It's a Struggle

[Pete Collin]

Hello All,

 

Been a while since I've gotten out.  Had my trailer all fixed up with fresh wiring and a new axle that hopefully won't chew up my tires anymore.  There was a forecast of nice flat calm conditions so I was up at 4:00 AM for a trip.  Was pulling out of the garage and discovered that the lights weren't working.  No way am i going to drive an hour and a half in the dark without lights.  So I fiddled and poked all morning with the trailer, eventually pulling out the entire harness that I so painstakingly strung through the frame.  What I discovered that the ground connection, which is attached to the tongue, wasn't reaching the rear part.  Either the rust or the coating on the tongue kept there from being a good connection with the rest of the frame.  Took me all morning to figure that out.  Joined front and back with a short piece of wire, and everything was glowing again.  I launched at 1:30 PM.  Bright and sunny - not best conditions of a good bite but at least it was calm enough for me to get out there.

 

What is it with the wind often coming out of the exact opposite direction as forecast?  I was expecting outgoing winds, but the breeze came from the NE, with some 2 foot rollers.  Plenty safe for small craft, but a very bouncy ride and tough steering for trolling.  Ran a shallow program, seeing plenty of marks from 20-50 FOW.  No hits.  I wanted to check on the lakers to see if they were where I left them.  Went out to 100 FOW, and there they were on the bottom just like before.  Trolled and jigged for a few hours, catching one and losing one.  For the last hour of daylight I wanted to run shallow again, trying for a king or brown.  With 2 lead cores and one downrigger, I worked from 30 - 50 foot depths.  I could see marks peeling off the bottom to look at the rigger ball, so I was poised for something to happen.  The rigger fired, and I fought both the fish and the steering wheel as I fan into the wind.  It looked like a fat brown, and I patted myself on the back as I went to net what turned out to be a great big sheepshead!  Oh well.  I was expecting to see kings jumping at sundown the way I had seen them do out in the lake before.  Nothing happened.  The surface temp was 67 degrees.  Looks like that wind blew in some warm water.  I pondered trolling past sundown, but it was enough of a struggle trolling by myself by daylight!  So i bagged it and wove my way through the pier fishermen on the way out.

 

Not a great trip, but at least I got to play with my boat.

 

Pete Collin

 

www.pcforestry.com

[reelintense]

Awesome and still better than sitting at home.  Winter will be here fast, so any fishing is good!