GOMH Report w/Pete

Pete went and did Guard stuff in St. Cloud and wasn't back by after 5PM so I headed out around 5:30PM. The Bulldog Lake access was occupied so I headed to the GOMH. Grumpy Old Man Willard was there sitting in his mini-van. An older couple was fishing on the SW side and a couple of teenagers were on the SE side. After talking to Willard for a bit I headed down to get a place on the rocks on the SW side. The older couple said they were not catching anything. I started off with the Storm Wildeye Swim Shad which proved futile. A couple times the older ladies bobber went down but she missed the fish. Eventually I caught a jumpin bullhead on a pink Puddlejumper with a minnow. Tonight I learned those Puddlejumpers are not a very sturdy plastic. Not long after that the older guy got a jumpin bullhead. About 15 minutes later my bobber went down again thanks to a jumpin bullhead which I landed. Around 7:45 the older couple left and I moved my stuff onto the stairs. As I was getting set up a lady and her daughter showed up and Willard knew them so he came down for a profanity filled chat about some of the things that have happened in the aftermath of his brothers death in December. The girl caught a couple of orange bullheads.

I pulled in yet another jumpin bullhead and was bringing in another one when Pete showed up with his dog Sandy. Naturally Pete came down to fish. I think I got two more jumpin bullheads, including one nice 17inch class fish before Pete pulled in the first silver bullhead of the night. Right after that I brought in my first orange bullhead of the season. Inexplicably the lady and her daughter went to fish on the North side just as it was starting to get good. I landed a silver bullhead which ended up breaking my line, so I had to waste time retying. I got back after it and got another silver bullhead. When I was taking it off the hook, the hook ended up going right into my index finger and the bottom of the fingernail. I believe this was the first time in my life I have ever been hooked beyond the barb. I thought it wasn't going to come out easy, but Pete was able to pull it with almost no pain. Pete caught another silver bullhead and I missed a few bites and that was it even though we stayed a while after dark.