Well, That Was A Flop

Like I said yesterday, maybe I'll go back up in the morning. That would be this morning and I went up.

Stopped at the Shell Station in Pioneer and got a cup of coffee (maybe that will work) and a carton of night crawlers. Look out browns, here I come.

Got to Secret Lake #3 at 0830 with intentions of fishing the inlet, tied a #6 bait hook on my Okuma with 2 pound test, added a white Power Egg for a little flotation and opened the crawler carton. What I found was dead, slimy, moldy something that was once night crawlers. Now I know better and I should have looked at the crawlers before I left the store, but like the bonehead I sometimes am, I trusted they would be fat and sassy. Just goes to show you.

So I reverted to my tackle box and threw out some rainbow Power Bait on a slip sinker rig on my rod with 4 pound test and put a 1/4 oz black Panther Martin on my Okuma. The black one was what produced that one brown back on the 2nd. I proceeded to lose the Panther Martin to some trees and came to find out it was the only black one I had. Note to self: order more Panther Martins. I put on a yellow PM with silver spinner, but nothing happened. Changed to an assortment of colors of Kastmasters and nothing there either. Went to the other side and fished there with no results. The crawlers must be some kind of omen, but wait! there's more.

Left Secret Lake #3 and went to Secret Place #2. All these secret places, but I am sworn to secrecy. The water level was some what lower and I was able to fish where I wanted, but had to stand knee deep in the water instead of waist deep like it was back on the 2nd. Yesterday at the lake, the water was 49 degrees. Today where I was standing the water must have been just short of 32 degrees. It took less than 5 minutes for my legs below the knees and my feet to go numb, but being the die hard I am (or maybe stupid fisherman) I persisted. Can you imagine what it would have been like if I was waist deep. Shudder the thought.

I fished a yellow Panther Martin, multiple colors of Kastmaster, and even sunk to the depths of throwing out rainbow Power Bait (remember this is brown country) in hopes that some not so smart brown would bite. I even gave an F7 Rapala in German Brown color a try and managed to hang it up on a rock in the middle of the river. Only option was to break the line. That hurt.

After a half hour of frozen legs and feet, I stumbled out of the water, picked up my gear, and stumbled back in the direction of my truck. By the time I did get to the truck, I could feel my foot when it hit the ground. Now I know how Long John Silver felt except in my case it was both peg legs.

I stopped back at the Shell Station and after a 10 minute argument and a call to the manager I got my $2.50 back for the dead crawlers. I did check 4 boxes in the fridge and they were all alive and kicking. I must have gotten the only bad box.

So, like the title says, that was a flop.

Till next time.

Mark