Confession Time:
I fish alone most of the time and I kind of like it that way. When I fish I am in my own little world and having others along can ruin the tranquility for me; Especially if the person is prone to getting angry. This is something I should probably work on. I only invited one friend to go fishing with me in the Trophy this year. I'm ashamed to say I didn't even offer to take Dad out once. I think I've had him out in the Trophy fishing only one time ever.
Resolved: When I make my fishing goals for 2017 I am going to add a Fishing Buddies category.
This video reminds me of an accident I had back in 2001. I lived in Champlin MN at the time (NW of MPLS outer suburb) and was a member of the Vikings Bassmasters. Our last club tournament of the year was in August out at the Horseshoe Chain which is 20 miles SW of St. Cloud. A bunch of us stayed at one of the guy's homes out by Maple Lake to get us closer for the morning drive. This club liked to start it's tournaments right away at safe light so our convoy of 3 trucks with boats and me in my truck traveled in the dark. I brought up the rear. From the route we took the entrance to the Public Access was towards the bottom of a fairly long hill. Because of the incline, I could see up to the two lead trucks tail lights as they slowed and prepared to turn and I was watching for where they would turn. I didn't know it but they went past the access. The truck and boat in front of me knew where the turn was and because of oncoming traffic they had to stop before they could turn; As that I wasn't watching his tail lights I didn't know he was coming to a stop until it was too late.
When I did realize he was slowing down to a stop I had to slam on my breaks but my momentum and the distance was such that I slammed pretty hard into Mike Jacobson's (Guy who works at Vados Bait Store) motor. Steam went flying up and his boat surged forward pretty good. The bow stop and winch pole broke, but thank God the tow straps held. After a quick inspection, we drove the vehicles into the public access parking lot to get a better look. It was still sort of dark out so we had to use flashlights to start until it got lighter. Mike's boat and motor didn't look to be in too bad of shape, but the front of my truck, a Ford Ranger, was smashed in pretty good.
We decided there was nothing more we could do, so we launched all the boats and went fishing. I was a mess for most of the morning and it was the hardest time I've ever had concentrating on fishing during a tournament. I just felt terrible about what happened and all I could think was things were gonna work out for the worst. It was such an adrenaline rush that I was shaking even a couple of hours later. My partner that day was great and eventually got me settled down and focused on the fishing. My partner won the tournament catching several pigs and easily sealed up the club AOY. Towards the end of the day when I settled down, I managed to put a couple of nice fish in the boat, but I didn't get a limit. I can't remember if I still was able to qualify for the State Team as an alternative or not, but with the accident and anticipated repair bills that was out of the question.
I thought for sure I poked a hole in my radiator and was going to have to get towed, but after the tournament was over we would find out that wasn't the case. I was able to drive without any problems up to my parent's cabin on Sullivan Lake and Dad was able to fix my truck at the pole barn at the property where I live now. I also thought for sure I did major damage to Mike's expensive bass boat and motor and figured my insurance rates were going to skyrocket. As it turned out the damage was minor enough that I just paid a bit over a hundred out of pocket and we didn't need to involve the insurance companies at all.
Even though it wasn't nearly as bad as I thought it was going to be, it still sucked!
* "It Could Have Been Me" is a song by the band The Call on their Into the Woods album
This story begins with a several trips into Gander Mtn in Maple Grove Minnesota. They had a 7'6" Fenwick HMG Medium Heavy spinning rod for 50% on clearance. That rod was calling my name and about the 4th time I looked at it I finally gave in and bought it. I thought it would make a great rod for my annual Fall Salmon trip to SE Wisconsin. I was right, the rod was excellent for Salmon fishing. On my third trip with the rod I was fishing at the dam on the Pike River in Kenosha WI. The dam, which is no longer there, was located in the midst of a golf coarse and there was a golf cart bridge over the river made of railroad tries right below the face of the dam. There was a small deep pool where the fish stacked up under the bridge. On the dam side of the bridge there was really only room for one person to fish on each bank of the river and you would either have to stand in the water on a concrete ledge or stand on the asphalt that made up the river bank.
