Solo trip
Posted: February 4th, 2013, 5:20 pm
One of my highlights ever Monday is to look at the forum and see what everyone got into over the weekend. I know, it’s pretty sad but when you do what I do for a living it doesn’t take much. Maybe everyone is just moving a little slower after last night’s super bowl. I know I am. Anyways since no one else posted a report you get to read mine.
Last Friday I started contemplating what to do during the weekend. My originally thought was to go out Sun but the weatherman decided to change the forecast on us. Sat was now looking like the better day to fish. My normal fishing buddy already had plans to head over to Lanak so he was out. He did offer the extra seat on his boat and even tried sweetening the deal by saying it was a walk on walk off trip. As nice as that sounded I just wasn’t feeling it. It’s been a while since I’ve taken my solo canoe down to the coast and since it was still dirty from duck season, why not. As normal I didn’t sleep too well that night and ended up getting out of bed around 5am. In an attempt to waste time until the sun and temp rose a little the dishwasher got emptied, the dog got walked and even had time to straighten up the house a little before departing at 7am. By the time I got to the refuge the temperature was a little colder than expected, 38 degrees at 8am. Well, nothing gets the blood moving like a good paddle. I ended up heading over to a creek that’s produced in the past. I wasn’t exactly sure what the fish would be doing with the cold snap so my thought for the day was to be thorough and take my time. For the first couple hours it was pretty dead. Around 10:30 I got a glimmer of hope when a nice 20’ trout decided to bit my lure. Not too long after that two 23’ reds deiced to get in on the action. The bite wasn’t aggressive at all. My bait of choice was a 4’ Gulp flat worm with a 1/8oz head. The key seam to move it very slow across the bottom almost like one would do when fishing for flounder. After 15 min passed without any more bites it was time to move. The next location produced 5 more reds ranging in size from 20’ to 26.999’. After releasing the first fish at that hole I remembered my neighbor saying the other day how long it’s been since she’s gotten any fish from me. That in turn got me thinking about another conversation I had with my other neighbor the day prior. He had mentioned it was about time to pick the greens and cabbage he’s been growing all winter. So in an effort to keep up the good relations with my neighbors the next 2 reds ended up in the cooler. After landing the 5th red in that hole and the 7th of the day I notice 2 guys in a Jon boat getting pretty close to me. Within 60 yards. They said they hadn’t caught anything all morning so instead of being an a$$ I pulled anchor and paddled back to the first hole I caught fish in. It was on my way back anyways and figured there might be one or two left in there that got missed the first time. Sure enough a 19’ trout decided take what was offered. After releasing the trout the wind started picking up. It was 12:30 and time to start paddling back. Got back to Tally around 2:30, just in time for an afternoon nap.
Last Friday I started contemplating what to do during the weekend. My originally thought was to go out Sun but the weatherman decided to change the forecast on us. Sat was now looking like the better day to fish. My normal fishing buddy already had plans to head over to Lanak so he was out. He did offer the extra seat on his boat and even tried sweetening the deal by saying it was a walk on walk off trip. As nice as that sounded I just wasn’t feeling it. It’s been a while since I’ve taken my solo canoe down to the coast and since it was still dirty from duck season, why not. As normal I didn’t sleep too well that night and ended up getting out of bed around 5am. In an attempt to waste time until the sun and temp rose a little the dishwasher got emptied, the dog got walked and even had time to straighten up the house a little before departing at 7am. By the time I got to the refuge the temperature was a little colder than expected, 38 degrees at 8am. Well, nothing gets the blood moving like a good paddle. I ended up heading over to a creek that’s produced in the past. I wasn’t exactly sure what the fish would be doing with the cold snap so my thought for the day was to be thorough and take my time. For the first couple hours it was pretty dead. Around 10:30 I got a glimmer of hope when a nice 20’ trout decided to bit my lure. Not too long after that two 23’ reds deiced to get in on the action. The bite wasn’t aggressive at all. My bait of choice was a 4’ Gulp flat worm with a 1/8oz head. The key seam to move it very slow across the bottom almost like one would do when fishing for flounder. After 15 min passed without any more bites it was time to move. The next location produced 5 more reds ranging in size from 20’ to 26.999’. After releasing the first fish at that hole I remembered my neighbor saying the other day how long it’s been since she’s gotten any fish from me. That in turn got me thinking about another conversation I had with my other neighbor the day prior. He had mentioned it was about time to pick the greens and cabbage he’s been growing all winter. So in an effort to keep up the good relations with my neighbors the next 2 reds ended up in the cooler. After landing the 5th red in that hole and the 7th of the day I notice 2 guys in a Jon boat getting pretty close to me. Within 60 yards. They said they hadn’t caught anything all morning so instead of being an a$$ I pulled anchor and paddled back to the first hole I caught fish in. It was on my way back anyways and figured there might be one or two left in there that got missed the first time. Sure enough a 19’ trout decided take what was offered. After releasing the trout the wind started picking up. It was 12:30 and time to start paddling back. Got back to Tally around 2:30, just in time for an afternoon nap.
