Another one?!
Well, on Saturday I got up bright and squirrly and decided to finally try fishing the main Coeur d'Alene lake. I made it to the access around 0700 and was on the water by 0730. The trick around here, is to be on (and off) the water prior to the insane boat traffic...which....generally starts around 1100. The water was nice and calm but it was already starting to heat up, so I stuck to the docks and tried for bass before trying my hand at trolling for kokanee. Seriously, on the FIFTH cast I bounced my grub off a piling and it sunk. As I began my retrieve I got hooked up. What? Really? Hooked the piling? So I set the drag and started getting ready to paddle over to get unsnagged when the rod bent over! WTF?! I wrassled this critter for awhile and saw flashes once and awhile of something BIG in the black water. My thoughts kept coming to "chinook" which we do have in the lake and some are dandies!! But what was it doing way back in here? Well the monster tired pretty quickly (compared to that smallmouth) and I was able to get a good luck at it's face. It's ugly, flat, HUGE, alligator face; a pike! And I am not kidding when I say this thing was 24 inches plus, my biggest pike ever! I started to get kinda nervous as I didn't have any gloves with me and I didn't want to get torn up grabbing this thing...so instead I went for my camera. As I was setting up for a shot of him in the water beside the boat, he lept into the air like your classic marlin-shaking-twisting jump! If I had been smart, I would've just snapped the photo, but I didn't, and as he reached the apex of his jump....the grub came flying out of his mouth. He did a 180, hit the water head first in a perfect dive, and was gone.
Yet again, I sat there in stunned disbelief. I was bummed that I didn't get a photo, but honestly, I was kinda glad for the long release. ;)
The rest of the mile-long paddle resulted in a couple small bass and not much else. When the boat traffic picked up I tied on a small spinner and started trolling my way back up to the launch. Nada! Well, I got all loaded up and headed home...leaving all the gear in the truck for whatever Sunday had in store. That afternoon it became blazing hot, so Lu-dog and I tried to find a quiet place to get in the lake. Boy was THAT a mistake! Everyone and their brother's friend's dog were doing the same thing! We circled around to Blue Creek bay...which Lucca thought was fun in itself. She likes riding in the bed, especially when it has a canoe for shade above it! Everytime I glanced at her she was leaning over the side and grinning like an idiot. (She smells the water before she gets to it.) The place I was gunning for was available! I thought that was odd until I took a look down in there...hmmm, lotsa mud and weeds in about three feet of water. Eww. But, it was hot enough I didn't really care TOO much. So I started hucking Lucca's dummy out there and got her further and further out...she really is showing her roots anymore. At one point I decided to say, "screw the mud and weeds, I'm going in." So we both swam around, trying to beat the other to the perpetually thrown dummy.
Which brings us to Sunday. Another early morning and I decided to hit the river! But this time, I was going to do a two-mile paddle to a honey hole Rod had shown me once in the past. It was nice and quiet with only the occassional boat passing...but most of them were older and going nice and slow. (No wakes.) I made it to the honey hole in about an hour of paddling and only got a couple nimbles after hucking the lure around pilings and logs and whatnot. Sure, I caught some small (maybe 10 inches?) bass but that was it. Ugh, and by this time the river was becoming extremely busy...I guess everyone starts a little earlier on the river...it was only 0930. And I honestly don't know what most of these folks are doing...they just drive up and down the river as fast as they can. It's bizarre. Well, pretty quick I got tired of dealing with it and made my way back downriver. I got to the main eddy after almost being mauled by countless boats and didn't do too well there either. The whole trip down was just the same small bass. (Boy, am I getting picky already or what?) By this time it was noon and extremely warm out; the bank's sign back in town said 96 degrees. Well, I was the only one at the launch and again thought I could take my time, but JUST as I was thinking that a truck (with Kootenai county plates) with a big boat came down and just moved in on me! *sigh* people. Now unlike the Washington guys last weekend who just watched me fumble and struggle with the canoe, this guy jumped out, looked at the boat, the lumber rack and said, "Need help getting that up there?" SURE!!! He was really polite about it and asked for instructions on how I liked to do it and the extra muscle made it go super-quick. I told him I'd get out of his way in a hurry and he simply replied, "Nononoo, take your time. I'm just gonna get my trailer a little closer to your truck and unload it from there." Wow, okay. He got that done in no time and he and his wife and I talked about fishing. I said I'd had better days and that, "it's just started getting too much traffic." He laughed and said, "Annnnd, we're just going to add to it." As I continued thanking him for the help they pushed off, gave me two big waves and hollered, "Have a great afternoon!" I responded with a generic, "You too! Thanks again!" And they were gone.
