EricM
Well-known member
We decided to go chase the fishies with live bait yesterday! Drove through terrible fog to find that it had risen over the river into a very nice overcast. No breeze early, but it stayed pretty cool.
And cool is what a fat old man needs when doing that "easy" live bait fishing. Finding the shad balls and pitching that 12 lb net repeatedly warms me up in a hurry. I was doing a reasonable job of huffing and puffing and collecting shad and wearing myself out when I hit the mother lode (or "load" in this case). Yay!!! Lookit all them shad!!! Problem was, my eyes were bigger than my bait tank. I just couldn't dump a bunch of them back into the lake, so I seriously overloaded my 30 gallon bait tank. Seriously overloaded. Seriously.
For those of you who don't understand collecting and keeping shad, the tank was black with shad. A wonderful thing in one's mind, not so much in reality. Despite circular flow and filtering, liberal use of cool water and salt, and repeated applications of Foam-Off, the shad got red-nosed in a hurry (a bad thing caused by overcrowding, loss of water quality, overcrowding, too many fish, and overcrowding). They become less lively and can start dying. The build-up of foam (caused by guess what) was amazing, and even with repeated skimming, the bait tank resembled a lemon meringue pie (I didn't know how to spell it, but I sure know how to eat it!). I wonder if maybe I had too much bait. Hmmm.....
Oh, the trials and tribulations of shad fishing!
We hunted for a hot spot for the bass and came up empty at first, despite advice from an unnamed source (spur_unter). The school of fish might have been attending senior commencement just then, but with the Mrs on board I wasn't willing to wait for them. Not so much out of consideration for Mary, but more out of self-preservation - she had a rod in her hand and does not like getting bored with her husband. Maybe I would be wise to supply her with a rod with somewhat less backbone.
We found a good place on the channel edge and she gracefully allowed me first fish this time. We kept busy, with her catching fish and me baiting the hook and taking bass off and fighting the foam that was erupting from the bait tank like a volcano. I managed to fight a goodly share of fish, but the girl whupped me - using that rod with too much backbone on the fish - instead of on you-know-who...........
We only caught largemouth with one spotted bass in the mix, plus the big fish of the day - a nice freshwater drum that had Mary working hard. She also boated the biggest bass of the day. Again.
A wonderful time, even with my sore back and her sore arms this morning. She is all smiles! Maybe she will make me a lemon meringue pie...........
And cool is what a fat old man needs when doing that "easy" live bait fishing. Finding the shad balls and pitching that 12 lb net repeatedly warms me up in a hurry. I was doing a reasonable job of huffing and puffing and collecting shad and wearing myself out when I hit the mother lode (or "load" in this case). Yay!!! Lookit all them shad!!! Problem was, my eyes were bigger than my bait tank. I just couldn't dump a bunch of them back into the lake, so I seriously overloaded my 30 gallon bait tank. Seriously overloaded. Seriously.
For those of you who don't understand collecting and keeping shad, the tank was black with shad. A wonderful thing in one's mind, not so much in reality. Despite circular flow and filtering, liberal use of cool water and salt, and repeated applications of Foam-Off, the shad got red-nosed in a hurry (a bad thing caused by overcrowding, loss of water quality, overcrowding, too many fish, and overcrowding). They become less lively and can start dying. The build-up of foam (caused by guess what) was amazing, and even with repeated skimming, the bait tank resembled a lemon meringue pie (I didn't know how to spell it, but I sure know how to eat it!). I wonder if maybe I had too much bait. Hmmm.....
Oh, the trials and tribulations of shad fishing!
We hunted for a hot spot for the bass and came up empty at first, despite advice from an unnamed source (spur_unter). The school of fish might have been attending senior commencement just then, but with the Mrs on board I wasn't willing to wait for them. Not so much out of consideration for Mary, but more out of self-preservation - she had a rod in her hand and does not like getting bored with her husband. Maybe I would be wise to supply her with a rod with somewhat less backbone.
We found a good place on the channel edge and she gracefully allowed me first fish this time. We kept busy, with her catching fish and me baiting the hook and taking bass off and fighting the foam that was erupting from the bait tank like a volcano. I managed to fight a goodly share of fish, but the girl whupped me - using that rod with too much backbone on the fish - instead of on you-know-who...........
We only caught largemouth with one spotted bass in the mix, plus the big fish of the day - a nice freshwater drum that had Mary working hard. She also boated the biggest bass of the day. Again.
A wonderful time, even with my sore back and her sore arms this morning. She is all smiles! Maybe she will make me a lemon meringue pie...........
