Ole Girl, Butla, Shows Her True Colors
Wow, what a 3 days of fishing!! With the Fruit Jar coming up on the 9th I headed out to fish Thursday, Friday and Saturday. Camping not far from Boatbottom and his bride was the highlight of the trip. Saw them Wednesday night and he had ask me to help with a depth finder, told him to just come find me and I would hop in with him and work on it. Did not get on the water till 9, caught a solid 2lb fish right off the bat on a Pico crank. Called Cray, who was fishing on the other end of the lake, and was talking to him about 45 minutes later and bam another 2lber! A few minutes later Boatbottom calls and says he just put in and was headed my way. Roll everything up and spotlok the boat, brain fart, and get in with him. We drop his trolling motor and head out tuning on the depth finder, being color blind makes it hard for him to see certain screnes. Went through it all, 2d, SI, DI and mapping and by the time we are done we were about 1.5 miles from my boat. (Here's where the brain fart came in), he says where's your boat? I pointed at a couple on the horizon and said it's got to be one of those! About this time I slapped myself up side the head and said, "Why didn't I just have the boat follow us?" Duh!!!!!!! Lesson learned, hopefully.
Depth finder adjusted, me delivered back to my boat and Boatbottom headed out in search of slabs I decide to just go in and work on getting everything together for the next couple of days, after all I had made 2 passes and caught two 2lbers in 45 minutes, no need in beating em up, gonna need them Saturday, I got this!
Friday morning rolls around and I already know it will be a good day, Ms. Tammy was coming up and we were going to eat vittles with Boatbottom and his bride that evening so no matter what the fishing is it will end very well!! By the way, this lake was up 5 feet in the last week, water itself looked good but you now had weeds with 5 foot of water all around them all over the lake and forcasted east north east winds for Saturday. Head to one of the few spots I know on the lake that has been good to me and put the cranks out. As I get started their are birds all over the water in front of me so I know there is bait there. Rod tips vibrating and waiting for one to double up, not! Made two passes and headed out to the gravel pit, man this thing is deep, make a loop and nothing so I'm out of there. Cruising at 2mph I can cover ground pretty good on a small lake so I just keep going. Not long after coming out of the gravel pit I had a hit, not a big pole bender but a crappie, as I get it to the boat another hook up, then another! Two of the three were short but there are fish right here, make a mark on the depth finder and keep going. About 2.5 hours later the cranks had not done a thing, everybody in the box got a chance and nothing!! By this time I'm back to where I had caught the fish the day before, what the heck, make a pass. Turned the boat into position and headed down the track, bam! 1.75lber on the line and with a grin on my face I think to myself, "I got this!" After all, I had made 3 passes through there and caught 3 fish weighing 6lbs total! Stowed that pole and rolled the other 3 up and headed in. Not long after I load up Ms. Tammy text and said she was on the way and it would be supper time before long! Ms. Tammy arrives and we head over to Boatbottoms campsite with one of them cakes in tow. Boatbottom and his bride were cooking hamburgers and home fries, that and cake makes for a pretty dang good supper!! Marcus, their son, had showed up to fish with his dad in the fruit jar and the five of us tore into some groceries and man they were fine only out done by the company and fellowship. Around 9 or so we said our goodnights and headed back to our camper, Ree and Colin are on their way for Colin to fish with me Saturday. I turn in feeling good about our chances unknowing that the COE had opened the gates a few hours earlier. :banghead
Saturday morning came quick and at 615 when registration closed 16 teams had signed up, not bad considering several fished earlier in the week not doing good and didn't come back. Weigh-in set for 3 and I can't wait to get at it. Colin meets me at the ramp and by the time I shut the motor off its time to start, poles out and here we go! Made the faithful pass and NOTHING, what the heck! Make it 2 more times, nothing!!! I keep going south telling Colin, they couldn't have gone far! Shortly after that we hook up on a keeper, then a short, another keeper, another keeper, short, so we turn back on em with me saying we got to get em while we can. This 150 yard stretch produced 5 keepers but the biggest was only 1.75lb, what is going on!!! We had these 5 at 945 and that is how we fished up at 2pm, man the wind was out of my sails!!!! I knew it had been tough on everyone but I had hoped for more than what we had, we not skunked tho!!
Get back to Tadpoles and start setting up and hearing the talk around the parking lot we only knew of one team with seven fish, yep it was tough. As it unfolded that was how it was; 1 team with 7 fish, 3 teams with 5 keepers, 2 teams with 3 fish and everyone else under that! Having 5 fish would be good enough to get in the money with the payout paying 4 places and big fish. The big fish was weighed in by Birddown and John Harrison at an outstanding 2.70!!!!!! What a PIG!!!!
Top four were:
Monty Blount/Keith Sulivan with 10.87
Jay Carr/ Sammie Hill with 8.37
Harry Riddle/ Andy Stephens with 8.02
John Beshears/Colin Dally with 7.65
Tough as she is, Arkabutla is one of my favorite lakes, she makes you work, rarely is it easy but she can be very rewarding, not many lakes produce a 2.70 pig in September. Next up will be Grenada, let's see if she can produce a pig like that!!!!
