Fish Catching Travel
A Close Call
Over the years I have had lots of interesting/terrifying things happen towing boats from Canada to Key West, but this latest incident was something new. It reinforces how you have to take the occasional moment and look the trailer and tow vehicle over from one end to the other before you head out. Would it have made a difference? Who knows. And it proves that consistency can be a life and equipment savior.
As I pulled onto the ramp on Highway 59 all of a sudden I felt the trailer come loose from the truck. Luckily I was only going around 30 when it happened and I pulled over to the side and got out to see what in God’s name had happened. Initially I figured the trailer had popped off the ball, even though I have a pin in the coupler to keep that from happening. Imagine my surprise to see the slide in hitch and ball had come out of the receiver. Some how, who knows, the big pin had broken (unlikely), or more likely the cotter pin that holds the big pin in place had broken allowing the pin to work its way out.
I am big on walking around the trailer when I head out, but this is something I have never seen or heard of. I don’t know if it was a defect in the big pin or the cotter pin gave out, but either way it could have been a disaster. Think about it, the trailer was still attached to the ball and the slide in hitch.
There are two lessons to be learned here. Next time you get ready to tow check the condition of both pins. I am not sure this could have been avoided with inspection, but maybe the cotter pin was worn, or there was some visual defect in the big pin, but either way it will be added to my inspection. There is a slide in with a lock that keeps folks from stealing it, and that may have solved the problem, who knows.
But there is a bigger lesson to be learned here, one I learned 25 years ago, cross the safety chains under the tongue so that when something like this happens the trailer can not dig in the ground, which could be life threatening to those people driving around you. I do it every time I hitch up. In my case the chains were crossed enough that even with the slide in hitch still attached to the trailer it did not dig into the pavement. I was close to Bob at Victoria Marine so I whipped over there, got a new pin, and was back on the road in 10 minutes. It could have been worse, much worse. Another in the long line of lessons learned when you tow a boat 10’s of thousands of miles.
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Sharing Information Makes Us All Better Fishermen
I love meeting other fishermen and seeing how they did. The other day at the ramp I met a couple of great guys who had a nice string of redfish and were kind enough to share how they caught them. One thing I have been thinking about for quite some time is fishing plastics without a jig head, and I should have listened to that little fisherman inside my head.
Mr. Miller and Mr. Robertson, a couple of good fishermen.
Basically they were fishing a straight tail plastic weightless on a single hook. When the reds are really shallow it only makes sense. If there is little grass it can be fished hooked exposed, and if there is lots of grass it can be fished with the barb in the plastic like we fish for bass. Something so simple and effective that I feel like a fool for not fishing it when the conditions are right and the reds are super shallow. And when they told me they were blowing up on it I can’t wait to try it next time. So thanks guys, it was great meeting you and I appreciate you educating me.
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The Shoedog’s Big Adventure (Just like PeeWee!)
The Shoedog headed to East Texas to try some new water, and it turned into a tough trip. It happens, but nothing ventured nothing gained.
2 Days on Lake Naconiche
“I have been wanting to do some prospecting on more Texas lakes now that I am retired and have the time to get out and get around. I heard about Lake Naconiche northeast of Nacogdoces and headed up. It is a new fishery opened to the public in 2012 and getting good reviews.
It is about 2.5 hours or so from my place in College Station, so I got an early start on Tuesday morning and was out the door by 4:40 am with plans to be on the water by 8. No traffic and clear sailing! That is until Mr. Spike decided to commit suicide by Tacoma on my rear drivers side of my truck. About 8 miles north of Groveton he ran out and I thought at first he had just the boat and or trailer, but it was the truck. I inspected everything as best I could with a flashlight and then stopped in Lufkin when the sun got up and I could get a better view. Nothing to slow me down so there wasn’t much I could do but Go Fishing!
The third person I know who has hit a deer in the last 3 days! Tough luck Shoedog.
