I told some folks on facebook Thursday that if everything went well there’d be photos and a story by Friday afternoon, so here it is. Louie was out of school on Friday and I was off work so I guess you know where this is headed. The “hawg” hunt started at first light Friday. We launched the SS LOUIE at around 6:30 AM. Anticipation was at an all time high!
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Heading out across the lake and looking back east towards the boat ramp at the beautiful sunrise. I don’t know if you can see in the photo or not, the little tiny raindrops hitting the surface of the water. We knew the rain was coming, but were determined to beat it and get some fishing in. We had rain gear and a bilge pump (bailing can) on board just in case.
So far, everything was going as planned, nothing out of the ordinary. As we approached the first spot we wanted to fish, a sizeable patch of cattails extending a ways out into the lake, Louie already had his rod in his hand and the bail flipped on his reel. The Rage Tail Space Monkey was his weapon of choice. We’ve been having real good luck with them lately, so we figured, if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it. As I shut off the trolling motor and the SS LOUIE began to glide towards it’s mark, before it even slowed down good Louie had already tossed his Space Monkey up into a pocket in the cattails. I saw the water rise up as soon as his bait hit the water. I knew it was a nice fish. Suddenly the early morning silence was filled with “I got one” and “it’s huge”. A whole flock of Red-winged Blackbirds took off from within the cattails and it was on. After a fierce battle and some very tense moments of drag screaming and several beautiful signature jumps……the prize…!!!
From there the morning just got better and better. The fish were feeding and it was non-stop action! I even got in on it with my Rage Tail Anaconda worm! We were having an absolute blast!
Louie landed a few more nice ones!
All the while, we were being watched, as this guy was making sure we were releasing his groceries.
Another chunk!
By around 10:30, the sky back to the west was beginning to look a little ominous, so we decided not to press our luck. After all, the SS LOUIE is just a twelve footer, and we had a lot of water to cover. By this time we had caught and released twelve nice fish and lost probably that many more.
We passed these guys on the way back. (Sandhill Cranes) They didn’t seem concerned at all about the deteriorating weather!
As we made our way across the lake and back to the truck, Louie seemed to be in deep thought. I asked him what he was thinking about and he told me he was thinking about when we could come back (imagine that). I told him “the first chance we get, buddy”! This was one of those days we will talk about for the rest of our lives. I can hear it now. “Hey grampa, remember that day I threw that Space Monkey up in those cattails at lake Charlotte, and the water rose up , and I ended up catching that big ol bass”.
Yep…………anything but ordinary.
What a ham!!! See you next time!