Buddy and I snuck out to see if Walleye bite had started yet. 44 degrees and calm when we hit the water. Went to our favorite early fall spot and picked up 2 shorts in about 10 minutes. We were marking fish in 28 - 30 FOW so know the fish are starting to move to their winter grounds. A few more hits and wind picked up. Supposedly we were having 20MPH gusts. If those are gusts, someone is nuts. First blow lasted about 25 minutes.
Enough was enough and decided to head to some coves that are not usually affected by wind to try out some jihs and see if we could at least have crappie for supper. An hour later we had 30 in the livewell all over 10" largest was 13" which for that lake is a great catch.
We decided to call it quits before we killed a couple other boaters. When we arrived, you could not see a boat anywhere on the main lake and one was waaay back in the cove where we were fishing. This cove is ~350 at opening and widens a bit farther back and is almost a half mile long. As soon as we started catching fish, the boat in the back end of the cove started heading our way. He stopped about 25 feet away and had a cell phone glued to his ear and jabbering away a mile a minute and within maybe 20 minutes, three more boats arrived and all sent greetings to the first interloper. A couple of the guys gave us a nod and we just gave some dirty looks.
We were still pulling in fish so who cares we were planning a short trip. Finally one of the other boat pulls up beside us and I mean beside. He actually pulled under my 14' jigging rod and asks how we are doing. I was %^^^$&%$&&* and about ready to jump into his boat toss him overboard and ram some trees for stress relief. My buddy being a bit calmer put a fish in the livewell and said aint catching anything worth keeping but your boat is too close to mine and I'd hate to see your pretty paint job get scratched to He&& before you get there.
He did back off a bit and started chattering about bait we were using etc etc, My buddy knew I was about to really go off and suggested we call it a day. I agreed and we started heading back about the same time another blow started. The rough trip got me settled down.
We were at the fish cleaning station and a guy pulls up and proceeds to tell us theres some guys over at blah blah blah just killing crappie and really big ones. I finally let loose and told him to go tell his buddies that next time someone pulls under my rod there boat is gonna have holes in it that cannot be repaired. and BTW good luck getting that tinker toy boat of yours across the lake.
He cursed me and took off. I then proceeded to stick a filet knife in my finger cleaning the last fish.
Fillets are all soaking and batter is ready, think its time for a beer and a fish fry. Ladies are all shopping and have promised to be home by a specific time. Which is about 6 beers from now.
Water was very clear, ~7' visibility and 68 degrees. Oh yeah, todays color was anything but it had to have a generous amount of white but all white did not work, no solid color worked, I was using the black and white jigs like I tied for swap #25 and a watermelon and white, my buddy was using a blue and white, then a yellow and white and finally a purple and white. We both tried a wide variety and it soon became apparent that it hadda have some white. Not sure what this means, but it was interesting. Usually, pinks and charteuses do best in that cove, but today, never got a look.
Peoples lack of water manners gonna give me a heart attack one o these days.
Thanks, venting is good for the soul....
Enough was enough and decided to head to some coves that are not usually affected by wind to try out some jihs and see if we could at least have crappie for supper. An hour later we had 30 in the livewell all over 10" largest was 13" which for that lake is a great catch.
We decided to call it quits before we killed a couple other boaters. When we arrived, you could not see a boat anywhere on the main lake and one was waaay back in the cove where we were fishing. This cove is ~350 at opening and widens a bit farther back and is almost a half mile long. As soon as we started catching fish, the boat in the back end of the cove started heading our way. He stopped about 25 feet away and had a cell phone glued to his ear and jabbering away a mile a minute and within maybe 20 minutes, three more boats arrived and all sent greetings to the first interloper. A couple of the guys gave us a nod and we just gave some dirty looks.
We were still pulling in fish so who cares we were planning a short trip. Finally one of the other boat pulls up beside us and I mean beside. He actually pulled under my 14' jigging rod and asks how we are doing. I was %^^^$&%$&&* and about ready to jump into his boat toss him overboard and ram some trees for stress relief. My buddy being a bit calmer put a fish in the livewell and said aint catching anything worth keeping but your boat is too close to mine and I'd hate to see your pretty paint job get scratched to He&& before you get there.
He did back off a bit and started chattering about bait we were using etc etc, My buddy knew I was about to really go off and suggested we call it a day. I agreed and we started heading back about the same time another blow started. The rough trip got me settled down.
We were at the fish cleaning station and a guy pulls up and proceeds to tell us theres some guys over at blah blah blah just killing crappie and really big ones. I finally let loose and told him to go tell his buddies that next time someone pulls under my rod there boat is gonna have holes in it that cannot be repaired. and BTW good luck getting that tinker toy boat of yours across the lake.
He cursed me and took off. I then proceeded to stick a filet knife in my finger cleaning the last fish.
Fillets are all soaking and batter is ready, think its time for a beer and a fish fry. Ladies are all shopping and have promised to be home by a specific time. Which is about 6 beers from now.
Water was very clear, ~7' visibility and 68 degrees. Oh yeah, todays color was anything but it had to have a generous amount of white but all white did not work, no solid color worked, I was using the black and white jigs like I tied for swap #25 and a watermelon and white, my buddy was using a blue and white, then a yellow and white and finally a purple and white. We both tried a wide variety and it soon became apparent that it hadda have some white. Not sure what this means, but it was interesting. Usually, pinks and charteuses do best in that cove, but today, never got a look.
Peoples lack of water manners gonna give me a heart attack one o these days.
Thanks, venting is good for the soul....