Rule #29:  You don't get to choose your own nickname.



FISH AND ANTS AND CATS, OH MY!

Girl 2 and I went fishing at the old Fisher Pond Saturday.  It was an odd day, a day brought to you by the makers of Slim Jim, makers of fine grease- and spice-laden meat products.

We got there about noon and fished for a couple of hours.  We looked all over for a styrofoam cooler to put ice in, because Carly wants badly to eat some of the fish we catch.  After 45 minutes, it became obvious that we weren't going to exactly slay them, so it wasn't an issue after all.  I've decided, though to start keeping all fish I catch in that pond, and maybe the Keep-Out Lake, cleaning them, and freezing them until we gather enough for a meal.




Anyway, the CONDITIONS:

Temperature:  We'd had a few hot days, higher humidity, and Saturday was a break from the heat. The high was probably 70 degrees, but while we were fishing, it was mid-60's.  I didn't take temperature readings of the water, but the bluegills and bass were largely in post-spawn pattern, so it's not as warm as it will be in the summer, but still, pretty warm.

Water Clarity:  The current owners of the pond dyed the water sometime in the last two months--as they do every spring.  The water, therefore, was that artificial-looking blue-green color.  Most of the water drops off steeply, so you can see maybe 3' of bottom, on average.

Vegetation:  Between the dye and the MANY grass carp, there is no vegetation to speak of--on top or on bottom.  The first lure I used was a Bitsy Jig with a salt-infused Tiny Paca Craw plastic grub.

Dragging and twitching it across the bottom, I snagged two small sticks, but never had to clean vegetation from my lure.

Cloud Cover:  It "felt" fishy--cool, with some humidity, and constant cloud cover, a grayish sky all day.

Wind:  Wind speed, 10 MPH, (ENE); max wind speed, 16 MPH; max gust speed, 20MPH.  Casting wasn't difficult, but then I wasn't using anything too light.  The only problem posed by the wind was that it was hard to "line watch" for strikes.  This is the first time I've tried to teach Girl 2 how to fish a plastic worm--by the end, we were both using a salt-infused, light brown, two-toned YUM 4" worm, wacky-rigged.  When the wind picks up and creates turbulence on the surface, it's more difficult to detect strikes, especially light ones.

[The worm I was fishing looked a lot like the brown and yellow one second from the bottom, "salt-infused and covered with it too.]

Pressure:  The whole time we fished, we were under a rapidly falling barometer.  On Saturday, the pressure fell from 30.2 to 29.6.


LURES/METHODS:

We forgot to get worms, so Carly started bobber/bait fishing with a hunk of Slim Jim she bought at the gas station!  It didn't work, but she stuck with it a while.  Sometimes that's a good thing, sometimes not.  I think there's a lot to be said for getting some bites immediately, it boosts the confidence--especially of a young person.  Next, I let her use my outfit with the Bitsy Jig and Tiny Paca.  Again, this dragging and twitching method is new to her.  Then, she tried a 1/4 oz. white Mister Twister jig and she got a couple of nibbles there.

Finally, she switched to the YUM rig I mentioned above, and I told her this time, to simply reel it in slowly and steadily.  This got her away from trying to keep the slack out of her line and at the same time, hopefully, kept the lure down low.
And, she finally hooked one well.

             [That's her fish below the catfish.  I had a good hold on my fish, so,              though it would've made a better picture if my big ugly hand
             weren't in it, I wasn't about to risk getting "barbed" by getting                        another hold on it!]













I only used three different lures:

• the Bitsy-Jig/Tiny Paca package
• a Kelly's fire-tail.
• and the YUM worm set-up

I caught one bass on the jig and grub, about a 1.5 --2.5 pound largemouth--nothing on the Kelly's, but I had some good bites.  Then on the YUM wacky-worm, I caught three very small bass, maybe .5--1 pounds.

Then, as Carly was reeling in her fish, I cast the wacky-worm and the instant it hit the water, the lure was snatched up and driven to the bottom of the pond.  I couldn't believe the fight!   Carly got her fish in, and then I handed the pole to her to fight mine in the rest of the way.  I was using the Pfleuger/Micro-Lite combination, and it worked great.  Carly and I both pointed the pole straight up to let the rod do the work, but still, the fish was stripping line off the Pflueger, the drag operating extremely smoothly!

We finally got it close enough to the bank to see that it was a large Channel Catfish: 16" long and somewhere between 2.5--3.5 pounds.  A beautiful fish.

EPILOGUE:  As I was re-rigging our poles over on the pier, I heard Carly yell ad saw her running towards me.  Somehow, during our battle with the two fish, we had stirred up some seriously pissed-off biting ants.   Shedding her shoes as she ran, Carly got to me and I used our bottled water to rinse them off of her legs.  Frantic patting ensued. Finally, we got them controlled and we decided that that moment would be a good time to end our day.

Lots of emotional content--Channel Cat and biting ants!  Top that!