It was bound to happen....

[Allen Morgan]

Headed out to Bixhoma again today in my kayak. 

 

The plan was a little different from what I normally do.  Instead of jump-fishing, I was going to take out an ultra-light and one of my Catfish rigs.  I had the UL rod rigged for catching some sunfish.  The Catfish pole was rigged for hanging a small sunnie under a balloon.  The plan was to allow the sunfish to struggle against the balloon, unable to get to cover.  LMBs are schooling in open water, and I was going to set up a drift, letting the balloon act as a sail, and see if any magnum LMBs wanted a sunfish lunch.  And you never know, a Flathead might want a snack, which was why I had the Catfish pole out.

 

I finally found a shallow weedy spot that had some sunfish hanging around.  I was able to catch a little Longear sunnie, and a small Bluegill, both of which went into my trolling minnow bucket.

 

Then it happened.  I finally managed to drop a rod overboard.  I heard a splash as I was repositioning myself in the wind, looked back, and just caught the top of my float submerging beneath the waves.  CRAP!  It wasn’t tethered.

 

I beached my yak (I was at the launch on the south side), got the Catfish pole out, then popped and removed the balloon.  I started tossing the rig out, hoping to snag my pole, which was only in about 6 F.O.W.  I did manage to bring in some fishing line, but not my pole.

 

I didn’t have any treble hooks with me at that time.  Heck, I had forgotten to pack my tackleboxes to replace anything, should it break off.

 

I decided to cut my losses, paddle back to my van, and swap out gear/tackle and go jump-fishing.  I started out trolling a X-Rap along the west bank, headed south.  I could see some small schools of fish busting bait, and wanted to position myself in place to intercept them as they surfaced.  I also wanted to do a little graphing in the creek arm, to see if there was anything interesting over there.

 

I missed a couple strikes on the X-Rap, but managed to catch one fish:

 

[IMG]http://imageshack.us/a/img832/571/tzjf.jpg[/IMG]

 

I never actually got close enough to any surfacing fish to catch them, although I did cast to a couple schools.

 

After a little while of slowly chasing schools of fish, I decided enough was enough, and paddled back to the ramp.  I swapped out my trolling rod for another Catfish rod, but rigged this one with a 2oz bank sinker, and a size 2 treble a few inches above the weight.  I paddled back over to the other “ramp”, beached, and started trying to snag my lost rod.  After about 10 minutes, I was able to recover it, thankfully!

 

I headed back to my vehicle, to swap out the gear for something else.  On the way there, the other two bass boats both loaded up, calling it a day.  I was able to talk to one of them; all he caught was the skunk, and was headed home before the heat hit.  I looked at my watch, and decided to call it a day as well.

[David, aka, "McScruff"]

Well at least you got out! LOL

Nice that you retrieved the rod. Ill bet THAT made your day.

[Allen Morgan]

It sure did!  I have about $40 invested in it.