09-26-2004, 10:42 PM
[cool][#0000ff]Met Petty at Smith & Edwards at 6:50 AM. He passed the first "fishing buddy test". We were supposed to meet at 7 and he was early. It was time to launch his new Fish Cat 4, which he named "Whistler's Mother". I'll leave it to him to explain the significance.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]We drove all the way around to the light pole, with the idea that we would have the best chance of finding some wipers there. Bad thinking. First, the rocks on the dike were too imposing for a tubing newbie. Second, the mosquitoes zeroed in on Petty's bare arms and legs with a vengeance. I think he lost 10 pounds before we launched.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]We fought our way back over the cratered road to the southwest corner, where the pump maintainence road over the dike makes for easier tube trudging. Bugs were not nearly so bad and we got everything loaded up and over the dike to the water. [/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]Unfortunately, the water was ugly. It wasn't quite chocolate, but definitely too turbid for sight feeders like wipers to be very active. It was also 62 degrees, which is a few degrees below optimum for wipers, but getting okey dokey for walleyes. [/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]We got Petty's new craft set up and launched with only a few minor glitches on both of our parts. What's a trip without a few aggravations? (much better).[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]We split up and began casting all kinds of lures. Nada, zip, zip. Saw quite a few marks on the sonar, and I doubt they were all carp. By the way, one of the pics is titled "rising browns". There were bazillions of carp all over the surface. There were also dozens of grebes diving for their dinner, but I didn't see any return to the top with any fish in their beaks.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]We decided that maybe the cool and cloudy water called for bait fishing. Petty pinned on a crawler and I dug out some leftover perchie fillets from yesterday's jaunt at Lincoln Beach. Petty had a fish on and lost it. Soon afterward, I did the same thing. Looked like we were going to be snakebit.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]On my next bite, I did the feeding line trick and set the hook only after letting the fish move off with the perch meat for a ways. Solid hookset into a small channel cat. It was about 13" and chubby so I kept it, hoping for a few like it. They are great eating that size and there ain't many bigger ones left in Willard.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]After I had caught a couple more, and had more missed bites, I connected with Petty and downloaded some of my remaining perch strips, and some of my ring-eye hooks. Wasn't long before he bent his stick and beat up on a few bitty kitties himself. We both agreed it beat the heck out of catching nothing.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]At one point in my kicking around and watching the sonar, I had a screen full of large marks, from the surface to the bottom, in 8 feet of water. I guessed wipers and switched to tossing a hot red roadrunner head with a chartreuse plastic twister. After quite a few unmolested casts, I had a hard whack and about 10 yards of line disappeared from my reel before the inexperienced fish forgot how to hang on and lost me. That was a highlight, but hardly a banner event.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]Kept a few little cats for TubeBabe's scampi pan and got off the water by noon. Water temp had climbed to almost 64, but was still pretty sick looking. [/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]We cruised by the south marina to see if there was any water coming in the inlet. Nope. Ranger said he understood that the Weber water users would not release any, and that the pumps would still keep going until October 15. Bad combination. Hope we get some serious runoff this year.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]Fun day on the water with Petty. He is good company and handled Whistler's Mother like a pro, once he figured out the difference between port and starboard.[/#0000ff]
[signature]
[#0000ff][/#0000ff]
[#0000ff]We drove all the way around to the light pole, with the idea that we would have the best chance of finding some wipers there. Bad thinking. First, the rocks on the dike were too imposing for a tubing newbie. Second, the mosquitoes zeroed in on Petty's bare arms and legs with a vengeance. I think he lost 10 pounds before we launched.[/#0000ff]
[#0000ff][/#0000ff]
[#0000ff]We fought our way back over the cratered road to the southwest corner, where the pump maintainence road over the dike makes for easier tube trudging. Bugs were not nearly so bad and we got everything loaded up and over the dike to the water. [/#0000ff]
[#0000ff][/#0000ff]
[#0000ff]Unfortunately, the water was ugly. It wasn't quite chocolate, but definitely too turbid for sight feeders like wipers to be very active. It was also 62 degrees, which is a few degrees below optimum for wipers, but getting okey dokey for walleyes. [/#0000ff]
[#0000ff][/#0000ff]
[#0000ff]We got Petty's new craft set up and launched with only a few minor glitches on both of our parts. What's a trip without a few aggravations? (much better).[/#0000ff]
[#0000ff][/#0000ff]
[#0000ff]We split up and began casting all kinds of lures. Nada, zip, zip. Saw quite a few marks on the sonar, and I doubt they were all carp. By the way, one of the pics is titled "rising browns". There were bazillions of carp all over the surface. There were also dozens of grebes diving for their dinner, but I didn't see any return to the top with any fish in their beaks.[/#0000ff]
[#0000ff][/#0000ff]
[#0000ff]We decided that maybe the cool and cloudy water called for bait fishing. Petty pinned on a crawler and I dug out some leftover perchie fillets from yesterday's jaunt at Lincoln Beach. Petty had a fish on and lost it. Soon afterward, I did the same thing. Looked like we were going to be snakebit.[/#0000ff]
[#0000ff][/#0000ff]
[#0000ff]On my next bite, I did the feeding line trick and set the hook only after letting the fish move off with the perch meat for a ways. Solid hookset into a small channel cat. It was about 13" and chubby so I kept it, hoping for a few like it. They are great eating that size and there ain't many bigger ones left in Willard.[/#0000ff]
[#0000ff][/#0000ff]
[#0000ff]After I had caught a couple more, and had more missed bites, I connected with Petty and downloaded some of my remaining perch strips, and some of my ring-eye hooks. Wasn't long before he bent his stick and beat up on a few bitty kitties himself. We both agreed it beat the heck out of catching nothing.[/#0000ff]
[#0000ff][/#0000ff]
[#0000ff]At one point in my kicking around and watching the sonar, I had a screen full of large marks, from the surface to the bottom, in 8 feet of water. I guessed wipers and switched to tossing a hot red roadrunner head with a chartreuse plastic twister. After quite a few unmolested casts, I had a hard whack and about 10 yards of line disappeared from my reel before the inexperienced fish forgot how to hang on and lost me. That was a highlight, but hardly a banner event.[/#0000ff]
[#0000ff][/#0000ff]
[#0000ff]Kept a few little cats for TubeBabe's scampi pan and got off the water by noon. Water temp had climbed to almost 64, but was still pretty sick looking. [/#0000ff]
[#0000ff][/#0000ff]
[#0000ff]We cruised by the south marina to see if there was any water coming in the inlet. Nope. Ranger said he understood that the Weber water users would not release any, and that the pumps would still keep going until October 15. Bad combination. Hope we get some serious runoff this year.[/#0000ff]
[#0000ff][/#0000ff]
[#0000ff]Fun day on the water with Petty. He is good company and handled Whistler's Mother like a pro, once he figured out the difference between port and starboard.[/#0000ff]
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], and a real tubin pro. i really enjoyed fishing out of "whistlers mother" not quite ready to trade in the "swamp yankee" yet but i can get my feet wet in this one for awhile and can fish easyer alone and other tubers. the kitties i caught where alot of fun and put up a good fight. still need to ad the sonar to the tube and a few more bells and whistles.
