A Glorious Return to Fishing

It's been more than two months since I've tangled with a fish.  I started to feel like a guy without a hobby.  Life has been all work and taking care of the family.  Good stuff, but for someone who needs quiet, pretty claustorphobic after awhile.  (As an example, I have one kid on my lap, one wrapped around my feet, and one inside of a laundry basket next to me acting like a dog as I write this.)  My back is about 80% better now.  I'm fully functional, but just stiff and sore at times.  We got ice early this year and I've got a little extra time off in connection with Christmas.  With the stars all aligned, I got permission from the wife and planned to spend a day on the hard water.

I got to the lake an hour or so before light.  I set my tip-ups in some of my favorite spots and then started jigging for the pannies.  Just as soon as light appeared in the sky the bottom third of the water column filled up with fish.  I checked the gain setting on the Vexlar to make sure that I was seeing things right.  I started with minnows and got a couple of bumps.  Waxies are easier to deal with, so I thought I'd give them a shot.  I dropped a couple of the white grubs down above the cloud of fish on a  Hali Jig and the top of the cloud separated off and came straight up to my bait.  I pulled in a nice gill, just a little smaller than my hand.  It was like this for the next few hours.  It was kind of like throwing bread to ducks.  They just waited there for the next morsel and then shot after it as soon as I gave it to them, trying to beat the competition to it.

I've tried all kinds of the different Berkley Alive baits and have caught a few fish here and there, but my sucess has been pretty limited with them.  As a matter of fact, I had a little jar of their wax worm baits left over from creek chub fishing this summer and I just about threw it away.  I stopped myself, thinking that I might as well try them for ice fishing.  My only complaint about the real wax worms when I was catching fish after fish, was that I had to spend so much time re-baiting.  I just couldn't keep them on the hook.  Remembering the Alive waxies, I made my switch.  They were awesome.  The fish ate them just as readily as the real thing, and they stayed on the hook forever.  I would recommend them to anybody.  I'll keep them in my kit all winter.  I easily caught 50 gills before the end of the day and I'm quite sure that I could have caught 100 if I would have been targeting them non-stop.  They just kept coming.  About a half dozen of them were huge bulls that dwarfed my hand.  A great day for gills.

We have to back up to the morning to tell the pike story.  After catching that muskie and all of those flatheads on live bluegills, I thought that I was crazy not to try them for pike.  I set one tip-up with a gill on it and was in the process of getting the next one set just 20 yards closer to shore.  I dropped the big brightly colored depth finder down to the bottom on the hook to set my depth.  When I was pulling it back up, I swear that something big hit it.  I felt a brief, vicious tug that left me asking myself, "What just happened?"  Within a few minutes the flag popped on the tip-up that I had first set with a gill.  The gill that I was using wasn't tiny, so I half wondered if he had tripped the flag.  This particular tip-up was a black plastic version of the classic wooden cross type.  As I walked toward it, I could see it vibrating fiercely.  Something big was tearing away line.  When I got to where I could see the spool, I decided that I'd better grab the line quickly because this big fish was about to spool me.  It gave me several powerful runs before I finally steered its head into the hole and pulled it through.  I matched my personal best with this 40-incher.  I got my pictures with the camera set on a timer and sitting on top of 2 stacked 5-gallon buckets.  I'm not sure what happened, but they didn't turn out very well.  The lighting was bad.  Oh well, enough to give you the idea.

I'm pretty sure that pike hit my depth finder just a few minutes before it chomped that gill.  Never had that happen before, but this beast was cruising around that flat ready to sink its teeth into anything that moved.  Pretty incredible.  I'm not sure why, but the gills that I was using weren't doing real well on the hook under my tip-ups.  When I took the time to watch the one set in the shallow hole, I noticed that it was actually floating right back up and laying against the bottom of the ice.  It remained alive, but couldn't stay down or upright.  I originally caught it out of 20+ feet of water.  I wonder if the pressure change messed it up.  I'll probably try to use some shallow caught gills next time.

When I returned to the warmth of my car and my house, I found myself to be exhausted.  I haven't moved that much in one day in a long time, and I've been breathing nothing but stuffy inside air.  It did me good to get back out in the wide open, but man did it take it out of me.  Bed would have been wonderful, but my house was loud and busy when I returned home.  I did my best to keep up with my kids and when I finally put them to bed I promised that I'd be more fun tomorrow.  Well, it's tomorrow, so it's time to go make good on that promise.      

Bent, But Not Broken

I haven't fished in over a month.  I got up one morning in late September and noticed some soreness in my lower back.  Nothing new.  I've had occasional back problems for close to 20 years.  At times it has put me on the floor for a few days straight, at others it has just been an irritation.  Regardless of the severity, I've always healed up within a week or two.  Expecting as much this go around, I went on with life as usual.  Unfortunately, after a couple of weeks I had deteriorated considerably.  The pain increased and I began to walk with a noticable limp.  Next, my body tightened up and went into a strange twist that caused my pelvis to become fixed at an odd angle.  My left hip jutted up and forward.  My co-workers started joking behind my back and then to my face that I walked like a stroke victim.  Two Quasimodo quotes kept ringing through my head:  "Don't look at me, I'm hideous." and "I am not an animal!"  The pain eventually went down my left leg and became quite excruciating.

I continued to work and even went out and fished for muskies a couple of times after my body fell apart on me.  I found that I could get pretty comfortable either sitting in the captain seat trolling or up in the seat on the bow casting.  The wife couldn't help but tell me that this all seemed just a little bit convenient.  Both of these trips were to Murray.  I only saw one muskie.  It made a viscious strike at a buzzbait, coming right out of the water.  It missed the bait and then hung out briefly boatside before disappearing.

