When First I met Rango

I moved from out of state to a house on Lake Wylie in 2002. I had been an avid night fisherman for years targeting trout and salmon in the Finger Lakes of Upstate New York. Searching the thing known as the internet it became apparent that crappie were going to be the species that would provide the best opportunity for nightfishing Wylie. Also found Crappie.com on the same internet.

Back then the most prolific poster on the North Carolina board was this dude "Rango" who was obviously very astute in the method of nitestalking which was a word invented by Rango to describe the less provocative nightfishing. I guess it was possible to post pics on that old board because as I was driving on Windjammer Drive where I lived I looked down and saw this guy with a green boat and wearing his signature fatigue hat poking around the bend in Torrence Creek. Being a quick thinker I decided to try that spot for my first Lake Wylie nitestalk. I went out that night and set up exactly the way Rango described in several of his message board posts and caught 10 or 12 crappies and I was thrilled and hooked forever.

I got a hold of Rango and he invited me to join him at that same spot a couple of nights later. I rounded the end of the peninsula by Windjammer Park and I could see the lights of the Beast in the distance. Rango liked having plenty of light, I mean PLENTY! I pulled up beside the Beast and rather than anchoring Rango tied a couple of boat fenders on the Beasts gunwale and I just tied to the Beast.

Rango had a friend named Jerry with him who was a frequent companion to Rango on nitestalks. He was a good guy and we all had a good time and a lot of laughs. Rando was heading down to visit his daughter in Georgia and she wanted to have a fish fry so this was a meat gathering trip. Being such we ended up with about 48 fish between the 3 of us including a fair number of what Rango used to call Taterchips. For years after that night he would complain about having to clean all those fish. I caught a 14" slab and I was happy as can be. When the night was over I knew I had made a friend that I would end up fishing with many times over the following years.