As you know from previous posts, I don't head out at the crack of dawn. I usually leave at 0730 when my wife leaves for work and today was no different. I got to the lake, checked in, and was at the spillway peninsula by 0815.
Now, for some reason (and I'm guessing where they are stocking, but I'll get to that in a minute), there is now a gate across the road a hundred yards from where we usually park. I parked, grabbed my gear and walked to the spot where we usually fish.
Was this an omen of things to come?
Turkey Vultures |
Turkey Vultures |
Where's the water? |
Oh, there it is, way down there. |
That's a long ways down. |
The tube is used to stock the Cutbows from the hatchery truck. While I was there, they dumped in a load of fish. They couldn't have been very happy about being put into the warm water because I didn't hear one weeeeeeee.
After getting run off the no fishing area (yes I did fish there because I didn't see the signs) I went over by another fisherman over the top of the nearest peninsula and because it was in the direction closest to me truck. I had a premonition that I wouldn't be staying long. Why is that, you ask?
Once I got settled and put out one line with Power Bait and one with a small silver Kastmaster, I began chatting (as usual) with the other guy. He had caught a couple early on, but nothing recently. While we were chatting, the stockers were lazily swimming up and down the shore occasionally running aground like they were on drugs. I'm sure they do something to them so they don't bite right off the bat.
If one wasn't an honest fisherman (unlike the guy out in the boat), one could walk along the shore with a net and get a limit in about ten feet. What I did was tap them with the tip of my rod and make them swim back out into deeper water. I don't know how many I saved, but I'm sure quite a few didn't make it which brings me back to the Turkey Vultures at the beginning of the post. Those were only two of many, flying around the lake.
Right in front of me. |
This one too. |
And this one. |
And that one. |
The question was asked of the stocking guy why they were only planting small fish (about half pounders) and the answer was that the bigger ones would only die. So wait a while before you head out there.
Mark
Poor disoriented fish. Tossed out to die.
ReplyDeleteNot good.
Planting fish like you plant tomatoes. What have we done to this planet?
ReplyDeleteI like tomatos
Delete