Fishing with my old mentor 7/19/2018

I was greatly honored to take the man who taught me how to fish this morning on beautiful Chickamauga lake. I have fished with many good fishermen in my lifetime, but Larry McCuiston is still the best angler that I have ever been a boat with.

A little background on Larry. We were schoolmates in Spring City, Tennessee and Larry was guiding people out of Pete Smith’s boat dock while we were in early high school. He was a very knowledgeable fisherman back in his younger days.

In the 70’s when Ray Scott began the BASS pro fishing tournaments, Larry fished with them one year before going to the Red Man circuit. He finished second in the Lake Seminole tournament that year and we reminisced about the tournament this morning. He said that he fished with Roland Martin on the first day of that tournament and Larry said “I caught 10 bass that day and Roland only caught three”.

He is a very humble man now and has some physical problems as we older people tend to have, but his mind is still sharp and he can still fish any lure with anybody that you want to name. I owe him a lot for the fishing knowledge that I have. He even caught one of my pets this morning to honor my screen name. Drumking. Grin.

Now the report. Al Lindner said one time that in any given week, on any given body of water, and any given species of fish, you will have 2 great days of fishing, 3 good days and 2 poor days. Today, Larry and I caught one of the poor days.

As we were motoring to our first spot just before a beautiful sunrise, the Northeast wind was already picking up as you can tell by the pic that I will post. The fish basically had lockjaw. We did manage to catch fish to take the skunk off the boat, but little else. I rode Larry around the lake and showed him what I look for when I’m searching for crappie.

My biggest crappie was 12.5” and one about 11.5, and a single white bass. The surface temp when we stopped just before 10 was 87.3. The fish we caught were on bottom 18-25 feet deep. We marked a lot of fish, but they wanted nothing to do with us. Better days coming, I’m sure.

Glad you were able to enjoy that old friendship.
I have a question for you. Do you ever use a float?
And why?
Thanks

This is what it’s all about! The fish are just a bonus!

Those Drum give an exceptional initial pull, even if they are not the targeted or preferred species. Your mentor even looked like he enjoyed the catch and the trip despite big numbers. Good report.

Another good report. I value time spent with special friends more than most anything else. A man told me when I was in my twenties that if I finished this life with a handful of true friends that I would be a lucky man. I have a few more than that, probably more than I deserve, and get em in the boat as often as possible. I'm sure that you both enjoyed the company regardless of the amount of fish. Good Job Mister!!

What a wonderful report. Thanks for sharing.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by USMA65

Glad you were able to enjoy that old friendship.
I have a question for you. Do you ever use a float?
And why?
Thanks

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I seldom use a float for crappie, but I should. If I fished more during the crappie spawn, then I certainly would. But, I usually go to the tail waters below dams to fish for Striped Bass, Walleyes, White Bass, Smallmouth Bass, and basically anything that will bite while all the crappie fishermen that don't fish other times for crappie except spawning time have all out ramps clogged. I really don't like to fish in a crowd. I don't mind people approaching me while I am fishing, but it is a rare thing for me to approach another boat to fish an area, unless I perceive that he is fishing for bass while I am fishing for crappie. Most of the time I will ask permission to fish in the same general area and so far have been treated nicely while doing that. A lot of confrontations would be avoided if people would use a little common courtesy and ask before cutting someone off or running right up next to them and start casting lures near their boat. But some anglers are just jerks. You know what they say about fishermen in general? Fishermen are just jerks on one end of the line waiting for a jerk on the other end of the line. Grin. I love to fish off shore where I am not bothered by other crappie fishermen. Main river fish are bigger, in my opinion, and I had rather have fewer quality fish that I can catch off deep water structure, than going to a dock that is back up in a creek or cove somewhere and catch 40 crappie but only have 2 or 3 barely legal keepers. Again, just what I like to do. I'm not knocking anyone who doesn't mind fishing elbow to elbow with 5 other boats. But, that isn't my thing and people that go with me can attest to that. Thanks for the question.

dk

Very nice post as usual. Thanks.

Good post. Always wonder where folks get their fishing knowledge. Who knows those CCS kids may think of us like that one day!!!!!!

Great story DK. I will be going to day shift hopefully mid October. I can't wait, hopefully in time for some fall fishing. I think I'm going to look for a gourmet Recipe for Drum. :highfive

Thanks for sharing ,! That’s what it’s all about!

I guess I owe Mr. Larry a big Thank you! The knowledge you have shared w me has been priceless, always special to spend time back with your fishing roots.

Great post and topic. Honoring someone who has invested time, in you, and earned it. No doubt he will have a story or two about Jack Wingate.