Eventually, the pain became so severe that I could barely stand or even sit.  I went on a month long leave from work and Mort put the boat in its winter wrapping for me.  Long term pain is a strange thing.  It changes you.  My view of life was dulled as my energy and focus were sapped with an attempt to just cope.  The smallest task became monumental.  I had to psych myself up for a trip from the couch to the kitchen to do something as simple as putting my dishes in the dishwasher.  My leg would be completely throbbing a minute later when I threw myself back onto the couch.  I would then clench my teeth and hold on tight as the pain would slowly settle back out of my leg.  At its worst, this thing was a pretty horrific and confusing experience.  I couldn't understand how waking up with a little soreness could turn into such a major ordeal.  I also couldn't understand why I wasn't getting better.  It had to be bone cancer or something.

After trips to a couple of different doctors and finally getting an MRI, I was told that I had several bulging discs.  One in particular was pushing on my sciatic nerve.  This was the source of all of my misery.  I was getting the vibe from the doctors that this was just a run of the mill issue and not that big of a deal.  I actually agreed when I entered a large waiting room and saw all of the people in casts, wheelchairs, and walking with the assistance of crutches and walkers.  Even with my limp, I felt a little guilty being in there.

My doctor prescribed a pain medication that really helps.  I realized just how much it helps one night when I forgot to take it.  I spent several hours rolling around in my bed in a constant and unfruitful attempt to find a position that didn't bring pain.  I'm still pretty dependent on that pill to get me through my days and nights, but I feel like I'm well past the worst of this thing and I slowly continue to improve.

As in most trials, a lot of good has come from my pain.  It shook me out of the comfortable womb that I had built for myself.  I think that God was simply telling me to quit sliding through life in your own little world and start reaching out to those around you.  Many of my relationships have improved directly because of this situation.  Getting sidelined allowed me to spend an amazing amount of time with my kids.  I'm closer to each one of them than I have ever been.  I know them better and love them more.  I crave time with them.  I can tell that they feel closer to the guy who used to come home from work tired every evening.  All 3 of them light up when they see me.  Hayden has shown a real tender side in wanting to do little things to help her daddy.  This is a priceless gift. 

Michelle was also amazing right through the worst of things.  I know it got tiring seeing me stretched out on the couch day after day while she flew around trying to hold our life together.  She never once complained and consistently handled herself with incredible grace.  My neighbors across the street have really touched my heart in the way that they reached out to me.  They walked over to check on me regularly and even took care of my fall leaves for me.  My parents are the most giving people that I will probably ever know.  They were great all the way though.  They offered constant support, they took care of the second round of leaves, watched our kids several times, and called me just about every day.  They even gave me crutches and a cane to help me get around. 

It turned out to be an odd ending to a pretty tough year of fishing.  The flatties never really did get very hot for me.  Just when I thought that I had them figured out, they kind of left me scratching my head.  I did okay, but I'm going to hope for a better year next year.  I didn't turn into the muskie guy that I thought that I was going to.  I like to have some gear that I can use to go after them when I get in the mood, but I think that I will pretty much just fish for them in early spring and late fall.  I'll probably chase them a little on the ice, too.  Now I'm going to continue to focus on healing as the weather cools and the ice eventually forms.  The next time I fish, I'm quite sure that it will be through a hole. 

Fall Flatheads

In my past few trips, I've found that you have to get out early, get ready for some fast action right around sundown, and then you might as well pack it in after 10:00 or so.  Fall is here and the flatties aren't acting much like they do in the summer.  The good news is that they're easier to find and pattern.  I've had more action in my recent trips than I had throughout all of July and most of August.  I know that they'll turn off just as quickly, but I'm going to enjoy it while it lasts.

I owe much of my success to a young guy that is new to the river.  We both pulled up under the bridge when it started raining a couple of weeks ago and began trading information.  He mentioned a long, deep run just down river from the launch.  I go straight up stream 100% of the time, so in all of my years of fishing out from this launch, I had no idea that this huge hole existed.  Sure enough, even in our low water conditions, the water in this long stretch maintained 8 and 9 feet.  I found that there are a lot of rock bass in this hole, so I've been using them as bait (live and cut) along with my live creek chubs.  I've had luck on all baits.

I've had a lot of fish hit visciously and tear the bait off of the hook.  I think that these have been smallish flatties.  I downsized to 5/0 hooks on a couple of rods and went from locking my reel to using the clicker.  Sure enough, I immediately hooked a small flathead and then a 10 pounder.  I topped off the night with a small channel that I somehow hooked near its pectoral fin.  I didn't know what was going on as I was reeling him in.  This all occured on a warm, rainy night.  I went home wet, but pretty happy.

I got a late start to my most recent trip.  I traded some time with Michelle, giving her most of the day away if I could go at 7:00.  I left the house at closer to 7:30, so it was just about dark when I anchored.  I caught one rock bass that I immediately cut in 2 and dropped under the boat.  I then threw out a good sized chub about 25 yards back.  That minnow was moving nice for me and I knew that it was only a matter of time.  I wasn't set up for even 30 minutes when the clicker on that rod started singing.  I grabbed the rod, let it load up, and set the hook on a nice fish.  It was great to feel a heavy fish on the end of my line.  Unfortunately this has been a rare occurence this year.  The cut rock bass got hit while I was reeling this fish in.  I grabbed the rod with my left hand and made an attempt to set the hook.  Nothing there.  Probably a good thing.  My hands were full.  The scale read 19 pounds when I finally tamed the old girl.

Still haven't bested 20 pounds in 2010, but there's still a little time.  I've got a few more chances before I turn back to muskies.  Not time to put the boat away yet.