joshimoto nights (a story of a true fish tale)

[joshimoto son]

I couldn?t take it any longer, I had to go fishing last night, and while I was on my way home I got a call from Bshaner. After telling him what my plan was, he made sure to tell me to have a couple of rods rigged up for him and that he would be there in about an hour.
Now if you understand the sincere, honest and true friendship that Brian and I share, you would know that my response to him started with a ?yeah right? followed by a string of expletives and ended up in a ?don?t be late!? He understood completely and thanked me for being such a good friend.

I made it home, yanked my boat out and ran to the lake. I called Brian to see just how far away he was from the lake. He told me about a half an hour? which gave me plenty of time to think of another prank to pull on him.

You see, the last time we fished together, it was the same situation; I told him I was going fishing and he said he was on his way home from work and he?ll meet me at the launch. He just needed to borrow a couple of rods and some baits. So I found an old beat up Bass Pro rod and Flueger bait caster that I retired from my arsenal years ago. There wasn?t anything wrong with the rod as long as you?re not allergic to the black mold that had covered the cork handle and the reel worked? most of the time. Sometimes after you make a cast with it, the spool will not engage, so you have to trip the flipping switch and put it back. And occasionally, when you set the hook, the instant anti reverse will not catch and it will free spool on you. I wished you could have heard him complaining, and all the while I had all brand new Quantum PT rods and Quantum Tour reels lying on the front deck.

Okay, back at the launch. As my motor was warming up, Brian called me again to tell me to put a jig on because, ?that?s what they?ll be biting on.? I gave it a quick thought and remembered one of Poorboy?s posts from last year around this time and how he was catching some nice fish at Kent Lake on jigs. That sold me. I tied on a watermelon/red flake ? oz jig with a craw trailer of similar color and headed out.

A little bit about the lake. It?s about a 100 acre man made lake that has quite a bit of deep water mixed with a bunch of underwater humps. A crane was used to dig out the lake and the humps are the piles of dirt and clay that the feet of the crane were resting on as it dug around itself. Most typically, they?re in 17-20 FOW and the humps would come up to 5-8 feet. Nice stuff!

There was a dozen or so of these humps not too far from the launch, and I headed out until my good buddy could get there. The conditions were overcast skies, 44 degrees, water temp 47.8 on the Garmin, wind was NW at 12mph. The water clarity was 10-12 feet.

Neglecting to turn my front GPS on, I figured that I could just find these humps with ease, the lake is small enough so the 12 mile an hour winds weren?t much of a factor and there was just a slight ripple on the water.
I was wrong! I kept running over top of these things and almost ensured myself of spooking any fish away that might be on these things.

Twenty minutes of this and I did not have a bite. I went through the area of humps going with the wind and decided to turn around and head back against the wind hoping I could sneak up on em a little better. The best I could do was to ?almost? run right over the first hump I encountered, but I quickly backed the boat off the spot and threw my jig out over it.
While I was waiting for my jig to find its way to the bottom, I was messing around with my trolling motor making sure I was stopped and in a good position to fish the hump. Still messing around I felt like I was snagged on something as I was sure I was dragging that jig up the back side. I reeled down and started to pay attention to the task at hand and my jig was swimming off of the hump. I set the hook and noticed that I was pulling drag out, thinking I didn?t have the drag set right, I gave it two more hook sets, each with the same result. I always have my drag tight!

I then started to bring the fish up to get a look at it, my first thought was, ?There?s no pike in this lake,? then I got a glance at that tell tale black line running down it?s side as it was violently trying to sake the jig from it?s mouth. After seeing the size of the fish, I now know why I was peeing out drag on the hook set. Have you ever set the hook on something that doesn?t want to move?
Now? I?m not the smartest guy in the world, and I think I will prove it again here, but without thinking, I reeled down and proceeded to try and boat flip this fish, I got it out of the water and managed to get it as far as the side of my boat where it bounced off, and once it came back to the side, I continued to drag it over the top of my rail.

I looked down at it laying there thinking ?Oh my god I just boat flipped a six pounder!?
I must have looked like a little kid with a bluegill dangling off a snoopy pole. Never the less, it was in the boat and in the livewell. I have no camera, and the only one who can attest to the size of it is BSHANER. I got to have more proof! So I called my girlfriend up and made her drive 20 minutes to the lake with her camera.

While waiting for her to get there, Shaner finally pulls up to the launch and starts talking about how I better give him some better equipment this time. This guy just won?t quit! I told him that we had just a little time to fish before my girlfriend got there and we would have to go back to the launch because her five year old daughter wanted to see me. I told him that because I knew he wouldn?t give me any crap about that.

