It's nice when you get a chance to go fishing without any time constraints. I had the day off today so I headed over to the lake (of course) knowing I'd be able to just take my time. I didn't have to worry about being anywhere at a certain time.
The lake was very quiet today. Not like the last time I was there. No jackhammers, and almost no people. Very quiet indeed.
I started off with a spinner bait. The weather was cold and partly cloudy, but the water was still warm. After a while without a bite I switched over to a swim bait and got just as many bites with that. I tried a few different things, but I could not attract a bite. I figured that ol' ribbontail would entice more action with its undulating tail, so I rigged up a dropshot.
Several casts and still no luck. As I was standing in one of my normal spots I started looking at this rock ...
... the water is very shallow here and the rock is close to the bank. Usually I cast way out past it (cuz I've caught a big one from out there), but as I looked at it today I thought, "I wonder if there's anything just on the other side of it." So I pitched my dropshot ribbontail just over the top of the rock and dropped it on the other side. No sooner had the bait hit the water than I saw it going in all sorts of directions. I set the hook, and found out exactly what was on the other side of that rock.
(left the bait on for the picture)
I love it when that happens, when an idea actually works.
I moved down a little ways and it started to rain a little bit. The place where I was fishing had several trees that almost formed an umbrella next to the bank, so I just stood under those trees and kept on fishing. My ribbontail had worked nicely, so I figured I'd keep on using it.
About 5 casts in at this new spot I felt something pick up my bait and my line went heavy. I set the hook and watched my pole bend all the way over. I've seen this before. I've either hooked into a really big catfish, or I've hooked one of those giant carp. I moved out from under the trees and this thing just started peeling line off of my reel. I tightened up the drag a bit hoping to wear the fish out, but it just laughed and said, "Silly human! I can do this all day!" After a while it was becoming ridiculous. I took this picture ...
... 5 full minutes into the fight. I was still reeling and pulling, and he was still swimming away, stripping line from my reel. I didn't know whether to tighten my drag more in hopes of wearing him out, or to loosen my drag to ease the pressure on my line. I went back and forth tightening and loosening. I started getting a little tired, then a little frustrated. This thing wasn't getting any closer to the bank. It was strong enough to stay right where it wanted to. When I would try to muscle it in, it would just swim harder.
Now I'm not so much frustrated as I am confused. How am I going to land this thing? And what is it anyway? I still haven't seen it. I tightened my drag hoping to really start hauling it in. We fought for another 5 full minutes at which point my line was just done. Having the drag tight for so long proved too much for my 8 lb Flouro, even though he was still pulling it off my reel. My line not only snapped, it frayed, twisted, and coiled up on itself from fighting so long.
I never did catch a glimpse of what this thing was. I think it was a catfish (not a carp). We fought for a solid 10 minutes and I never felt even close to having the upper hand on it. Today, between us, that fish was the better man!
I started doctoring my line. There was only a few feet of it hanging off my reel, which means it broke somewhere near my rod, as opposed to breaking at the knot.
I decided to change things up a bit and wacky rigged a green worm (one of the many that James supplied me with). On my first cast after the epic battle I felt a strike and landed this guy.
I continued to work the area a little more, but after a long time with no bites I re-rigged that dropshot ribbontail and moved down a ways. So far I had hooked one decent bass and one big catfish (probably) with that ribbontail. What would be next?
The water was nice and clear and I was able to see several feet beyond the bank, which is abnormal for this lake. As I was casting in one area, I was watching a turtle that was hanging out on the bottom, maybe 6 feet from the bank. On one of my retrievals, that ribbontail swam just over the turtle's head ... and it was on!!!! That turtle took off after that ribbontail. By the time it got to where the bait had been I had already lifted it out of the water. But I thought that was so funny, so I dropped the bait back into the water right in front of the turtle ... and he went off!!! I wasn't worried about hurting him or getting him caught on the hook because I was using a 5/0 wide gap offset hook, which was bigger than his entire head. But he didn't care about that. All he wanted was a taste of that ribbontail. I guess he had heard rumors from the bass and the catfish about how good this thing was and he just had to try it.
He bit down on the tail end of that bait and started chewing. He chomped, shook, and bit that thing as if he was competing with an LMB for the "Strike of the Night" award. Finally he realized he wasn't going to be able to eat this thing and he spit the tail out. I asked if he'd had enough and if he'd left room for dessert. He said he was full and just asked me to bring the check.
At either end of this lake there are huge fountains. I've fished both ends but have never caught or even seen any fish in those areas. I always figured that the noise from the fountains was too much for the fish. Today I learned how wrong I was. As I was starting to walk around one end I spotted a small bass. "Hmmmm! They aren't afraid of the fountain." So I cast my line in to see what there was to see. Just then I caught a bright form out of the corner of my eye. I turned to look and Moby Dick was headed my way. He was down about 4 feet and he was a 30 inch albino carp (if there is such a thing, it looked like a huge Koi). "I wonder if carp will go for a ribbontail!" Well, he was wise to that and he just kept swimming.
As Moby went on his way I caught movement on the other side. Right there, swimming right towards me about 8 feet away was a school of 4 or 5 bass about the size of the first one I had caught. I tried to reel in quickly and cast towards their direction, but they noticed my commotion and headed in a different direction.
I continued fishing the remainder of the lake for a couple more hours but didn't get any more bites. However, I did stop and notice the final resting place of a little bird.
I found him floating in the same place that I had rescued the little turtle several weeks ago. I was too late for this little guy though.
My first thought when I saw the bird was, "Ah, bummer. How sad!"
My second thought (honestly) was, "I wonder if I could use him as bait. Impart some action to him like a topwater lure. Maybe catch a huge bass!"
Am I a scoundrel?
Don't worry, I didn't. But I do wonder....
So the menu today was ribbontail, and the bass, the catfish, and turtle all gave it rave reviews.
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