Saturday's escape

The call from my favorite fishing hole was pretty strong lately and I decided to give it a go. Saturday was Opening Day for the Dove Season around here, so there was only a couple other guys waiting for the gate to open at the lake early Saturday morning. They would be fishing for bass and each raced away from the ramp, like they might get beat to their spot by the other guy. I was in no hurry, which is a good thing, because a kayak doesn't get me anywhere very fast. My most productive spots were 3 miles down the lake anyway, so I set a steady paddling pace and just enjoyed the ride. The lake was flat and smooth, without so much as a breeze to ripple the surface. An Osprey was perched in an overhanging limb on a steep bank, waiting for breakfast. About half way down the lake I let out a couple different colors of Flicker Shads to get under the schools of shad I was seeing dimpling the surface. In no time, the right rod got absolutely hammered by something big that stopped momentum of the boat and spun it around 90 degrees. The rod bucked and drag screamed for about 7 seconds, then stopped. Probably a big gar that couldn't stand to let that little crankbait pass. The lure was still on and there were no nicks in the line, I kept paddling.

In the time it took for me to get from the ramp to my honey hole, the sky had gone from early morning milky haze to a bright blue, cloudless sky, with the sun beating down. It wasn't long before the first crappie hit the pink crankbait. It wasn't huge, but not bad either. I was running a Fashy Pink color on my left and a Slick Mouse color to the right. Fish started coming occasionally, but I was sure having to paddle a lot between bites. Dropping the lures back 120 feet into deeper water helped bring more regular strikes. By mid morning a few clouds were beginning to form, though it was way more sky than clouds and there was a ripple on the water. I was thankful for the break from the sun. I switched over to following the channels around since the surface feeding shad had moved deeper. I ran into some average sized White Crappie over and around the channels, which were 55 feet deep, though the fish were holding between 8-10 feet.

I found a big gang of junior bass schooling on a hump beside the channel. I boated 6 of them before I left them alone, as they were not what I was after. By now, the clouds were starting to gather and it took changing lure colors to get more regular bites going again. I switched to a Chartreuse Hothead and Blue Smelt. The crappie liked the change. I also caught one channel cat around 4 pounds and had another something big nail the Smelt, but it pulled off before it got half way to the boat. About then, I noticed that there were way more clouds than sun & sky and there was starting to be a chop on the water. About 3.5 miles from the dock, I heard the first rumble of thunder in the distance. I pointed the bow towards the boat ramp and started pulling. The next thunder sounded when I boating my 30th crappie of the day. None were exceptional sized, but none were particularly short either. I reeled in both lines and started digging for home. I made it back to the ramp in less than 45 minutes. Fear of lightning is strong motivation to paddle faster than usual. You can see the progression of weather in these pictures, from hazy, to clear, to cloudy, to all hell about to break loose.

I'm grateful to have gotten a fun day fishing and make my way off the water safely. I ended up ketchin' 30 crappie, 6 bass, one catfish and I paddled 13.2 miles to do it.

Jim