My name is Dan, and I'm all wet

[djkimmel]

Well, thank you once again for the fine weather forecasting Mr. and Mrs. Weather people. I decided to go fishing this morning because the weather people called for a lovely, though very hot day. Somewhere along the way this morning someone looked out the window and whoopsie... appended "and a Thunderstorm" to the Sunny to partly cloudy forecast that originally greeted me for this day.

But let's rewind and start back near the beginning. I didn't expect much of a breeze today according to forecasts (that stiffer breeze than expected should have been my first clue...) so I decided I would go fishing nearby (to Round Lake again of course where I can get a cheap rowboat) but just for the morning. I didn't want my new haircut to end up giving me a bright burnt read neck stripe. And I can only carry so much water...

I headed out thinking topwater again maybe. Had 2 rigged up plus a Super Fluke for follow ups. On my first cast with a popper to some nervous minnows I got a plop bite and reeled in what felt like a large, wet potato chip!


I do know that some anglers think getting a bite on your first cast
is bad luck (clue number 2??) but does it count if it's a crappie?!?

Then it got weird. It was breezier than I expected which worried me a little for the good topwater bite. The breeze felt great but the ruffles were making it harder to spot the most nervous minners unless someone actually ripped on them!

I was not seeing as much action as the past couple trips. But there was some stuff going on. Oh yes...

Only a few casts later I had a small bass flat out miss my popper from behind. Not even really close. I had thrown right to a school of very nervous minnows. It became apparent, as you would suspect from my first cast, that many of the nervous minnows were actually feeding schools of crappie but the bass eat the same thing, right!?!

Then I had an almost keeper-sized bass jump over my popper again missing from behind... hmmmm... I was not getting the strikes as telegraphed as before. I tried Walking the Dog thinking I needed to make more racket and give them a tougher decision to make. Nothing. Nada. Zip. Zilch.

I tried different topwaters. I sometimes threw right in where an obvious bass had just busted some minnows. Not getting it done.

I pulled out a Texas-rigged Smallie Beaver - I think it looks like a small, wounded crappie myself... The next time I saw some minnows get busted I tossed right into the middle of them. I was actually in very shallow water so the lure got to the bottom quite fast. Tunk! I set the hook! Guppie...


It's a type of largemouth bass some of us 'experts' are good at catching!
Guppie Bass!

15 or 20 minutes later I repeated this same tactic and caught another 'whopper.' At least this one was 12 inches or so, and had some spirit to it. But not what I'm looking for.

I moved out deeper and just ignored the occasional taunting bass blasting the small fishies shallower because that's how I felt it was goin' anyway - taunting. I tried deep cranks. I tried to get near the drop and ran a 2.5 that looks a lot like a bluegill over the weed tops. Bam! Missed him. Could have been a whopper. Could've been a dinker. But it didn't work again so I'll never know.

So I went old school on them and broke back Texas-rigged Power Worm out on 'em! I went older school all the way making it an Electric Blue. That's right... electric blue.

The very next school of real nervous minnows that appeared had a bass blast through them. I zinged the old Texas-rigged electric blue Power worm into the middle of it and about the time it should have hit bottom (mid-depths) it took off like a bullet sinker! Set the hook and finally, a decent chunker that at least I wouldn't have to measure if it mattered!



A quick picture for the memory banks and I rip the old electric blue Power worm back out to about the same spot (near a weed hump). Same result. The worm is dropping, dropping (3/8 oz Tungsten) and tunk, off it goes at high speed. Set the Bassmaster hookset and this one takes me into the salad!



Before anyone thinks I'm a wimp, I was using light braid and a spinning rod to just pitch and cast the worm around weed edges. I got the bass in with a little salad. Somehow while taking a quick picture, drifting and spinning with even a wind direction shift (another clue??) I lost the @#$%@#%$ school of bass and there were no minnows being obviously nervous to help find it again. I tried. I really did.

That was the end of my fishing day... well, not the final end. The final end was looking up over the trees when the breeze actually died, and the heat index had just started getting to where I thought it was going to get earlier and I notice, 'those clouds look thick and gray. It if wasn't for the nice forecast I would almost think that is the leading edge of a storm... but it can't be...?!?'

It quickly gets darker that way and it's definitely coming our way right at Round Lake like a bullseye! I pull out the old smart phone and look at the weather... same exact forecast except... you got it - on the end now it says "and a Thunderstorm." What the...?!?

I was hard on the little portable trolling motor due to the strong breeze. Luckily the breeze isn't much now (yet). So I start heading towards the boat ramp at a slow meander after about 1 and a half minutes of thinking 'do I really have to go in already? Is this really going to happen?' Yeah, it's happening.

Before I get into the little pocket wind sheers start slamming me 10 or 15 feet sideways with each jab of a new, much stronger 'breeze' that is being sucked into the quickly approaching doom and gloom! I see the owner of the store heading out in his pontoon to the rescue (but now I'm rowing too - I want to live!). I can hear the rain hitting the trees now. Here comes everyone else heading in... (at least I started in first so I must not be the dumbest guy out there anyway.)

I make it to shore and have time to run for my rain coat. My pants are soaked though. That's why I'm all wet... that, and for not checking the forecast again earlier or recognizing a storm front at the first sign of an obvious one. It's not like I don't already know the weather people lie all the time... Luckily, I only see one flash of lighting. It misses. Yes...

I pack up my stuff and flop my wet self into the car. I'm heading down Round Lake Road and here comes a truck flashing it's headlights at me. ...what, there's a deer out in this weather?? Nope. I round a curve and there's a small tree just big enough to go from one ditch to the ditch on the other side of the road. Road closed...

@$#%@$! I mean, darn...

I turn around - because I have no chainsaw - and go back to the store to try to stop the boat trailers who also came in from going that way. Because there's not much room to turn around on Round Lake Road. I miss one trailer but I tell the store people to let the rest of them know to go the other way. The looooooonnnngg way East back to Upton Road, down by Derek's house and then back up Saginaw Highway. It was a wet drive home with one spectacular slash of lightning but I caught a few and my top half is still dry.

Another good day of fishing.

[stackenem]

So reading this twice to make sure I read it right, you got to shore ran for your rain coat, top was dry but your pants were wet. Must having been pretty scary out there. LOL

[djkimmel]

It was scary. Wets pants contest. Everyone else was running around just plain getting soaked or ran to their vehicles and sat out the storm. I probably looked like some psycho-movie stalker killer going back and force in the slashing rain getting all my stuff out of the boat and to the car... I had an audience. I wondered what they all thought...?? 'psycho-movie-stalker-killer' is my guess. All I needed was some type of sharp farm implement to complete the picture!

[djkimmel]

Next time I'm just putting on the rain pants too!