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It was a comedy of errors the whole time....
While driving up there it was sprinkling. Tommy told me that the cold front would have the fish lock jawed. (He was right.) We got there and unloaded our stuff and started getting ready to go out. It was still just sprinkling.
I got a demerit for not correctly backing him up on the trailer. I was about 2 inches off to the side and he lectured me on knowing how to do it and not doing it correctly. I got it the second time. We got to the boat ramp - the world's steepest boat ramp - and put in. We had our poles and tackle boxes. (I bought myself a pink and purple one and filled it with lures. Yes, I bought some of them just because they were pretty. But they were all Tommy approved for bass fishing.)
We had no bait for the jug lines so the first order of business was to cast for Shad in the creek. Tommy had the casting net and had to stop the boat to do it. He was frustrated that I don't know how to drive that particular boat. I was good with the big boat but have never driven a John Boat with a little hand steered outboard. When he was casting he came up empty several times and was getting soaking wet... and ticked off. It was cold out too, did I mention that? My punishment for not knowing how to drive the boat was I had to paddle us up the creek with an oar. Yes, I paddled. Did I mention that creek is long?
We finally found some Shad on our second pass thru the creek. We had enough to set out the jug lines. The bottom fell out of the sky. We were both getting drenched. We were about to put the jugs out because we were already soaked when we saw lightning. We decided to go in. We left the boat tied out at the ramp and headed back to the Camp.
We thawed out for about an hour and a half until the rain let up. It had poured with a lot of thunder and lightning. I think there might have even been some hail mixed in. Back out to the boat we went. It was about 1/4 full of water and Tom started freaking out. He thought his boat had a leak but I was pretty sure we had just gotten that much rain. He bailed it out with a 5 gallon bucket for about 30 minutes. (I had put our clothes in the dryer so we were nice and warm as we started out. Now he was drenched again.)
We put the jugs out and that part of the trip was uneventful. It was getting close to supper time so we decided to go into town to get something to eat. We left the boat again at the dock and got cleaned up for supper. Before we left for dinner Tommy wanted to check the boat again. We pulled up to the dock and he got out to look. Dry as a bone this time. But... when we went to pull out we got the Tahoe stuck in the mud. Both of us were out putting sticks and rocks and boards under the tires to no avail. Tommy finally decided to walk up to our drunkest ever neighbor's house to ask for a pull. Tommy got back and we tried some more while the neighbor took his time. We ended up getting it out with Tommy pushing and me driving.
Anyone who has ever gotten a truck stuck knows this is very messy work. We were both covered in mud. We cleaned up with baby wipes I had in the car and went to the local Mexican restaurant. (This is a tiny town so we didn't care that we were muddy.) After deciding to leave the lines out overnight and we headed in because out luck was not so great.
The next morning I was up at the crack of dawn like normal, but decided to let Tom sleep. I finally got him up at 7:30 and we put on our fishing clothes and took off in the cold gray morning. First order of business was to check the jugs. I was the scooper and he was the driver. We ended up catching 6, but one got a way and one was too small. I now have a story about the huge fish that got away...
We really couldn't tell if the jugs had fish on them because the wind was moving them around. I would pull them up and really almost couldn't tell there was a fish on it until I got it closer to the surface when it would start fighting. They were decent sized catfish. I went to pull up one jug and thought maybe it was hung on something it was so heavy. Turned out it was a huge fish. I pulled and it straightened the hook and got away he was so heavy. We never saw him but I sure felt him. It think it was a huge fish.
We bass fished for a couple of hours moving from place to place because we never even got a hit. Of course, I used my pink pole that Tommy had bought me last year and I never got to use it. I hadn't cast an open faced reel in a long time. So, I was a little rusty and spent some time fixing a lot of backlash but with a little instruction from Captain Tom, I was back in the game. I was casting so good the Outdoor Network may be calling me to do my own show.
After giving up on the bass, we got back to camp and tag teamed the clean up. We cleaned the boat together then I worked on the inside of the house while Tommy cleaned fish. We got it all done and headed out. (The clean up is the worst part of the trip.)
We might not have caught many fish, but I have some great stories. As usual though I was laughing at the most inappropriate times during our trip. Tommy gets so up-tight at times and I laugh through it. Not a good combination. But when it was all said and done, we were both laughing about it and it turned out to be a great little get away.
And yes, those are labels under the lures. I was OCD enough to want to remember their depth so I labeled them. Tommy is still laughing about that. As you can see though, I filled it with some necessary items. I don't have all my lures in yet, will have more later when I get my label maker out! :)
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