So Brian jumps in the boat not knowing what?s in the livewell and asks me if I caught anything, I said ?one little one.? He was relieved that he hasn?t missed anything. Now we?re headed out to an area that he wanted to fish and started rummaging through my jigs pondering colors. He asked what I thought he should throw and I showed him the jig I caught my one fish on. ?Well if you?re using that color, I?ll try a different one.? He said.

Brian gets all tied up and I turn the big motor off and start trolling up to an under water bluff on the edge of the lake, the bottom is all sand and gravel that comes out from the shore line to about 3-4 feet then drops straight down to 20-23 feet.
Shaner is sooo excited! He starts speculating on the fish we?re going to catch and hopes that this time he gets to catch a big one. (Last time I caught one there that was pushing five pounds on a crank bait) He caught little ones.

I told Brian that I REALLY felt like I was going to catch a hog. He didn?t deny me of my comment, but he did hope it was him this time.

My intentions were for Brian to hear that big greenie swimming around in the livewell and have him open it up, then proceed to cuss me out. Things worked out even better than that.

Now the rest of the story.

In the first dozen casts, Brian hooks up with a nice little keeper, 14-15 inches or so. ?Yeah!!! Right at the boat dude! I was swimming it.? Brian is very excited because now in his mind, he?s got me down 1/zip and we?re just getting started. He likes it when he feels like he back boating me.

We?ve been in the boat for 20 minutes or more and he has yet to hear that thing swimming around, I mean he?s literally standing on top of it wearing combat boots!

Just then I look up and see my girlfriend parked at the ramp and I tell Brian that we gotta go. You?re crazy dude! Tell me again WHY we?re leaving.? Brian just tagged his first fish and now I?m making him leave! I love it!

I motor over to the launch and beach the boat as my girlfriend and her daughter get out of the car with big smiles.

Shaner walks to the front of the boat to say hi and I go to the back an start to lift the lid of my livewell. The next thing I hear is Shaner screaming at me, ?DUDE!!! You better not pull no hog out of there!!!?

I reach in and grab hold to that fish.

Do you remember a long time ago when Fish Fishburn actually competed in tournaments and there was that one clip of him pulling that gigantic bass shaped pillow out of his live well? Yeah!!!! This was almost the same thing. Except Shaner is still screaming at me!!!

?One little one my @$$!!!? You?re just gonna dog me like that?? He went on and on.

The fish shrunk a little bit, now that the excitement of catching it was over, it was no six pounder, but it was a good one. My girlfriends daughter thought that it was pretty cool, but she still didn?t want to touch it, and I headed toward the front of the boat to get some picks.

The greatest thing about the pictures is not me? or even the bass? it?s Shaner in the background.
I got two pictures. Both of them look like Brian is just standing behind me, watching, as my girlfriend took the pictures. What the pictures don?t show is that Brian was really pacing the full length of my boat still giving me the business, and cussing up a storm.

The fish pulled the scales down until it read 5lbs 3oz. on the Normark. I quickly let the fish go, watched it swim off and then head back out.

We fished till dark? and each of us caught a few peanuts and that was it.

Yes buddy? I know? paybacks are hell, but what a great time. I?ll never forget it.

I?m still waiting for my girlfriend to download the pics, then I?ll post em.


joshimoto son

[Cheetam]

Good story Josh...I love the visual you painted of Shaner...lol...

[McCarter]

?Yeah!!! Right at the boat dude! I was swimming it.?

The best quote of 2006!!!

I can almost see his face as he is saying this.

              

PB himself

[Duke]

You should get some of this stuff on camera; you could probably sell it to some of the guys on the board.

[bshaner]

That is one evening I wish I had on video tape.  That was classic.  I am almost positive we could have sold that to someone.  Looking back on it, I'm sure it was funny as heck.  In fact, if you insert big names into the video and do a boat wrap overlay it could have been a re-run of Ultimate Match Fishing.

That's how it is when Josh and I go out.  Josh always offers to let me work the front deck with him and I politely tell him to go to heck.  This time I was up there matching his casts and splashing that big jig down right beside his finesse presentations.  It did me no good.

I hope noone ever figures out which little lake we go to.  That is one sweet honey hole and I'm due on it!! 

He wasnt kidding about pacing...  it just so happened that each time the camera snapped I was facing him. 

I knew the second he reached for the livewell handle what was about to happen.  It's like a train wreck...  you can see it happening and everything goes slow motion but no matter how hard you try you cant stop the inevitable conclusion.

That was a beautiful fish Joshimoto.  We gotta figure out how to pull out more than one per trip!

B

P.S. I have all winter to think of something to serve you.