SpurHunter
Well-known member
<div>Decided to hit the Nuke with the wack-pack and load up on some white bass and maybe catch a few cats. I don’t use my trolling motor a whole lot on that big barge so I made sure to charge the battery in anticipation of staying on top of the whites. Drop in at Skull, dead starting battery, are you kidding me? Take fresh trolling battery and use for engine, here we go.</div><p class="MsoNormal">We scanned the discharge for signs of catfish, the bait and schools of whites. We got there well before daylight and I was hoping to find the whites deep to see if I could trigger a bite prior to them turning on. That was unproductive, and I thought maybe we should drop some cat rods while waiting for the whites to start feeding, crap we forgot catfish bait! Back to focusing on the whites, BAM, fish on and low and behold, it’s a big skipjack. Bingo, catfish bait in the boat! Maybe the Spurluck/jinx is wearing off? In fact I think the first 4-5 fish ended up being skips before the whites got cranked up. We had anchored where the fish had been so active last week and it turned out to be the wrong spot so I ended up using the trolling motor to keep up in them, knowing I needed enough juice to start that big V6 to get back home, I made sure not to overdo it….</p> <p class="MsoNormal">Overall the white bass jumps were pathetic, I would guess about 12 rises…BUT we didn’t need them rising to catch them. The Foley spoons produced fish after fish. We rigged themCarolinastyle with a 1 oz egg sinker. A few fish were caught using a pooping cork with a floating cork fly as well. We ended with close to 50 plus two green trash fish and 8-9 skips in the boat. A few of the whites were the big boat paddle size which is always fun on lighter gear.</p><p class="MsoNormal"></p> <p class="MsoNormal">We had an absolute ball catching fish, telling jokes and ragging each other for lost fish, missed strikes, tangled lines, (Billy was by far the worst offender of hanging multiple rods on a backswing) it was a miracle nobody got hooked honestly as when we would see a rise, everybody scrambled to cast in that direction. As often happens when fishing in this frantic style, twice SOMEBODY forgot to open a bail and when chunking a 1oz Carolina rigged Foley on 8 lb test, Ziiiiing there goes the whole rig across the lake. I think Heath won the distance casting event and took home the gold bonehead award, although Wade really held his own! </p><p class="MsoNormal">To top off the calamity, “this one time, at band camp”, while Wade was using my top secret floating fly and one of MY popping corks a giant skippy hit, Wade set the hook, and breaks off the whole rig. The skip is attached to the float and jumping like mad…then submerges and NEVER comes back up?? Note to self, a popping cork is not enough flotation to stop a skipjack, check.</p><p class="MsoNormal"></p> <p class="MsoNormal">Enough of this, we opt to hit some catfish holes, we BARLEY got the motor started and know we should just hit one spot. We put out some rods at the chosen honey hole and wait, and wait some more. Heath catches a really nice crappie, but cant replicate it much to his dismay. LOL</p><p class="MsoNormal"></p> <p class="MsoNormal">A rod finally screams with a hard run, I haul it in, 38 lb blue kitty. Day is complete with that, but we fished a while longer and Billy manage a blue about 15 lbs. We never found that big bite we were after but it was still a good day. In fact, any day you can catch a bigger fish than Sam did, it’s a good day. Probably the only reason the 38 bit was to get away from Sam, when he’s slumming on the lake instead of the river, they get real skittish. </p> <p class="MsoNormal">Catfish1 and Korngrinder came by and caught a few smaller crappie and talked about curse, bad luck and such nonsense, even having the gall to ask if we needed a tow! I cant imagine why they would ask things like this….</p><p class="MsoNormal"></p> <p class="MsoNormal">It was good to talk to you guys though. </p> <p class="MsoNormal">We dropped Billy-the-jinx off and headed for home. We found a GIANT 50+lb flattie floating at the ramp that broke our Noodling hearts, I just hope the ol gal got some spawning in this spring before the death. No telling what killed her but it was within a few hours as she was still yellow and not even stiff yet.</p><p class="MsoNormal"></p> <p class="MsoNormal">I’m going to be in Kansas this weekend, but I’m itching to get back out there and try for more whites, I love catching those things when its pretty good catching.</p><p class="MsoNormal"></p>
