[size=large]I took a friend of mine fishing on Lake Ouachita New Year's Eve. It was his first time on "my" lake and I wanted to make it memorable for him. I became fast friends with "Ranger Ricky" while working for the Corps and I have missed him since retiring 30 Sep08.
We decided to striper fish in view of fact that the winter crappie in my favorite part of the lake are very good at scattering and hiding. So we took off, with four hd rods in the water, using 10" shad--two out the back and one port and starboard on planer boards. We were set.
It was cold at first but we put up the canopy and started up the heater and we were snug. (ole-man fishin') Trollin' at .8 mph (so says the GPS) the action was slow, marking just a few fish. But we had good information and had confidence even though this was a new area to fish for me.
At 0945, pandamonium set in when our lies to one another were rudely interrupted with the tell-tale sound of an overheating clicker drag paying out lots and lots of line! ZZZZZzzzzzzzzZZZZZZZZzzzzzzzzz. The hd reel screamed as Rick hoisted the rod out of the holder and made sure the drag was sufficient to make the fish work work. The fish, naturally headed for deep water, but began circling the boat slowly but surely, beginning from the SE and progressed all the way to due west!
For the first five minutes the ole' boy had his way with Rick as I engaged the trolling motor to follow. But then, the pendelum began to slowly swing in our direction. Eventually, Rick gained back some line and we saw the starboard planer board surface and what followed surprised both of us.
Remember the line in Jaws, "You're gonna need a bigger boat?"--Well, when I laid eyes on that fish I thought, "You're gonna need a bigger net." The only thing was, I didn't have that luxury. The oversized bass net was not gonna get the job done--not even.
Rick finally was able to bring the fish to the boat's starboard side. Being very careful of the sharp gill plates, I had no choice but to double gill him. In a kneeling position at the starboard gate, I placed a hand in each gill plate and pulled him up and rolled him over my left thigh and onto the floor. He was a monster! I had only seen fish that big on the wall or in magazines--never living, breathing in front of me.
This fish almost bottomed out my new fancy digital Berkley scales Linda and Scott got Tom and myself for Christmas--When I lipped him with the scales, it showed an amazing 28 pounds and 2 ounces. His length was 44 inches; the girth was over 24 inches. He had scales bigger than a dime and eyes nearly the size of half dollars. I am not exaggerating, folks.
Now, I know this ain't crappie fishing, but a fisherman's gotta do what a fisherman's gotta do when the specks arent' cooperating donchaknow. It was the only fish we caught that day, but what a fish it was. It is not every day a man catches a fish that will go on the wall, but yesterday was the day.
One of Rick's friends is a striper guide on Ouahita and when he took it by to show him, he took several photos, one of which will appear in Fin and Feather's next publication.
So, we ended the old year in S T Y L E, buddy. Now, I have to get back to me crappie fishing. It's funny, but when we had obligated to striper fish, as we were trolling four rods, I noticed crappie stacked up in the channel on three occasions!!! We went back there after we finally reeled in the big tackle and (of course) they had vanished. They were at 25 feet right at the break.
Naturally I remembered this with a well-placed waypoint and will stealthily return in a day or two with crappie gear at the ready.
Thanks for coming along....and Happy New Year! Maybe I'll get to post this some day. <><
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.i'd forgotten about people putting cedar bushes in the lake to attract crappie.
(It's so good to have you posting again!)