That more than made up for the lady almost hitting me with her boat on her way out of a dock because, "I couldn't see you. You're all green." (Only the boat was green that day.) *sigh*
I raced home in the swarms of people to begin my three hour cleaning spree prior to Sarah's homecoming. No, I'm not THAT much of a slob. I just wanted her to be able to come home and relax without having to think about doing anything at all. Aren't I sweet?
Yet again, I sat there in stunned disbelief. I was bummed that I didn't get a photo, but honestly, I was kinda glad for the long release. ;)
The rest of the mile-long paddle resulted in a couple small bass and not much else. When the boat traffic picked up I tied on a small spinner and started trolling my way back up to the launch. Nada! Well, I got all loaded up and headed home...leaving all the gear in the truck for whatever Sunday had in store. That afternoon it became blazing hot, so Lu-dog and I tried to find a quiet place to get in the lake. Boy was THAT a mistake! Everyone and their brother's friend's dog were doing the same thing! We circled around to Blue Creek bay...which Lucca thought was fun in itself. She likes riding in the bed, especially when it has a canoe for shade above it! Everytime I glanced at her she was leaning over the side and grinning like an idiot. (She smells the water before she gets to it.) The place I was gunning for was available! I thought that was odd until I took a look down in there...hmmm, lotsa mud and weeds in about three feet of water. Eww. But, it was hot enough I didn't really care TOO much. So I started hucking Lucca's dummy out there and got her further and further out...she really is showing her roots anymore. At one point I decided to say, "screw the mud and weeds, I'm going in." So we both swam around, trying to beat the other to the perpetually thrown dummy.
Which brings us to Sunday. Another early morning and I decided to hit the river! But this time, I was going to do a two-mile paddle to a honey hole Rod had shown me once in the past. It was nice and quiet with only the occassional boat passing...but most of them were older and going nice and slow. (No wakes.) I made it to the honey hole in about an hour of paddling and only got a couple nimbles after hucking the lure around pilings and logs and whatnot. Sure, I caught some small (maybe 10 inches?) bass but that was it. Ugh, and by this time the river was becoming extremely busy...I guess everyone starts a little earlier on the river...it was only 0930. And I honestly don't know what most of these folks are doing...they just drive up and down the river as fast as they can. It's bizarre. Well, pretty quick I got tired of dealing with it and made my way back downriver. I got to the main eddy after almost being mauled by countless boats and didn't do too well there either. The whole trip down was just the same small bass. (Boy, am I getting picky already or what?) By this time it was noon and extremely warm out; the bank's sign back in town said 96 degrees. Well, I was the only one at the launch and again thought I could take my time, but JUST as I was thinking that a truck (with Kootenai county plates) with a big boat came down and just moved in on me! *sigh* people. Now unlike the Washington guys last weekend who just watched me fumble and struggle with the canoe, this guy jumped out, looked at the boat, the lumber rack and said, "Need help getting that up there?" SURE!!! He was really polite about it and asked for instructions on how I liked to do it and the extra muscle made it go super-quick. I told him I'd get out of his way in a hurry and he simply replied, "Nononoo, take your time. I'm just gonna get my trailer a little closer to your truck and unload it from there." Wow, okay. He got that done in no time and he and his wife and I talked about fishing. I said I'd had better days and that, "it's just started getting too much traffic." He laughed and said, "Annnnd, we're just going to add to it." As I continued thanking him for the help they pushed off, gave me two big waves and hollered, "Have a great afternoon!" I responded with a generic, "You too! Thanks again!" And they were gone.
That more than made up for the lady almost hitting me with her boat on her way out of a dock because, "I couldn't see you. You're all green." (Only the boat was green that day.) *sigh*
I raced home in the swarms of people to begin my three hour cleaning spree prior to Sarah's homecoming. No, I'm not THAT much of a slob. I just wanted her to be able to come home and relax without having to think about doing anything at all. Aren't I sweet?
posted by geotracker12 at 10:09 AM
1 Comments:
No pics?? Then it didn't happen! Nice fish story though ;)
I hooked into a big catfish on the rafting trip that got away as well. So pissed!
Have a good summer!
Z
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