Limit Minus Two
I was cruising along on my way to a virgin flat when I noticed some small pops on the glassy surface. I took a harder look and cut the motor without bothering to throttle down first. By the time the boat came off plane I was already reaching into a rod locker and within seconds I was casting into the fish. The pods were spread out over 30 acres or more, and I watched them group up and run down bait then branch off into separate smaller groups only to rejoin time and again. It was like watching large raindrops come down a windshield, forming trickles that break up by the impact of another large drop.
After about an hour of trying to cut off trickles of menacing shad death with the boat I realized that my count was going to have to be verified. I had 20 fish in the cooler. Now things were starting to get interesting. I was five fish from a sandbass limit.
I sometimes get goal oriented while fishing, and I started to wonder if I would jinx my luck by wishing for a limit. 25 fish would make us roughly 4-6 meals of assorted fish tacos or curry. Meanwhile, the pods were building speed and the groups were getting larger, so it was harder to keep up with them and I was running into factions of 10-15 fish less frequently.
The wind suddenly blew out of the north and the water went to a ripple and the fish stopped blitzing all together. During that time I was able to put three more fish in the cooler and release a couple of “unders.” Putting around, I could see the fish on the graph but they’d moved down to the 10-15 foot range and most of them had started suspending. If I really wanted to finish a limit, and if I hurried before they completely turned off until the evening, I’d have to break out the lead core and fish deep. I considered it for a minute. I’ve never kept a limit of sandbass, and it would be interesting to complete the deal on flies. After about 3 tenths of a second, though, I realized I didn’t have lead core in the boat and I didn’t want to turn what had been a lucky diversion into work.
It was time to hunt carp, and I had one quick stop to make before the main destination. Within minutes of dropping the trolling motor and cruising the edge, I was seeing tons of fish. Here’s a picture of the first.
After landing 10 fish I considered putting on wading boots and making it a long day for numbers. I had plenty of food and water to hit the 20 or 30 fish mark, but my lust for variety made me push on. I finally made it to the intended destination around 4:30 and poled myself through about 1/3 of the flat to verify the presence of fish. There were plenty of carp and a couple of buffalo as well. I didn’t really intend to juggle a pole and a rod but one spotted gar was swimming slowly towards me and I was forced to tuck the pole under my arm and grab my rod. I came close to landing the gar but it came off right at the boat.
23 sandbass and 10 carp. Not a bad day sight fishin. Hey, you ever seen those shows where the guys will turn their back to the camera to hide their “secret bait” or secret rig or fly? This fish was playing cool with his mistake:
