed big time. I'm fighting this thing and it ain't giving up. Nice battle, lots of runs and head shakes. Get it landed and it's a 4.5 lbs with a full tail and fantastic colors!!
Bite really slowed down. I get one more on the troll. John was able to only land one trout. We metered a school of fish really shallow in deep water and set up. He dropped his line in the water and was hooked up before he could put it down to grab another rod. We didn't weigh it, but it looked like a 2.5 lber.
Dave pulled the WTF fish catch. At the same spot that John caught his fish, Dave gets his fish. Now we're in 60 feet of water and the fish are registering at 12-18 feet. He throws a nightcrawler on and set it to go down maybe 7-10 feet. BAM!!! His pole goes big time bendo! His drag is just screaming. He fights it for a good 10 minutes and we land it. It's a CATFISH!! At 10 feet of water!! Never heard of that before. We laugh and joke, at least you beat the skunk.
We just start saying to each other that we hadn't seen Bruce and Cindy the whole day. We get a glimpse of them on the other side of the lake. Too far to say hi. We look the other way and see Big Daddy coming towards us. He having some issues with the equipment on the boat while fish on, but we still say hi and throw some encouragement his way. He already has fish on the stringer using that fishing machine he's created.
He did say later that he hooked into a Daiwa rod and reel combo on the lake, in the water!!
Bite shut down at about noon. We didn't catch anything else the rest of the day. We tried more trolling, bait and wait, jigging, in-line spinners.
I go to weigh in and hear that the biggest is only a 6.5 lber. Hey I might be in the running here. I end up with a 3rd place finish. Got a big load of stuff. Neatest were these personalized lures by Cooks Hooks.
The tournament was just awesome. Cash prizes, lots of rods, reels, tackle bags, etc. Someone got three tagged fish!! Can't wait till next year on this. Sponsers and tournament staff went all out on this one. Lots of fun.
The best part was actually when the tourney was all over. A kid won the grand prize of a week on a houseboat. He is coming back to where his chairs were and I hear him saying to his dad, "Bass, trout, wipers, .....it's ALL on me dad, it's ALL on me!!" Me and my buddies just start cracking up and head back to the trucks.
A great day spent on the water enjoying the MADNESS!!