The first time I ever fished at the dam I figured something out with a Mepps Spinner that was just a killer on the Salmon as I fished off the asphalt. On about my 5th hook up I had a beautiful coho salmon that was about 4lbs on. As I was bringing the fish up on the asphalt my rod tip caught on the bridge and my rod tip broke. Not Cool! I then grabbed my line to pull the fish up further on the bank and my line broke and the fish along with my magic spinner dropped right back into the water and were gone. At that point I had a meltdown that I'm sure was a source of great amusement to the other fishermen at the pool.
When I got back home I called Fenwick and told them what happened, much to my astonishment they said they would cover the rod under warranty. I sent them the broken rod and they sent me a new one. Cool!
Fast Forward two years later I was fishing with the rod in the same pool, but this time on the down river side of the golf cart bridge. I was having a grand old time catching Salmon when I hooked into a brute. I was using really strong 20lb test line and really laying the wood to the fish when the rod exploded under the pressure. It sounded like a gun shot as the rod broke in 4 different places!!! My line didn't break and I managed to hand line the fish which was about 15lbs. Now you would think I might be upset, but I thought the way the rod just exploded was pretty darn cool. I was satisfied that I got my money's worth from Fenwick on a rod I paid half price for and didn't bother trying to get another rod under warranty; I wanted what was left of the rod as a souvenir. I still have the rod handle.
If you have broke, damaged, or set on fire a favorite piece of outdoor gear we want to hear your story!
I have a few stories, which I will do in multiple posts.
Can you guess what this first story is about?
For about 10 years in a row from the mid-90's to the mid-2000's I made the trek down to SE WI to fish the Fall salmon run. I would go in early to mid October to fish the Root River in Racine and the Pike River in Kenosha. One of the places I fished was Lake Michigan where the Pike River flowed into the lake. Sometimes the wave action from Lake Michigan would close up the river mouth with sand; The river comes out at a beach. To get fish you need the river flowing into the lake. The first time I witnessed the phenomenon of the river being closed up by sand, I had the bright idea to try to do something about it. I went and got a 5 gallon bucket from the car and set about making a channel from the river to the lake. The idea was to get some water to start to flow, which would naturally cause erosion in the sand making a wider channel until eventually the river would be flowing into the lake, which would bring the fish in close. Well the plan worked and once I got the channel made water was soon flowing quickly from the river into the lake. I kept working to expand the channel and the flow got better and better. One time when I bent down to scoop some sand while I was in the middle the channel my cell phone popped out of the pouch on my waders. At this point the river flow was such that the cell phone was instantly swept away from me right into the lake. Just like that it was gone. I couldn't believe it. As the Z-Train would say, "train wreck."
I don't think I have ever fished bass in such a way where I have intentionally attempted to duplicate a specific pattern to the exclusion of missing all other fishing opportunities. I think it is true that every time you go fishing whatever you are doing equates to trying one kind of pattern or another. It is pretty much impossible at all times to not be fishing some sort of pattern, but zeroing in on one thing and then attempting to replicate that one specific thing in different areas of a lake over and over again while doing pretty much nothing else is not something I have really never done. This could be a function of fishing mostly relatively small natural lakes in boats with relatively low horsepower. The closest I have come to the type of pattern fishing I am alluding to is rock pile hoping on Mille Lacs lake for smallmouth bass. But the rock pile hoping is more like a random act than it is a deliberate attempt to duplicate something specific. Maybe if I was more intentional about getting intimate with the features of all the various rockpiles it could evolve into a narrowing down to something specific, but I see little point in doing that level of due diligence.
It seems to me that the features of the natural lakes that I fish just don't lend themselves very much to the duplicating a pattern approach to fishing. I suppose the main exceptions to that theory would most likely be bed fishing, docks, inside weedlines, outside weedlines, flats, weed type and slop; These would be the most common features that one could replicate.
If I were to just go out and target bedded bass that would be hitting on a single specific thing, but I can't say I've ever done this or really plan to take this approach. If I come across a bed I will fish it, but to just go bed hunting isn't something I see myself doing.
Fishing every dock you come across isn't really replicating anything beyond the basic fact that you are hitting dock after dock. That approach is just as random as it is deliberate. When fishing docks I don't think it wise to fish only docks with boat lifts or only the docks with this or that. I just hit the docks as they come.
Inside and outside weedlines, and flats combined with a certain weed type or types probably present some of the best opportunities in natural lakes to replicate something specific. Maybe this year I should try it and see if it works out.
