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.

Check out the LIPS on that kisser... pucker up.

I mean really, where do I even start with this one?? I thought I was looking at fish brains when it would come up from the depths… Turns out it was just on the surface though. No idea what the white/red patch is, any ideas? Worked like a bullseye for me while sight fishing in the muddy water though.

Can’t get past those LIPS. Kind of reminds me of those old ladies that have had one-to-many lip injections.

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

I went out this morning in search of some Gar in the Oklahoma river… I was fishing with a 5wt since the reel seat on my 8wt is loose (need to get around to sending it in) and felt a little under-equipped, but had to give it a shot anyway. I spotted a few surfacing gar that were almost out of casting distance  so I wadded out into the nasty water, tied on a 20lb straight spiderwire leader and a newly tied rope fly.

I made 3-4 unsuccessful (and fairly ugly, thanks to the 5wt) casts and then heard something that  almost sounded like someone was wading in behind me… So I turned around and saw this:

Monster Cat... less than 15ft away

I slowly turned around to face it, quietly clipped off the rop fly, and tied on a rusty orange headstand with shaky hands. It was motionless for the first 4 casts/retrieves and I was getting more nervous with each cast that I would spook him and blow such a great shot at a big fish. Made the 5th cast, jigging the headstand along the bottom right in front of the cat’s face… FINALLY, with a flick of the tail I saw it make a small move forward and open its mouth. I’m pretty sure I was holding my breath, but I waited a moment and then gave quick firm hookset. FISH ON.

After the initial water explosion and short quick run, he seemed content to somewhat leisurely run in the direction of the main portion of the river. It was pulling strong like a train, zig zagging through the shallows, but was thankfully avoiding the deeper water with a lot of snags. After what seemed like 15 min (but really I have no idea) it settled in a spot near a shallow cove and seemed pretty relaxed, almost like he wasn’t too aware of being hooked. I wadded as quickly and quietly as I could so I could get between it and the deeper water. I got behind him and “herded” him (for lack of a better word). With each step I took towards him he’d swim a few more feet into the cove and into more shallow water.

I was preparing myself for the landing wrestling match and finally went in to grab him. I got in close enough to make a move for the mouth, but it was clenched shut… the water exploded again when he felt my hand and I dove on top of him, managed to get a good grip with both hands around the neck, and pulled him up on the bank. VICTORY!

By this time a Hispanic man had come over to check out the commotion and although he couldn’t speak English was able to understand that I wanted him to take a picture! Wish I would have paid more attention to the shadow… oops.

First Flathead... Pumped.

I don’t know much Spanish but I knew enough to know that he kept saying familia and come and that he wanted to keep the fish. I indicated that he could have it and I think he was more excited than I was.

I’ll be the first to admit that I’m probably terrible at estimating size/weight, but this one was definitely 36+ in and had to have been around 30lb if not more.

Still haven’t knocked gar off my life species list, but I’ll  definitely take this one as my first flathead!

I’ve been wanting to scout out a few new areas I’ve been hearing about (stay tuned!), but I decided to stop off at my favorite local golf course pond to get in a big fish fix. It had been over a week since I had seen the backing on my reel; obviously chasing down some big carp and/or catfish was in order. The LMFR wild rainbows were a treat, don’t get me wrong… but there’s something addictive about hearing your reel scream and finding bruises on your stomach from fighting fish.

The water was a couple feet lower than the last time I had seen the pond and the fish weren’t feeding in any of the areas where I had seen them before. I only had a couple of hours to fish and was worried I was going to strike out. I kept walking along the bank and found some promising activity in the form of a tail flicking around above the surface. I figured it was a carp, but upon closer inspection it turned out to be one of these:

Cat tailing along the bank

He had his head buried under the edge of the bank most of the time, giving me a great chance to get above him and highstick/dap a crawfish imitation (headstand) right next to his face. He didn’t look twice, grabbed it almost immediately and was off to the races.  He wasn’t a monster but still managed to put a solid bend in the rod.

Meow

I didn’t have too much success following the catfish so I took off to a different area of the pond… Spotted a shadow moving around a few feet off the bank. I tossed one about a foot in front of his nose and hoped it was a big carp. Gave it a few strips and saw the shadow turn… set the hook and the water exploded. He went on a decent initial run, but began running 30-40ft back and forth along the bank with an occasional run into deeper water. I wasn’t sure what I was hooked into until I was able to finally drag him in close.

Throwing off a nice vortex... headed on another run

He wasn’t a monster, but the fight lasted long enough to put a few bruises on my stomach and for a few different groups of golfers to finish the hole I was fishing near. I don’t know that I’ll ever get tired of catching these fish.

Sayin' hi