I wish I could say I am satisfied that I finished in the top ten of our clubs season opener, finally ending a skunkfest that had me considering the end of my kayak tournament career. But when you only catch a single measurable fish (or when I do anyway), it feels a bit disappointing.
Now, I am grateful for the fish, don’t get me wrong; and it seems the Skunk Off worked (not discussing the voodoo chants, burnt candles and spells cast to accompany that)…and I talked with a fellow angler fishing the same area who said we could claim high water, cold front conditions (he caught nothing all day); and that would be true since only one of the 28 people caught a limit…but I have taken pride in finding fish over the last two years – no matter how small.
One bite. All I had today was a single bite. I did lay into a log hawg when a piece of line on it pulled back, but one real bite…one fish.
It came on a Rapala Floating Minnow as I softly twitched it, let it float to the top and repeated a few times. And to be blatantly honest – I was looking around for my next cast, about to pull the lure out of the water when it slammed the bait and took it straight under the Hobie. I thought I was going to lose it because my drag was set too tight and my rod was wrapped completely around the hull!
It finally surfaced and I, in a frantic effort to end the streak, slammed my net down on its head; half trying to net it, half trying to club it so it didn’t get away.
Tournament number one with CAKFG in the books – 9 out of 28, (.32) top third of the pack.
Decent start for AOY points…but…anyway.
I picked up some Tourney Tags as a door prize, can always use them. Picked up Danny the Duck from my good friend Ben Lowry; a prize for finally ending the streak. And got harassed by the entire group….clear up some things: Sycamore sucks, I am never putting anything with Alabama on my kayak, Brush Creek sucks more than Sycamore, there are no smallmouth in Yellow Creek…let’s see…oh yeah, I can catch fish dang it!
I did learn something today though, and I always say “if I learned something new it has been a good day”.
What did I learn:
- Two of my four bait casters no longer have any drag to set, one to the point that I cannot even reel in line without a fish on it. Parts ordered.
- The third of my four had a backlash so bad that I could only cast 5 feet. Need to fix that.
- One of the four spinning reels I carry is eating up my line. The line roller has a groove in it. Need to get that ordered today.
- You need more than 10lb test when throwing an A-rig that is bigger than the light hanging over the kitchen table.
- If you get a backlash while the lure (A-rig) is about 40 ft from the boat, the line will snap and you can watch the lure fly a good (may be an exaggeration but my story) 100 yards when nothing holds it back.
- You can pedal up stream against the wind for over two miles – then pedal downstream against that same wind for the same distance; should have been easier going back.
- Number 6 makes your legs shake a bit.
- Mama Mia’s has an excellent Italian Sub. My cardiologist would definitely not approve!
- Dover has a lot more cop cars than I ever imagined.
- The lights I installed under the top rack of my so I can prep before launching are freaking awesome at 5:30 in the morning.
Shoreline White LED connected to a Duracell AGM battery.
Well, now I need to prep for the KBF National Championship since it seems my reels are not ready and it is under two weeks away! Looking forward to seeing you all there!
Topwater Moon 