Ya' know...sometimes you just get that feeling about an upcoming fishing trip. My Dad and a buddy had been here over the weekend, in an attempt to fish for white bass in the Sandusky river in Fremont. We struggled mightily...as the strong cold front and NE winds that came with it had shut the fishing right down. Reported catches earlier in the week were saying guys were catching 100+ in less than 3 hours. Well, that didn't happen for us...but I was itching to exact some vengence on my little white friends...sooo...
I made the decision to take advantage of the gorgeous Ohio weather yesterday and hit the Maumee in the evening. Needed to do some work in the yard first, but once finished, I was fishing by 5:30pm. I started out in the location where Duckdude and myself fished the walleye tourney a few weeks ago. 90 minutes and 7 lost Carolina rigs later, with only a sheepshead to show for my efforts...I decided to move. Guys around me were catching a few white bass, but nothing spectacular.
I moved downstream to the tail end of Bluegrass Island to an old favorite spot which typically holds good numbers of white bass and the occasional walleye through the end of May. I was happy to see two anglers anchored in the middle of the river catching white bass on nearly ever cast. I decided that I would for-go my Carolina rig in lieu of a double leadhead jig combo using a three-way swivel. Once I found the right weight combination (two 1/8th oz jigs) to give me the right drift, I started to catch a few white bass. For those who have never done so, whities are quite possibly the most entertaining of the panfish to catch. They will chase a lure a great distance, and strike with tremendous ferocity, and offer an enjoyable battle on light tackle. I was using a 6'6 ML spinning rod with 8# Fireline and 6# Trilene XL for my droppers to my jigs.
Happy with my success, and glad to be catching fish again, I was able to relax for a bit and enjoy the moment. The closest fisherman to me were the two anglers in the boat. I literally had 200 yards of open space on each side of me. White bass were busting on the surface, as some sort of bug-hatch was occurring right before my eyes. I saw 3 cardinals, 2 woodpeckers, a pair of red-winged blackbirds, a bunch of Canadian geese, several groups of ducks, including mallards, woodies, and blue-winged teal, a ground hog, and for a moment, a small group of white-tailed deer that came down for a drink, which included what will obviously be a very nice buck come fall.
I continued to fish, and it wasn't too long before I hooked into something that was not a white bass. I felt the tell-tale head-shaking of a walleye, a very nice spring jack at 19". Hmmm....walleyes eh? Over the next 90 minutes, I caught 6 more walleyes, with the largest being about 5# or so..and another that was easily over 4#.
There were also more white bass in the mix of the walleyes. I fished until 9:00pm, having landed 7 walleyes total, and at least 25 white bass in what seemed to be a very short time, but was actually about 2.5 hours. Best color (actually the only color) of the night was a neon chartreuse Terminator grub sold by Netcraft.
I've had some wonderful evenings in that location, and the only thing that left me somewhat discouraged was that I was unable to share the moment with my Dad. Not wanting to "rub it in"..but still wanting to share the moment, I called him and talked to him for about 5 minutes. Yep..he wished he was there with me, but he was equally as excited about my success as I.
While walking the mile-long stretch back out to the truck, I happened upon 3 anglers that had no fish. They were from Missouri...in town for a wedding...and you would have thought I was Al Lindner to them. I think I answered about 50 questions in the time it took us to walk out to the trucks. I'm no Pro, nor have I ever claimed to be...but I do know the river a bit, and it obviously paid dividends last night.
When they asked "are walleyes really that good to eat?" I quickly replied..."gimme your stringer...you guys can have these." Talk about a change in tune. The looks on their faces rivaled those of my kids on Christmas morning. "You sure you don't want these?" "Nope..you guys can have them." Hopefully those fellas are into the fish as I type this....as I gave them a bag of tails, three-way swivels, and jigs (along with a location tip too) to help them out.
All in all it was a great night...one of those that doesn't come along too often (for me anyways) but I was able to surround myself in the moment. Athletes talk about being "in the zone"...and I think last night was about as close to that as I can get. Yeah..I might be making a lot out of catching 7 walleyes and a bunch of white bass...but for me, it was about as good as it gets last night.
Heck...I'm still jacked up this morning.
BFG
Official Ohio Delegate to Team Heavy Super-Sized Fishing Specialists bfg@educatedangler.com
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Piscatory transcendentalism, I love it. It sounds like one of those magic times on the water for sure. There are soooo many people that don't even have a clue about what they miss out on by not picking up a rod and reel.
Jim...I Fish Therefore I Am
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when the hell are you ever going to fish on our boat? call me and let me know, possible opening this Saturday AM...taking limits pulling metal in CLOSE in Brest Bay! CLOSE....very CLOSE.....also Friday night, going outta Bolles after work call me and let me know....FINALLY, WE GET TO PULL SOME METAL AND JETS AND DIPSEYS AND BIG BOARDS AND LEADCORE AND WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOHOOOOOOOO!
gonna put those dreamweaver spoons to work this weekend
Corey Miller Team Reel Naughty
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Very nice Clark.
