Got the Bug - By slabsrus

For two weeks I had been waiting for Saturdays work day to end. I had been looking forward to a great night of camping on a local lake with two of my lifelong buddies and doing some serious bluegill fishing, but when Saturday finally arrived I was not sure if I would make it or not. For what I think was the first time in my life, I was seriously considering canceling on a fishing outing. When I woke Saturday morning I realized I had been attacked by a flu bug of some sort in the last couple days and was definitely not feeling like going to work, let alone to camp and fishing. I considered calling in sick to work and cancelling the whole fishing thing, but instead I managed to load my gear and head into work anyhow. I would at least put in as much of my work day as possible and if I started feeling better throughout the day then I would go to bluegill camp.

Well the workday was just plain terrible. I felt light headed and nauseous all day. It was all I could do to stay awake but I made it to 2:30 and decided I would head to camp even though I still felt horrible. Heck, if nothing else I would just climb in the tent as soon as we set up camp and try to catch a good nights sleep in preparation for fishing on Sunday.

About 2 hours before dark camp was basically complete, and and we had figured out that we forgot food for dinner, Mike and I decided to jump in our kayaks and do a little fishing in hopes of catching a few panfish for dinner. Well that was a decision I will never regret for it was only a matter of minutes before we were into the fish.



Our micro jig and soft plastic combos seemed to be exactly what the fish wanted as cast after cast produced one big panfish after another. It seemed that no matter where we presented our baits there was a big bluegill or crappie just waiting to eat it. And though these were just bluegills and crappies, they were not your average Northern Michigan bluegills or crappies, they were big. The bluegills were all between 9 and 11 inches with 3 crappies in the 12 inch range. In less than 2 hours Mike and I put 29 slab panfish on the stringer and were back in camp before dark.



Once back in camp I put the filet knife to our catch and Mike gave them each a nice bath...in hot oil. I can't think of a time when I have ever been so happy about forgetting to pack food for dinner at camp and though I had been bitten by the flu bug, the fishing bug got ahold of me when I was just a child and has proven to be stronger then any pesky germ.