TheOkieAngler.com

Had the chance to meet and fish with Patrick and his brother John on Saturday…

After a few setbacks (my fault, bad at getting places on time) we met at spot #1 to try and tangle up with some longnose gar. Patrick’s had a ton of experience with gar and I was hoping I could finally bring one to hand with him around to give me a pointer or two. Sure enough, we found plenty of surfacing gar and spent a couple of hours giving them a good effort. I managed to checked off my #1 goal for summer, but couldn’t snap a pic in time for proof.

You’re just gonna have to trust me. He came in on what looked like a single thread of the rope fly and slipped out of my hand while I was pulling out the camera. Didn’t miss much with the picture, it couldn’t have been much more than 12″ long, but it still would have been nice to have a shot of the product of quite a few hours of pursuit.

We all had a few strikes, but didn’t have the greatest luck with the tangles. Hope to go back out this afternoon after work to give ‘em another shot now that I have a bit of confidence.

We had two main goals for the day… put me on a gar and put Patrick on a catfish. On to spot #2…

Didn’t take too long and we had accomplished both goals, not sure how many cats he ended up bringing to hand, but it was more than a few.

Bendo

Checkin' one off the list

We caught plenty of bass and cats for a while and when I tried to take a picture of a slab of a crappie…. my great day on the water suddenly became a frustrating one… My Olympus Stylus Tough 8000 WASN’T working.

The lens cover was open, but the camera was off… not a good sign. I could hear the motor trying to work when I pressed the power button, but I wasn’t getting anything but the power on screen. Sure, it’s endured a couple of waist high falls. Yeah, I’ve taken some underwater shots with it. But this issue seemed to come up out of NOWHERE. No junk in the lens to jam the cover, no recent drops, no nothing. Confusing. I bought the camera on April 30 and it’s already broken?? Ouch. Such a big investment. Majorly disappointing. Especially considering I had just bragged on the performance and durability on a few different fishing forums. Should have knocked on wood I guess.

I’m a bit of a pessimist, but I really hope Olympus decides to honor the warranty and take care of the problem quickly. We will see.

I’ll keep you posted on that one… And, let me apologize in advance for the poor quality (1.3mp camera phone) images to come in the meantime.

I’ve decided that Monday’s aren’t so bad after all… In fact, I think I may look forward to free Monday afternoons more than any other time of the week. Monday means full access to my favorite ponds… gotta love and appreciate a closed golf course.

To make the Monday situation even better this week, we had a nice steady soaking rain throughout the day. I didn’t think I would get to fish yesterday, but I got the phone call from my fiance (still getting used to saying that, had to throw it in) that we all dream of during the commute home… “Ward, I’m going to go see a movie with my girlfriends and then out to dinner.” Booooooooom. Game time.

By the time I got out to the pond, things were starting to clear up. I had been worried I’d be handicapped with poor visibility, but it was no longer an issue… It was one of those days when you rush through rigging up and practically light jog it down to the water.

Didn’t see any sign of the local carp in the first couple spots. I’m convinced they’ve figured out where I can get to ‘em and have moved on to new haunts. But hey, no worries, it’s Monday and I can track ‘em down without fear of a Titleist knocking me out (or the security guards throwing a fit).

First one to hand was a small bass, not a bad way to start things off.

Haven't seen the big'uns since Spring

As I was releasing that guy, I heard a familiar sound to my right… Sounded an awful lot like a carp feeding on the grass on the bank. Sure enough, there were two of ‘em, side by side, sucking away at the bank. Snuck above them and hooked up with the larger of the two…

Awkward lighting...

I kept moving around the pond and ran into one cruising around. Made a few casts, but couldn’t distract/interest it in anything I had to offer. Kept moving and came up to a little feeder creek draining out some water from the pond above… looked very promising.

Endless Fish Hole

There were a handful of large dark fish piling up right below the “waterfall”… couldn’t quite make out what they were, but they definitely looked too dark to be carp. My first cast raced off for the middle of the pond before I knew it even hit the water. The consistent rolls were a give away… catfish, and a nice one.

Wasn't a fan of the photo op

The time it took me to land each fish would give the spot enough time to rest that the cats would come right back. An occasional juvenile would get into the mix, but for the most part it was nice fish after nice fish for probably an hour.

Pretty smile?

It was enough to wear out a forearm… and build up an appetite. But it’s hard, make that impossible,  to be too tired/hungry to pass up a shallow tailer on the walk back to the car.

Wavin' bye

Moral of the story:

1. Do some networking (friends/family/coworkers/groundscrew/etc)  and get access to private golf course ponds. You’ll have at least one day a week of unlimited access to some sick water.

2. Fish post summer rains hard. Yet to have a post rain day where inlets weren’t stacked with nice cats.

Tight Lines,

Ward