When I got to the lake it is a nice facility all new with a good ramp and a nice dock- looks good so far. I go put in and started out across from the ramp on some points. Both creek arms of this lake are extreme flooded timber and the main lake area is fairly open with a lot of banks that are fairly deep banks covered of course in hydrilla. I started with the Strike King KVD square bill 1.5 to see if I could call them out of the grass. I caught 1 small bass but that was it. I went back in a couple coves and threw a frog over the mattes of grass and had absolutely no response- surprised me.
Next I throw my old standby gold Rapala Husky Jerk- no reply from Mr. Bass. I tried a larger Husky Jerk in a striped pattern and caught a couple small bass and just kept working my way toward the dam area. By now it is almost noon- i worked that whole area over good. So I moved into the south arm of the lake and fished an area on the south side just before the trees really start and caught a couple on a larger jerk bait- a Smithwick Super Rogue. I tried a swim bait rigged sideways and had one small bass pull on the paddle tail. Again- small bass. The crazy thing about this day was I ended up catching eight small bass and 1 nice crappie-all on jerk baits- nothing else except the first on a crank- and EVERY fish was caught in the side or the top or the tail. Not a one in the mouth.
I know it was a cold (relative) front with high skies and the worst period of the cycle, but these fish were VERY tentative. I threw a few more baits- nothing but jerk bait would bring strikes- i talked with a couple other boats- it was a tough day! I headed up to Longview and stayed with a good bud- Thanks Kevin!- had pizza and beer and watched the World Series- A good ending to a tough day fishing. And- oh yeah- I broke a rod trying to get a bait off a tree too- and on my self proclaimed “last cast” I lost my favorite Rogue to a Naconiche tree!
The cost of doing our business. Breaking rods is usually my job.
So- I forced my self to go back the next day and try to figure them out. I rigged a Strike King swim jig with a Rage Craw on one rod- a Bass Assassin on another and a heavy jig/frog on a third and decided to slow down and try to learn something. I am not the best at this type of fishing, but it seemed to be the way to catch some bass in this tree and hydrilla filled (supposed)bass factory.
I figured that since I had luck on the hard jerk bait on Tuesday that Wednesday I would have luck with the Bass Assassin-same theory/action only more subtle and weedless- get it down to them! Well- shows you what I know- a solid hour- not a bite! So I switch to the swim jig- one more hour- not a bite. This in areas where I caught fish the day before. Next- jig/pig- another hour- some different areas with more timber- nothing.
Now- I am not the best bass fisherman out the- far from it- but I can catch fish and a big part of it is keeping your line wet and not giving up- so I kept at it. I am not a big lure switcher either- i know that certain baits catch fish in certain conditions and I usually keep at it with proven baits. But- these fish were NOT HAVING IT!
After trying to catch them on tactics I thought were lake/conditions appropriate- I tied back on a jerk bait- this time the larger 3 hook Husky jerk. On my 3rd cast I actually caught a bass. it was almost a nice one- and he had it in his mouth! I thought maybe it was on! But- that was it and I had fished almost 2 solid days and gave up. I had a good drive home and had to hit the road.
What a grown man has to show for 2 days. Sorry it was so tough.
Other observations on the lake- I like the fact that they have marked the channel almost all the way up south creek arm- makes it much easier- and safer- to get around. I did not mark a lot of bait fish on the locator- was a little surprised- even in some of the deeper areas of open water I didn’t mark much. Everything must have been hiding out waiting for me too go home. I have heard great stories from the lake and I am sure they are there- just not my time, I guess. Anybody else been to Lake Naconiche? I would be interested to hear your reports.
Oh well- now I am waiting on the insurance adjuster to come out to the house and get that out of the way. Oh well- my next trip will be better- it just about has to be! I I hope redfishlaw had better luck in the salt while I was up in the Piney Woods! Good luck and tight lines!”
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Over the years the Shoedog and I have been on some tough trips, and this has to go down as one of the tougher. Sorry I didn’t go with you, sort of. But it is trips like this that just stiffen our resolve to figure things out. And if you do not try new places you can never grow as a fisherman.
So keep stopping in folks, there are lots of other reports that will be posted soon, including the Friday trip to the Gulf. Thanks for reading my stuff.
Good Luck and Tight Lines
