I got home from work and the stress is starting to percolate over the edge. Not drinking is making me clear headed again, but I realize that's why I overdrank. Having all the crap bounce around in my crowded head with a clear head seems to make things a little worse in some ways.
So, a quick 1/2 mile drive and $14 brought me to the puddles in search of something other than a catfish. Honestly, I did bring a catfish rod too, but I forgot the bait at home so I was just going to trout it. Good thing the lakes are now open to 7:00, so I had a little extra time to fish.
The dry creek bed next to the lakes was more of a raging river now...
I tried a different spot since my go-to spot hasn't been on fire. It was raining pretty good and my inflated crawler went out and I got lazy and just put on powerbait on the other. I rarely do well on the powerbait here, but I made the cast. As I was turning around after setting up the strike indicator, I saw it drop into the water. What, am I on after only 5 seconds? Fish on!
I could tell it was a small guy, and I got it in half-way when it made a jump and threw the hook. Looked like a 1# fish, so no big loss. Rebaited and cast out again.
My inflated nightcrawler rod then got hit next and it was a DFG sized trout. I'm not even sure if it was a pound or not.
A little while past and then I had a much better trout hit! This one jumped a few times and was more like 3 pounds and I was pretty stoked to get a real one. All of a sudden I see a huge wake coming in from the side running right at my fish! Bass?!? What the hell??? then the fish just stops and gets a big yank! Fish not on my line anymore, but a cormorant pops up with the fish in his mouth! Mother Focker!!!!! now a few cormorants hung around thinking I was giving away free food, so I had to move down a bit to get away. Nothing there so I moved back after they were gone and picked up my second little DFG trout.
I was going to pack it in at 6:30, but then I got another hit as my strike indicator dropped into the water. I slowly reeled to see where it was, but no one was home, not even the bait. That means I have to cast again. lol
It was 10 minutes before they were kicking people out when I saw my strike indicator drop again, and I was on. For such tiny little trout, they were spunky and had not quit in them. They had their tails and everything, so this might have been from an earlier stock, or they just filled the lake with little ones, I'm not sure. In any case, I went 3 for 5 and except for losing that nicer grade trout to the sea-lion of the lakes, it was a fun stress reliever... then I got home and everything went out the window.
All Trout and No Cats... This was different... and a Mystery since I was in cat territory.
23 days without a drink...
