Fish Catching Travel
Those I just can’t believe I did that moments.
We are in the midst of the long hot summer here in south Texas. With no rain to add to that it is just plain miserable out there. The wind continues to blow out of the south, at times draining the bays, leaving them muddy and hot. It has been tough to be out there all day, but that was not going to stop me. So I set the alarm for 5:15 in anticipation of hitting Coleto Creek for a few bass before it got to ugly.
The next thing I knew I could hear the birds chirping and see a shaft of sunlight sliding around the curtains. Oh great, I did not get up. It was already 6:45, when I should have been fishing. Now at the Gulf that is not a deal breaker, but at the lake during the summer, it is. By time I would get my stuff together and get there it would be almost 8, way to late to make the trip worth it. Here I am, not fishing, thinking about what went wrong this morning. So it got me to thinking about past screw ups. If you fish a lot you know what I mean. So since I am not hitting the water today, but will tomorrow for sure, I decided to try and recall some of my best screw ups. So here we go, I warn you this is not going to be pretty.
1. After cleaning a bunch of trout and reds at Froggie’s, I always take the cooler and set it by the ramp when I head to the truck to get the trailer. So I put them by the ramp and head for the truck. Why? I can just see some hard nose Warden giving me a ticket for transporting cleaned fish in the boat while I am loading. Guess that is the attorney in me. So we loaded up, got back to town, went for the fish, and oh well. I hope who ever found them sitting there enjoyed them.
2. When I would come back from Florida after a fishing trip I usually stopped in Jasper Alabama at a motel to break up the trip. On one particular trip I got up the next morning after a long week and hit the road. An hour later I remembered the 12 rods I left behind the door in the room. Nothing like adding an extra 3 hours to a 12 hour drive. At least they were there.
3. Many years ago I bought a new spinning rod and reel at Bass Pro. Back then it was almost a $100, which was a lot of money. I went to the lake and started fishing under a bridge for bass with a baitcaster. I made a big cast, hooked that new rig with the rod I was using, and tossed that new spinning rod right in the lake. I never even made one cast with it. At least it was in 40 feet of water so it saved me the trouble of trying to fish it out.
4. One New Years Day in Arkansas I decided to fish. It was cold and ugly, but with no one else around I would have the lake to myself. I backed the boat down the ramp and put on the brakes, and the strap broke. The wind was at my back and the boat was heading out to sea. So with a water temp of 34 degrees, and an air temp even less, I had no choice but to jump in and catch it. Nothing like a completely soggy snow suit in freezing weather a hour from the house. Real smooth move.
5. Speaking of ramps, one morning I was taking the boat out of the stall to put it on the trailer to fish a tournament on another lake. I loaded up, put the hook on the nose and pulled out. To bad I did not engage the winch, and as I pulled forward the boat slid of the trailer and hit the ramp. Thank goodness it was a corrugated ramp, the skeg caught in a grove, and the boat did not come all the way off. So now it’s butt is on the ramp with it’s nose in the air. Luckily I was able to winch it down and then back on the trailer it went. Even better no one was around to see it!
6. This one is generic and if I remembered every incident you would be sick of this. I have lost coats, hats, rods (we had one blow out of a friends boat 2 weeks ago), tackle, cooler lids (just last week), and maybe even a small child or two over the years when they blew out of the boat. I can not even imagine how much stuff I have lost, but I wish I had it in a pile right now.
7. On my first trip to Texas, my wife and I headed to Port Aransas. We had the boat on the back and were loaded for a fun 4 days while I had a break in law school. We stopped at the first rest stop in Oklahoma and got something out of the back of the 4 Runner. As we pulled back on to I40 I luckily saw the clothes bag with the good clothes blow off the front of the boat where we set it. I turned around in one of those emergency vehicle only lanes, it was an emergency wasn’t it, and got back to it just in time to see it get run over by a semi. If you think about it, that was awesome.
8. I had a friend visiting and he needed to get a fishing license so we stopped at Wal-Mart. While he was inside I decided to change a couple of crankbaits on some rods. He came out and we hit the road. When we got to the lake I could not find the box, then I realized I had left it on the deck. So of course it was gone. Unfortunately as those of you who use crankbaits know, they are not cheap, and there was probably 30 in it. That one hurt.
