Healing And Reeling: Mixed Bag And Happy Veteran
Fishing Santa Ana River Lakes is like spending the day with an old friend. Though my spending-the-night-on-line days are pretty much over, it’s still an exciting day getting up way early and hitting the line at 4:00. The sights and smells of the early morning (BEST time of the day) and then rolling into line at the lake all add to the anticipation.
I thought they were joking with me when I was told there were no motors for the boats but turns out they weren’t. We all had to row our rides this day. It will be nice when the new motors come!
I had a game plan for the day that included (hopefully) exploiting the balls of shad that call the lake home: trolling Needlefish on leadcore. Figured to make a half dozen laps and if that didn’t work, settle down on a couple of spots. Rowing isn't the easiest thing in the world if you’re not used to it, and I am not, but I actually made a decent, zig-zagged route to Marley’s Secret Spot 1.1. Started out fishing the boat docks but it was soon obvious that spot wasn't going to give up anything.
Pulled onto Marley’s and stuck my nose into the wad of various floating craft. Tossed out a beloved blown half-crawler on one side, and the designer, blown mealworm out the other side. The ‘crawler was almost immediate inhaled and the skunk was quickly punked. Another feisty rainbow came a few minutes later, but the basket would filled this day with blue. The catfish wanted the mealworm in the worst way, and three of the hard-fighting blue cats quickly completed my mixed bag limit. Catching catfish on ultra-light trout tackle is a real hoot.
On the spot by 8:00, tying back up at the dock at 10:30. Not bad for a day that could be described by most as "very slow. "
After weighing in – had third place for awhile – I found a group of veterans who said they had not caught anything. They had a pontoon and someone to drive, so I offered to take them back out and put them on my spot. They thought that was a good idea so we loaded back up and were quickly dropping the rocks at the honey hole. It didn't take long for our veteran, Ignacio, to hook up on the blown half-crawler, and another Sierra ‘Bow hit the basket. I’m sorry, Ignacio, I did not catch your last name. The wind blew us off the spot so we had to re-set. A fat and feisty bluegill was next on the list, and we shook the hook out of the last bite of the day, another rainbow trout that spit the hook in a spate of top-water head shaking. But then it was time to head back to the dock for the final weigh-in and raffle.
Thank you, Wes, and Craig, and your team at Santa Ana River Lakes, for putting on this tournament in support of Project Healing Waters. Our veterans deserve all the support we can give them.
But the big thanks go to our veterans for what they do every day and for what have done for this great nation.
Ignacio, it was a great pleasure to share your boat and to see you connect with fish. Thank you for your service in the Army Airborne.
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Originally Posted by ProdigyFishing
