A Little Getaway

[Champ188]

Donna and I hitched up the Ranger last Friday morning and hit the road for Broken Bow Lake in southeast Oklahoma. We have a very good friend and full-time guide down there and were overdue for a visit.

Got down there around 10:30 a.m. and fished for less than 2 hours when we decided conditions were more suitable for golf than fishing.

Spent the afternoon golfing one of the longest, tightest, meanest darn courses I've ever played. On most of the par-4's, you can hit the straightest and longest tee shot of your life and still have a long iron or hybrid into the green. The par 5's? Forget reaching any of them in two. As I said, that course is one big meanie. But it's very scenic and lots of wildlife, namely deer, running everywhere.

Bryce had a guide trip Saturday morning, which allowed me and Donna some time to explore the lake on our own. We started out near the dam throwing spinnerbaits and swimbaits around a windblown island that Bryce had suggested and Donna scored with a 3.5-pound smallmouth on a 1/4-ounce War-Eagle spinnerbait with a cotton candy pink skirt.

We continued running that shallow gravel pattern the rest of the morning and ended up with around 10 fish. We did lay eyes on two smallmouths of 4-5 pounds each ... one that followed Donna's bait to the boat and another that ram-wrecked my spinnerbait as I was burning it just under the surface. Like a hack, I let my hand slip off the reel handle on the hookset and stuck him only for a brief couple of seconds before he swam away snickering at me.

The morning concluded with me exploding a tube of super glue in my hand and literally glueing the tube itself to the end of my thumb. I finally literally ripped it loose, taking a chunk of skin and meat with it. No fun. I'd like to say it affected my golf game Saturday afternoon but too many people know better.

Sunday was to-heck-with-golf-let's-fish-all-day. We started out on the lower end again and only scored a couple of small ones, so we ventured up into the mid-portion of the lake. Caught a few on jigs and shaky heads off bluff ends before my partner hammered a nice spot on a spinnerbait along a windy bluff. After a second one a short time later, we decided to ditch the draggin stuff and get to winding. Burned a blade the rest of the day and ended up beating out about 20 (combination of SM, LM and spots) including a couple of nice LM.

All in all, a great trip with one of life's valuable little lessons learned ... don't squeeze the super glue tube too hard.

[MOsmallies]

Great report Champ... Can't beat a weekend of Golf and all three species of bass. Thanks for sharing

[Sprint21fter]

I was fortunate to help a local in Tysons move from NW Arkansas to Broken Bow and saw the edges of the lake and what appeared to be the river end of the lake this past August. However, wasn't to excited to try the lake during the summer months due to traffic jamming pleasure boaters turning into the lake. Would like to indeed try to fish the lake from now to early May before all the boat traffic hits the lake.

[Quillback]

Thanks for the update, looks like you folks got into some great fishing.

Exploding tube of superglue -

[abkeenan]

Awesome report Champ. Golf and fishing? Doesn't get much better than that in my opinion. A woman slaying them on a pink War Eagle...how fitting. I know that may not look like a life threatening injury to the thumb but I for one know that cuts, blisters or anything of the sort on your fingers can really put the kibosh on a golf swing/outing. It's like I would rather have my arm bruised into mince meat than have a paper cut on a critical place or point on the hand or finger. Just something about a constantly stinging cut that is worse than a gash on the forearm or something. My thumb on my right hand ALWAYS splits in the same spot every year from dry skin when the colder hit and when spring rolls around nothing is more annoying than having a split open thumb on your thumbing finger on the reel spool. You are reminded about it every cast and when it gets moist its even worse. In other words....I feel your pain on the super glue grenade.

[Champ188]

Hey abk, do we ever have a remedy for your split thumb. Our hands do the satsme thing in the winter, plus us fishermen have little hook and fin nicks, gill-plate cuts, raw thumb (hopefully) and assorted other minor hand abrasions to deal with. The places that just split from the dry and cold are the worst.

Donna ran across this recipe for a hand lotion a few years back and it has all but eliminated such problems. We apply it at night after a day of fishing and any splits, cuts or other soreness are practically healed the next morning.

Ingredients are:

7.5 ozs. Vaseline or other petroleum jelly (half of large jar)

4 ozs. Vitamin E cream

1 oz. tube of Neosporin

15 oz. bottle Baby Magic or other baby lotion

Mix all ingredients together well with a kitchen mixer.

This makes a great big batch and is some absolutely amazing stuff. It's sure saved us a lot of misery. We've given it out to friends as gifts and have yet to have anyone give it less than rave reviews.

Hope this helps abk and anyone else who tries it.

[Jerry Rapp]

just try some Neosporin and see what happens. Works for me, or even the Triple Antibiotic Eqaute salve from wally world.

[Quillback]

Slap some skin conditioner on your hands before you go out also.

[abkeenan]

Hey abk, do we ever have a remedy for your split thumb. Our hands do the satsme thing in the winter, plus us fishermen have little hook and fin nicks, gill-plate cuts, raw thumb (hopefully) and assorted other minor hand abrasions to deal with. The places that just split from the dry and cold are the worst.

Donna ran across this recipe for a hand lotion a few years back and it has all but eliminated such problems. We apply it at night after a day of fishing and any splits, cuts or other soreness are practically healed the next morning.

Ingredients are:

7.5 ozs. Vaseline or other petroleum jelly (half of large jar)

4 ozs. Vitamin E cream

1 oz. tube of Neosporin

15 oz. bottle Baby Magic or other baby lotion

Mix all ingredients together well with a kitchen mixer.

This makes a great big batch and is some absolutely amazing stuff. It's sure saved us a lot of misery. We've given it out to friends as gifts and have yet to have anyone give it less than rave reviews.

Hope this helps abk and anyone else who tries it.

Will have to try this. Thanks for the tip Champ.

[abkeenan]

just try some Neosporin and see what happens. Works for me, or even the Triple Antibiotic Eqaute salve from wally world.

Trust me. I have tried neosporin, as well as about 5 different moisturizing lotions, Husker Lotion, Aquaphor lotion.....nothing has really worked. Some have helped but I've had this dry patch of skin on finger print area of my thumb going on 3 years now. During the late spring and summer it softens up and is fine. When cold hits it drys out and eventually splits into a cut. Very frustrating.