Happy Days at Lake Henshaw

[etucker1959]

Let me first give a disclaimer about my fishing reports. I am a professional in a sense (I spend a lot of time handicapping fishing opportunity's) and also a very lucky angler with a fat fishing wallet. So if someone reads one of my reports and thinks they can just show up at that particular location. Your "Happiness Index" about the trip can very easily not be the same as mine. I love to fish and are willing to drive great distances to any particular body of water. If I think I can get a satisfactory result!!! That includes spending a lot of money also. That's why I got such a big kick at the park catfishing thing. You could get such a great result with so little invested in time location and money. So when other's use to accuse me of being a park catfishing only kinda guy, I just laughed to myself on that one!!!! Back to my happiness point. I'll use Lake Barrett as a my example. Before I get into my Lake Henshaw trip. (same logic applies) The biggest complaint I read about Lake Barrett was the money, the drive and the hassle to get in the place. Some people think the more money and effort you spend, there must be a correlation of success. Some people assume they "must" catch a 100 Bass a day at Lake Barrett to justify the cost. Same thing goes for a pay lake. If I spend $28 dollars to get in the place, I must "ALWAYS" catch a limit of fish to justify the expense. Sorry it doesn't work that way!!! I'm saying all this because of some criticism I get in some of my reports and the current state at Lake Henshaw. It will become obvious when I'm making my report what I mean.

First of all I want to say, "Lake Henshaw has hit very hard times!!!" When I called up the day before for some fishing information the nice lady wanted my name. No problem, I just thought that was a little odd. When I got there Thursday July 27 it was now pretty obvious why she wanted to know who I was. There was "NOBODY THERE!!!" I mean nobody, no shore fishermen and we were the only boat on the water!!! Think about that for a minute, lake lice are at all body's of water that allow bodily contact. How about your favorite Bass lake, I'm sure there is a few boats on the water every day. But at Lake Henshaw we were it till 9:00 am when 1 other boat showed up. (still no shore fishermen) Do you know what a peaceful feeling that is??? (Your own private lake) lol It was so quiet, we were meet by a flock of Wild Turkeys as we were walking down to the boat. The boat attendant told us they only had 2 boats on the water yesterday. Of course I had to ask, "how did they do???" He said, "pretty good on the catfish" and pointed out the area they fished the day before. I was going to start at the Dam area and if that didn't work out, I was going to head there next.

On to the Fishing!!!

When we were fishing the Dam area it was amazing how many jumping Carp there were. At least 5 boils every time you looked up!!! Fish for them and you won't be bored!!! We were fishing for both Crappie and Catfish. The reports I got was Night Crawlers was the bait of choice for the Catfish now. So I had one N/C pole and a Mini Jig set up trying to catch a Crappie. Long story short we had 2 bites on N/C and 1 decent size catfish landed. (On to the next spot) I want to add these aren't stocker catfish. The vast majority of them they were born there so we were fishing for "Real Fish." lol The hot spot the dock attendant told me about was a shallow flooded tree area. It was pretty good size so I didn't quite know where to start. So I started in the back and I was going to work my way out. (covering a lot of ground) The first spot we stopped at, we got bite real quick on a catfish. The only problem was, it only weighed about 1/2 pound. If you forget about the size (they were all about the same size) it was pretty darn good fishing!!! We would catch one about every 5 minutes. After I caught about 10, I decided to go look around for some bigger ones. Every where we went we were catching them, so it was some really good fishing except for the size. Glenn blew out his shoulder so he was now worthless on the anchor. So I thought we would drift the area and fish when we crash into some thing to stop the boat. When we did I liked the spot where we ended up. Deep in the bushes surrounded by holes next to submerged trees. (Just like Lake Elsinore) We started getting bites but they kept falling off. Glenn asked, "what about those 6-9 pounders we heard about??" Glenn joked and said, maybe you misunderstood and they really said 6-9 inches!!! That must have angered the Catfish Gods!!!!

Not even 2 minutes later my $300 Lomis rod got hit so hard, it literally was pulled over the side. If it wasn't for my cat like reflexes in grabbing the pole when it was on the outside of the boat we would have had a tragedy in the making!!!! This was no 1/2 pounder on the line, but one of those 6-9 pound catfish!!! Thank God I don't buy crappy line!!! This was the hardest fighting catfish I ever hooked!!! (Remember he's no stocker) He rubbed against the bushes a few times but we were only in 3-4 feet of water. So I was able to keep him out of it. Finally he get's tired and we are able to net him. A real nice fish and after that I'm ready to go home!!!! Boy that 1 fish made the whole trip worth it. Along with all those 1/2 pounders it was non stop action once we got into that area. I had at least 25 bites in 2 hours so I was never bored!!!

Which brings up my disclaimer. I had a great time!!!! But if someone else was to go down there they would probably complain about the boat wasn't worth $50 bucks to rent. Yes it sputtered and had no reverse and leaked. Yet who cares??? I still had a great time!!! You can launch your own boat there cheap and a fishing permit only costs $7.50. But they don't stock fish so finding enough big ones to take home for a catfish dinner might be kinda tough to get. But with all the Carp and 1/2 pound catfish guarantee to bite your lines on a uncrowded lake. (that should still be enough to insure a good time) We all can't marry beauty queens, but a good women and a biting lake, should be enough for most people. But some people want it all!!!! Sorry but life doesn't work that way!!!! lol