KPN does Topwater at Lake San Antonio with FarmerJohn (fishingfools#1-local#33) and I
After Hearing about the bite from T/O, Kahn and I went up to Lake San Antonio to fish for a day with fishingfools#1-local#33 (FarmerJohn) who's camping up there this week.
Lake San Antonio is a beautiful spot. Actually it's many spots, the have 2000 camp sites.
We had a slow start. As we crossed one small cove, Khahn's rig was hit with a vengeance. The drag peeled then accelerated and the clicker screamed. We tried to get John to bring this one in but he wanted his guests to catch fish.
So Khahn did the honors. By the time Khahn got the fish to the boat John had handed me the net and we were ready. At the surface just out of reach the 9 - 10 lb fish made a beautiful turn with a twist and a roll and just unhooked the hook. It was a beautiful move but we would have preferred something a little different.
Things were slow for most of the day. We trolled and explored and got a little advice from our friends. Cell phones are useful fishing tools. We would see groups of large fish in areas but they were just letting us pass.
In the early afternoon John suggested a spot that he thought looked promising the night before. We headed there trolling and as we approached the point, the striper came up on the shad and we went out of our heads untangling topwater rigs. We were ready by the time we got in range but we were to late to make good use of the boil.
We cast for a while then set the troll back up and made a pass on that same point. As we passed the point we were in close. I picked up my rig to reel and put a little room between the rig and bottom. As I picked it up the tension increased a little and I pulled to free it from bottom then the tension increased a lot and I set the hook. Fish On!
So this is when things went awry. I moved my reel hand, hit the engagement lever with my knuckle and knocked the reel out of gear. Instant Birds nest. I was stunned. I just stood there for a moment looking at the birds nest, then grabbed the line at the tip of the pole handed the pole to John and started hand-lining. Of course the fish charged the boat! I threw the line on the floor of boat. Khahn was ready with the net and boated the fish as I brought it up, he didn't give it a chance to turn and run again.
This one weighed 7lb 1oz. I'm glad it wasn't any bigger.
After taking a break late in the afternoon at the camp site and making a few steaks and some shrimp for lunch we headed back out.
Since things were slow we took up nature photography.
I didn't see this deer squat down because I was looking at the screen.
Once I realized what was going on I had to take another picture. Don't drink lake water!
At the end of the day we started seeing scattered small boils along the beach and on points. These were quick little wolf pack blitzes. We kept trolling and would stop on the boils and cast topwater but they were so quick that we were often late.
Finally a boil started in front of us. Khahn was driving. He pulled us up into range and we all started casting. I cast short, John got birds nest, then Khahn put a KPN Topwater Shad right in the middle of the boil. As was I was reeling I watched him patiently begin working his KPN Topwater Shad. He bumped it twice and it disappeared. He calmly worked this fish as I tried get video with my phone.
John retrieved his lure and reached down to get the net. The lure on the pole in his other hand wrapped Khahn's pole and stuck to one of the eyes. So Khahn worked the fish and I took video as John untangled the lure from Khahn's pole. We got this worked out without losing the fish and John did a great job netting the fish.
Here's Khahn with his hard fought reward.
Khahn is a master fisherman and lure maker. The KPN Topwater Lures work beautifully on the surface and subsurface. The action just underwater is amazing.
As for the video! I have no idea. I took video. Apparently I didn't save it. I updated the operating system on my phone the day before the trip. That's my story and I'm sticking to it.
(6/20/2010) I found the video. Here it is.
Well, that was our day. It was slow, something went wrong on every hookup, the deer decided to take a pee during the nature photography session and we caught fish.
We had a great time fishing with friends and doing things the hard way. Thanks, John and Khahn for a great day and great company.
John and Khahn have pictures that they are planning to add later.
Thanks T/O that's a great spot that you put FNN on.
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Originally Posted by fishbones