9. Not that long ago my friend and I went to Coleto for a little catfishing. We did ok and so stopped at the cleaning station to filet them. When I got home the lid off my livewell was not there. Now I already lost one before from not putting it down on the well so it stayed, so I was not surprised because I remembered not putting it back on properly. This one actually has a happy ending. 3 trips later I decided to watch the ditch on the way home, and there it was. That thing had been sitting on HWY 59 over a week. That is not the way it usually works out.
10. This one was not my fault, but I do have to include it. We were headed to Florida and outside of Tallahassee when I saw the trailer tire blow in the rear view mirror. So figuring a simple flat I got out to change the tire and discovered the FRAME broke. Literally the frame on a galvanized trailer snapped in half, and not at a weld. It also shredded the fender. Luckily it was between the shackles. A nice Deputy stopped and helped me tear off the rest of the fender and change the tire so we could at least get off the Interstate. I took it slow to the next exit and pulled off at a small town and went to a phone booth (remember when they had those?) to look up a welder. Just then a guy pulled up and said looks like you have trailer trouble, and I showed him. He pointed the way to a welder less than a mile away. We headed over there and the guy stopped what he was doing, shored up the frame and welded it, all for $40. I will always be thankful to those guys.
This is starting to get scary – I should be dead I guess!
11. That one was ugly, but this next one could have been fatal. I always put a pin or lock in the trailer tongue when I attach it to the truck, but for some reason I didn’t. I was coming down a big hill at 65 mph to a big bridge over the White River when it happened. And by the way the bridge is about 200 feet over the water. When we got on the bridge the trailer was doing that bouncing thing when all of a sudden the trailer hopped off the hitch. Now folks I was hauling. At least I had the safety chains on, and on that trailer when you rolled up the wheel on the trailer jack it stayed down so the hitch did not dig in. All good, except there is a trailer chasing me down the highway at 65. In a moment of insight I sped up and pulled that trailer until we got to an incline. Slamming on the brakes would have been ugly. I stopped, blocked the trailer, backed up, and hitched it up. That little episode has me check EVERY time I hitch up. Someone could have gotten hurt.
12. While guiding one of my regular customers on the White River I pulled one of the great bone head moves I have ever done on the water. There you drift with Jon boats sideways as you pull bait. As we floated along there was a tree sticking out in the river. As we got close I knew we were not going to hit it, but I decided to stab it a little with the paddle to be sure. I stabbed at the stump and missed. Head first into 45 degree water on a 45 degree day. I literally followed that paddle head first right in to the river. Real nice!
13. I just bought a brand new Ambassador reel and Extreme rod from Bass Pro. Now I usually lay the rods on the floor of the boat with the tips on the deck. On the way to the lake I stopped at the gas station a few blocks from the house. I noticed that the rod was not in the boat and I just knew I did not forget it, but who knows. So I back tracked and found it less than a block from the house hanging from a tree where it caught on an overhanging limb. That reel never did work right.
14. Our Bass Club had the owner of Champion Boats in it and he would give away a new Champ at the end of the year to whoever had the most weight total after a year of monthly tournaments. It was February with only 2 to go and I was in the lead. I had borrowed a friends boat to go to Bull Shoals as my trailer needed some work. The problem was we had an ice storm that night and there was 3 inches of ice with an inch of snow on top to go along with 20 mph winds and 25 degrees. After a harrowing 30 mile trip to the ramp we made it safe and sound. Now I had a Jeep pickup with 4 wheel drive that would pull anything. So as I started to back down the frozen ramp in 4 wheel drive I lost all traction and down we went. It did not give me time to remember that at the bottom when you get to the water it was not frozen. Of course I slammed on the brakes and when we hit the edge of the water the truck stopped, the winch rope broke, and the boat went in. And then the 2 foot rollers coming in swamped the whole back end of the boat, and the steering froze solid with a coating of ice. Would that stop my partner and me, of course not. As the sun came up we idled out of the marina, after everyone else had left at 70 mph, and would go straight, and then stop and let the wind blow the nose in the direction we wanted to go. It finally thawed as I freaked out not being able to haul ass knowing they were catching fish. Clyde then finally put the hammer down so we could run the 20 miles to my fish, and the shifter broke off in his hand. Are kidding me? I ended up catching 2 fish that day, and got to watch my friend Ronnie get the new boat at the banquet.
