06-19-2003, 06:53 AM
We had a rough time getting to the fish today. At 5:15 we had 1 boat and between the two of us we had 0 trucks to pull it. At 5:40 my truck showed up, but we still needed the life jackets, and the oil, so Ron had to go get his truck anyways. We hit the water, in the south marina, at about 6:30 and ran straight for the feedlot. We fished for about 15 minutes, I caught a runt of a catfish, and Ron remembered his cigarettes were on the dash of the truck. We zipped back to the south marina and back out to the feedlot. It was about 7:30 by this time, and we positioned ourselves off of the east side and started trolling. After about another half an hour, and no more fish I might add, Ron's daughter decided she needed to make a pit-stop. Off to the north marina we went.
At about 8:30 we headed back along the shore towards the feedlot, and then it happened.....The drag started screaming on Rons reel. I think everyone who has ever caught a wiper know what that sound means. This time it meant that he should have set his drag before he started fishing, because the 16 in. wiper on the other end spooled a whole lot of line out before we got the upper hand. We kept it because the way our luck was headed it could have very well have been the only fish of the night. From then on we were catching fish about 1 every 10 minutes. I caught 2 that just played dead after I pulled my rod out of the pole-holder (weird), then Ron's daughter just about had her rod ripped out of the boat. I managed to look up from unhooking my fish in time to grab the rod as it was headed out of the back of the boat. This one was a good size wiper, and she did an excellent job of playing it to the boat. After that I hooked into another good one that kept making runs on me every time I got it about 7 or 8 feet from the boat. By this time it was almost dark so we trolled in the direction of the south marina hoping for that one last "on the way out" fish. This time it was Ron's turn to hook into a decent sized (19 3/4") one, and by the time he got it in, the boat was all turned around (we shut the motor off), and the other two lines were twisted all over. We decided it was time to go and we took off.
It quite possibly may have been biggest "amateur" evening I've ever had on the waters of willard, but we still managed to catch a 9 fish. I landed 1 cat and 4 wipers, Ron netted 3 wipers and his girl managed to keep from getting skunked with her 1 wiper. We did manage to finish out the evening without any more problems. And I must say the weather was pleasant, and there was just enough of a breeze to keep the mosquitos from taking their usual pint or two. It's nice to live so close to such a gem of a fishery!
Justin
[signature]
At about 8:30 we headed back along the shore towards the feedlot, and then it happened.....The drag started screaming on Rons reel. I think everyone who has ever caught a wiper know what that sound means. This time it meant that he should have set his drag before he started fishing, because the 16 in. wiper on the other end spooled a whole lot of line out before we got the upper hand. We kept it because the way our luck was headed it could have very well have been the only fish of the night. From then on we were catching fish about 1 every 10 minutes. I caught 2 that just played dead after I pulled my rod out of the pole-holder (weird), then Ron's daughter just about had her rod ripped out of the boat. I managed to look up from unhooking my fish in time to grab the rod as it was headed out of the back of the boat. This one was a good size wiper, and she did an excellent job of playing it to the boat. After that I hooked into another good one that kept making runs on me every time I got it about 7 or 8 feet from the boat. By this time it was almost dark so we trolled in the direction of the south marina hoping for that one last "on the way out" fish. This time it was Ron's turn to hook into a decent sized (19 3/4") one, and by the time he got it in, the boat was all turned around (we shut the motor off), and the other two lines were twisted all over. We decided it was time to go and we took off.
It quite possibly may have been biggest "amateur" evening I've ever had on the waters of willard, but we still managed to catch a 9 fish. I landed 1 cat and 4 wipers, Ron netted 3 wipers and his girl managed to keep from getting skunked with her 1 wiper. We did manage to finish out the evening without any more problems. And I must say the weather was pleasant, and there was just enough of a breeze to keep the mosquitos from taking their usual pint or two. It's nice to live so close to such a gem of a fishery!
Justin
[signature]
