Sunday, July 29, 2007

Putting on the Fly

We did it (almost)! We got up before dawn and got out on the lake VERY early. I say almost because we were shooting for getting up at 2 AM and being in the cove we wanted to fish by 3 AM. We got up about 2:30 AM and got on the lake by about 3. After a slight detour back to the truck for a fishing license, we were back out on the water and to the cove about 3:30 so we can't complain too much. The morning started off great! Mike pulled in a catfish; not quite big enough to want to clean so he tossed it back anticipating much larger fish to fry. About 4 AM (probably as predicted) the raindrops started to fall. Now normally, this would be no big deal for us. We throw on our rain gear (which we forgot this trip) and continue to toss the line out into the water. However, we forgot to put the fly on the tent. Our tent is a nice setup for summer - a screen roof. You can see the stars on a clear night...or you get really wet on a rainy one. We pulled up anchor, Mike dropped me and the dogs on the shore, and I ran back to the site (only about 1/2 mile) and threw the fly on quick. Also, because we had not anticipated staying an additional night, I needed to run to the store for a few essential items. By the time I returned, the sun was coming up and the rain had died to a slow drip. Mike came back to the shore and picked us up. We weren't having much luck in the cove where he had caught all of the fish the night before so we decided to head on to a new spot. The next one proved to be even less fruitful...not to mention it started to rain again. We were bound and determined though so we fished on. We finally found a cove we thought looked good. Armed with about a dozen minnows, we anchored the boat. I threw out my first line and before the darn thing hit the water, I pulled in a nice sized crappie. About 5 minutes later, Mike pulled in another nice size catfish. We were stoked! The sun was beginning to shine and we were suddenly in anticipation of a nice fish dinner tonight. That's where the story ends. We stayed in that spot for about 2 more hours with very little activity on our lines. There were fish a-plenty; they just didn't want what we were selling. With clouds rolling in again and the camp site check out fast approaching, we packed it up and headed to shore. I ran up to the site to get the tent down before it got any more soaked than it probably already was and Mike headed around the lake to the boat ramp to pull the boat out of the water. He decided he would do a little trolling on the way back. Wouldn't you know it! He caught a couple of walleye and a white bass while trolling! As is always our luck, he had decided to throw them back because he didn't want to clean just one fish.

I managed to get the tent down and semi-folded when the rain began to fall again. Needless to say, the tent got put away just a little damp so sometime this week, we will probably have to pull it out of the bag and set it up to dry; if it can dry in high humidity! Maybe I am starting to feel ill and we will need to go pitch the tent at the lake again so I can start feeling better...

We did come home and have a nice little catfish fry for dinner. They were fantastic! I think my eyes were a little bigger than my tummy though and I fried way to many of the little critters. The dogs love it when I do that!

Mike headed to bed about 30 minutes ago with the starts of a migraine. I think I would be able to join him right now if I didn't have a paper due in class tomorrow night. I have some serious research to do so I better get to it.

C'ya!

1 comment:

Nicky said...

Hey sister! I had no idea you were so on top of your blog - I've got lots of reading to do! =)