15. Speaking of winter time bass tournament fishing, this one was not really my fault. Again it was below freezing, but the lake had not frozen yet. About noon we were fishing when my partner said where is that water coming from. The floor of the boat was covered. I turned on the bilge pump but it was not keeping up. It finally dawned on me that the boat was on the trailer and there might have been some water in the bilge and it was probably frozen. I think what happened was the plug thawed and just popped out. Of course I had another so we put the boat on plane until there was no water on the deck. Then I laid on the rear deck and reached over and at 50 mph and put the spare plug in. Back then the boats were flat transoms and you could reach the hole. Today’s boats that would be impossible. Even thinking about that now scares the crap out of me.
16. I was vertical jigging a brush pile for bass with a spoon in 25 foot of water when it hung up. Now you can shake them off with some patience and a little skill, but not this time. So I got straight over it and pulled straight up trying to break the line (mono). It was winter and cold, I lost my grip, and that rod and reel went straight in the water like a shot. I guess that mono stretched and it was just like an arrow. To bad that was one of my guaranteed for life Ambassadors.
17. The highland lakes of Arkansas have basically been cleared of all timber, and they are deep. I lived on the lake and guided out of the marina where I did lots of tournament fishing. I knew that thing like the back of hand, I thought. After a tournament weigh in at midnight we had about a 15 minute ride back to the dock where I lived. As I motored along, Clyde asked if that was the bank or a shadow. Well folks it was a long shallow sand point. I realized it at the last second, pulled back on the throttle, and turned the wheel just in time. My wake picked us up and flopped us on the bank. Thank god we did not hit it running like a maniac. We were able to shove it back off without anyone seeing us, as we laughed our guts out. Young and bulletproof!
18. When I first started guiding in Arkansas the limit was 10 bass with no length limit. I was guiding with Tad, the owner of the lure company that I worked for, and we had 4 guys who worked at the Indianapolis 500. During the morning we were catching a lot of small ones. I would take them off and toss them back, I mean folks they were little. We met for a shore lunch and Tad took me aside and said they were not happy I was throwing them back. So all morning I was throwing their fish back totally clueless. Thank god those days are over. The bass fishing now is better than it has ever been thanks to intelligent management.
19. We had lots of big stripers in our lake, many 20 lbs plus. They were basically un-fished for almost 20 years, then they exploded. I had read about how they could be caught on downriggers so when Tad went to the sports show in Dallas to sell baits I said if you see them buy me a couple. The first time we used them we caught 4 between 10 and 20 lbs, awesome. I knew it would work and immediately realized the guiding potential. The next morning I took another guide friend to show him. Now they were mounted with wing type nuts to the boat, to bad I did not check them to be sure they were tight enough. Harold lowered the right one down, and it promptly fell off the boat and sunk in 60 foot of water. Nothing like watching a $150 sink to the bottom.
20. I read in the fishing magazines all about the great fishing in the Everglades so I just had to go. So I drive all the way there without a clue. There is a small dock where I stayed that I could tie the boat to so I did not have to load and unload every time. In those days I had no clue about tides. I fish the first day and when I get back I tie the right side of the boat to a finger. Of course that night the tide goes way out and when I get to the dock at daylight ready to fish the boat is hanging from the dock. At least there was some water, but you know how hard it is to untie a rope with a boat hanging off it? The filet knife solved that but from then on I left a little slack. But that was a small thing on a great trip. If you like saltwater I highly recommend putting the Everglades on your bucket list.
21. And last but not least, while this has nothing to do with fishing it was one of my smoothest moves ever. I worked at the dock and on holiday weekends we were busy. The dock was jammed and I went to fill up a boat and there were some really hot chicks in the boat. So I filled their boat trying not to be to much of a gawker. I put the cap back on, turned around, and promptly stepped off the dock and into the lake. The only thing that got hurt was my pride.
So there you have it, the ugly truth. I guess when you have spent thousands of days on the water over 40 years stuff is going to happen. This is not all of it, but you get the point. With old age, and the experiences above, come wisdom. Now I am not saying that something may not happen tomorrow, but at least I have learned I am not bullet proof. But those experiences have taught me lots, and each one was a lesson that I took something from. I would ask one thing though, don’t tell anybody, I have a reputation to protect. So if you have a thing or two you would like me to share, send them to me, folks love to read this stuff. As always, thanks for reading my stuff.
Good Luck and Tight Lines
