It’s called fishing…
By Bob Zettler
July18, 2010

There were patches of lite fog in the air as we made our way to meet Brian Cleland in Findlay to go fishing at Lake Shelbyville this early Saturday morning. Fog had always held a special place in my heart for I was usually successful hunting on mornings where there was fog. Waterfowl, deer, pheasant, it didn’t matter what species it just seemed to be a special time to “get lucky” afield and now it would be tested on the water.

Let me backup a little. I had met Brian last year through Crappie.com and he helped a co-worker and me get on the Crappie one morning at the lake. Here we had never met and had only exchanged PM’s but when we were both on the lake that spring morning last year he called me to see how we had done around 10:30. When he heard we hadn’t done so well and he was already done, he motored up to us and offered to escort us south to put us on some fish. After a short trip we arrived and he marked the fish with buoys and it was game on.

Now this was my first time fishing with my co-worker and I had never even met Brian but he extended a hand and did everything for a couple of strangers but bait their hooks and we caught Crappie! Now, here it is nearly a year later and I was helping a guy out from another forum whom I had never met in person and had only chatted with a couple of times to go fishing with someone who knows the lake. Tom Jay is from Lemont and would love to get his brother out for a good fishing trip as he is poor health and this was like a pre-fishing experience. Speaking of which, Brian had found the Crappie Monday afternoon and they were all 12” to 13” and I was pumped to get into them myself! In fact, he had called me from the boat that day to “pump me up” which I in-turn did to Tom based upon Brian’s pre-fishing excursion.

So, here I am setting up an outing with a guy I had fished with once, depended on for counsel (and Sand Blasters the week before) and have come to call a friend. And in turn, I was helping out someone I had never even met achieve a desire to get out on the water! Folks, I have done this many times in the past hunting and now I am doing it on the water; a place I have limited experience. What if they didn’t get along? Heck, what if I didn’t get along! But those concerns quickly faded as we drove through the fog towards the lake…but I digress as usual.

During the drive I learned a lot about Tom. First off, here was a guy that had as many or more stories than I do and could talk more than me! I also heard about his brother who has suffered through diabetes since he was 12, and now that he is in his 50’s, the disease has taken its toll. And here I complain about my misfortunes and health issues (read that being overweight) and I am sitting next to a guy who has had hips replaced, bypass surgery, arthritis, and the like but he is still getting out there – in the field and on the waters. Actually, I kind of felt pretty good about myself as I am two years younger and look like Lance Armstrong compared to Tom…well, maybe Louie Armstrong.

Anyway, I was a little nervous about how the two would bond so to say but I would take my usual tack in that I would let them do the talking and I would simply hang in the background for the most part unless things got stressed. Amazingly, with Tom driving we made it to the One-Stop in Findlay before Brian and when he arrived we bought 10 dozen minnows in the anticipation that limits of Crappie and White Bass would take its toll. In addition, I had already prepared a cooler with refreshments and food – enough for the three of us to last the entire weekend not just Saturday – and Tom prepared a cooler with ice for the fish we were going to catch for our ride home. I mean I had even prepared an itinerary and game plan proposal for Tom to review and approve days before and we were (so far) holding to it.

It didn’t take long to get to the Eagle Creek boat ramp and get ready. Brian was providing everything, from the boat, to tackle, poles and experience while we brought along two casting poles, the ice chest restaurant full of beverages and sandwiches, and one of Tom’s tackle bags…just in case. It seemed like Brian knew most everybody as he waved or chatted with the others putting in or on the water already. Not that there was a crowd but to me it spoke to the essence of his nature and that was “he is a good guy.” Now here it was just before 6 AM and the White Bass were already busting just off the ramp so I took out my casting pole with the #4 Vibramax and when I was parking the truck and trailer, Tom caught one on the second cast. Not a biggie but it boded well for the day in my opinion!

The waters were like glass and as we motored to the spot where Brian had caught all his Crappie earlier in the week, I couldn’t help but recognize the difference between my 14’ Jon Boat and his Nitro. Not only was he going just over 40 MPH with all of us aboard (Tom and I border on Cartman-sized) but it was like sliding on a slip-n-slide. God, life is great some days! It didn’t take long to get to the submerged structure and Brian began to see fish. The game plan was to setup a spider rig up front consisting of three poles and then each of us have our own pole with a single minnow on while the Spider rigs each held two. This way we could cover more water, and more importantly, different depths.

Now Brian has two sonar units and the rear one is side-imaging but when he moves up front to the trolling motor the rear one shuts off for some reason – I had taken up station in the rear of the boat to watch it with Tom comfy in the middle and Brian up front trying to find the hidden structure and the fish. Poles were distributed and Brian began to put out the spider-rigs baited with two minnows and set at different depths – 10’, 12’ and 14’. Now Tom and I had the poles with just one minnow on it and this allowed us to vary the depths according to where Brian felt there was Crappie. And while he could see plenty of fish, the ones that displayed orange were the ones we were after as they were the bigger ones.

However, as Brian began to crisscross over the structure below in maybe 24’ of water, the oranges were outnumbered by the blue/black fish readings. Yet, I was the one who caught the first fish but it wasn’t a keeper. This went on with all of us getting strikes and losing minnows – either to the fish or us setting the hooks – for some time and I could tell Brian was getting slightly stressed that is until he set the hook on something big from one of the Spider Rig poles at the same time having set the hook on his other pole. Since Tom was right there, he handed the one off to him and the battle was on. Now Brian had set these rigs up with 10-pound test Vicious Fluorocarbon line with a Mister Crappie red #2 hook at the ends and we worried that either the line or the hook might break! When I hooked my 20.25-pound Carp the weekend before, I had that fish to the surface dozen-plus times in the first 15 minutes but whatever was on this line this time wasn’t coming up. In fact, it was maybe 20 minutes before we got the first indication of just what it was as we saw bubbles on the surface as Tom fought the unseen denizen of the deep. A catfish was believed to be on the other end but it was another five or so minutes before a flash of him made it clear that we needed a bigger net! Finally, maybe 25 minutes in Brian was able to get the catfish’s head into the net and scoop it over the side before the hook gave way and Tom had himself a 10+ pound Channel Catfish caught on a Crappie pole - WOW!

Now that was quite the experience and Tom and I agreed that made the trip worth it as we had only caught a couple of Crappie keepers so far and it was nearing 9 AM. But since we had established a game plan for Tom and I to sit up front and I had been at the rear of the boat, Brian decided to setup the dual seats upfront and since Tom was more comfortable where he was at, I joined Brain at the bow so I could now see the fish-finder and be closer to the additional action of the spider-rigged poles. It wasn’t long before the closest pole to me took a severe dip and the pole was handed to me and my battle was on like Donkey Kong!

It was a replay of what Tom had just gone through and was now recuperating from as I maintained a constant pressure on the line careful not to give the fish any slack but also make sure he could dive deeper and still keep him away from the shore and structure that he could lose me in. After 10 or 15 minutes of this where I was really worried we might lose this fish - I still hadn’t seen him or any bubbles, or, “Crab Farts” as Captain Phil would say - which would be the first indication that it might be a catfish or not. I felt it was due to the way it fought and would occasionally snap its head from side-to-side in an attempt to lose the hook which wasn’t what I had been through the week before with the Carp I caught. But this was different in other ways too as this fish fought and even if it wasn’t tiring, I was! I know, I am a pussy but this was battle of mano-a-mano between the fish and me but I was more determined to land it than he was to get off the hook.


CONTINUED