An Interesting Day:smallmouth, Carp, And Lightning

[ozark trout fisher]

Today was an interesting day, to say the least. I didn't expect it to be that way though. It was just another weekend day on one of the perfectly ordinary central Missouri smallmouth streams that I like to fish. This creek is a tough nut to crack, a stream where I always have to work hard, often going a number of hours between catching smallmouth, catching none at all more than I would like to admit. I'd always used the excuse (believing it was true) that there just weren't very many of them.

So much for that. I caught one on my first cast, and I don't think I ever went more than ten or fifteen minutes between fish. It was just easy fishing, this unassumming little creek pretending to be the true Ozark stream that it isn't. The fish were up at the heads of the pools, feeding actively, taking anything and everything that I threw their way. Rebel craws and spinnerbaits worked the best, but honestly I think you could have caught them on most anything. Of course they weren't very big for the most part, and that is pretty much par for the course in the spring, especially when you are specifically targeting sub-spawning sized fish (and yes, there were some spawners, which I stayed well away from.) But when the fish are literally so aggressive that on one occasion you catch two on a single cast (each taking one treble hook of a Rebel Craw) you are not going to complain about that.

I was at one point moving from one pool to the next, and I happened to notice a school of very large carp tailing in a flat. I have no idea how to catch carp, none whatsoever. But what the heck, I already had a lure tied on, and even if it was completely wrong, it was worth a try, right? Well no surprise to anyone, it didn't work. One of the bigger ones gave it a brief look, giving me a brief glimmer of hope, before swimming off in the opposite direction. This left me still never having caught a carp. Oh well.

But the real fun came about three o'clock. I had seen in the forecast a 30% chance for some "Isolated Thunderstorms." If I stayed inside every time the forecast said that, I wouldn't ever get out between March and May. In any case, I wasn't particularly surprised or concerned when a moderate thunderstorm started to pick up at about 3. I was about a mile from where I'd parked at this point, so it was clearly time to call it a day and start heading back. These things happen about half the time I go fishing during the spring, so it wasn't anything to worry about. But the thunder started to get steadily more intense, the lightning closer. Then when I was about a half mile out, lightning struck down a tree approximately 50 yards away from where I was standing.

That caught my attention.

At that point, I quickly made the decision to ditch my fishing rod. It's a $25 Shakespeare, and I wasn't too enthralled about the idea of carrying around a 7 foot lightning rod. The lightning kept coming hard and fast (though thankfully never quite that close again) as I sprinted back, which given the circumstances only took a very few minutes. When I got there I was a very happy person.

So pay attention out there, even if the forecast isn't particularly ominous. Things can get real interesting real fast.

[fishinwrench]

Litterbug !

[Mitch f]

Litterbug !

LOL... but think of it this way; If you were struck by lightning, would you want to be found carrying a $25 Shakespeare rod?

[fishinwrench]

Good point. On the plus side..... it'll likely still be there next time you go.

[ozark trout fisher]

Oh, I went and got it back as soon as things settled down. And yes, there are benefits to being cheap:)

[fishinSWMO]

Was this a 25 dollar combo, or just the rod? Might be a decent rod, most cheap combos come with a 2 piece rod.

[Ham]

Living to fish another day is always a good plan.

[Mitch f]

Only joking of course, I have several $25 rods for the canoe

[fishinSWMO]

Cheap is not bad. Chief picked up a couple casting rods at bass pro for like 10 bucks apiece. Next time I get up there I need to pick some up.

[ozark trout fisher]

The rod itself was about $25. I say about, because I don't remember exactly, but it was something like that.

I certainly don't mind taking some crap over the equipment I use. It's not as if I didn't have it coming.