Texas Transplant
Well-Known Member
Had our first night tourney last Friday night. Thought I was already to go, and had a decent partner. We started out running his 'spots', which were all losers, for the most part. Wanted to go way back up into the mouth of some major creeks to fish shallow. Needless to say, that didn't work out too good.
Moved to a main point off a major creek arm, and I got a nice chunk off of rip-rap. It's about 7:45PM, and I'm pretty happy. From here on out, the night just started getting ugly.
We're in the summertime pattern, so thunderstorms can come up at any time - which were somewhat expected for Friday night. We'd been hoping for a little breeze, since it was hot and humid when we started. We got one. A storm started blowing in, and the wind hit about 25-30 mph. Just played havoc with the boat, and since I'm on the front, I get just about no fishing time in for about 30-45 minutes near a bridge and rip-rap (also very close to restriced water). We then move down lake, to an area away from the storm, near the dam since the storm is moving in.
I get a call from the wife, indicating that the storm is heading our way. We're sitting near the dam, under some big electrical lines (going out from the generator), when all of a sudden bright lights, crackling sounds and a loud pop go off. I just about dive out of the boat. Then I realized it was someone on the other side of the dam shooting off fireworks.
Ran back up the lake, looking for shelter, because the storm is coming close, and the lightning is getting pretty steady. Stayed near the big bridge for awhile, and then returned to fishing. Of course, a pretty good rain entailed, so we slipped on the rain suits, and continued to fish.
Partner picks up one fish on a buzz bait. We continue down the shore for about 30 minutes, hitting those buzz baits hard. Get ready to move, and the big battery won't crank the engine. I had wondered about the batteries, because there's just no way to know how well they've been taken care of, and these were off brands. Took my new jumper cables (yeah - did something right) and got us started up. After idling for about 5 minutes, the battery got enough charge to disconnect the jumpers. We then rode around the lake at about 40mph for 35-45 minutes, just to charge the battery.
Next I start having all kinds of tackle problems. Line problems, reel problems, tangles, etc. One of my rigs, with a new spinnerbait on it, had somewhat of an overrun that I could feel with my thumb. So to be safe, I decided to peel line until it was taken off, then re-spool it with the proper tension on it. A little preventive measure. After I just about got it cleared, the line broke. I cleaned up the old line, put my spinner away, and put the rod/reel back in the locker.
All this time (2-3 hours), and I've probably not fished for more than 30 minutes at most, and certainly haven't gotten any more bites/fish. I decided to go back to a smaller crank bait, and spent about 10 minutes threading the line from the 'overrun reel', back on the rod and got the crankbait tied on. I check the tension setting on the reel, check the brake, make sure that the crankbait is running true, then cast it towards shore. It went about 20 feet, and stopped. Guess I should have checked how much line was left on the reel!
I put everything away except for one rod, and it was laid on the deck. I just piloted the boat around. Got back to the ramp, and was loading the boat. Everything going smoothly, except that this ramp was shallower, and my prop starts to bounce off the concrete. No damage done, but I thought I was about to buy a new SS prop.
Once at the weigh in, the real sour point of the night came. Virtually all teams, except ours and one other, had nice limits.
Closet I've come to throwing gear overboard on purpose. I figure that about 9:00PM or so, I 'tuned' out for the night. After that, it would have taken a miracle for<
Moved to a main point off a major creek arm, and I got a nice chunk off of rip-rap. It's about 7:45PM, and I'm pretty happy. From here on out, the night just started getting ugly.
We're in the summertime pattern, so thunderstorms can come up at any time - which were somewhat expected for Friday night. We'd been hoping for a little breeze, since it was hot and humid when we started. We got one. A storm started blowing in, and the wind hit about 25-30 mph. Just played havoc with the boat, and since I'm on the front, I get just about no fishing time in for about 30-45 minutes near a bridge and rip-rap (also very close to restriced water). We then move down lake, to an area away from the storm, near the dam since the storm is moving in.
I get a call from the wife, indicating that the storm is heading our way. We're sitting near the dam, under some big electrical lines (going out from the generator), when all of a sudden bright lights, crackling sounds and a loud pop go off. I just about dive out of the boat. Then I realized it was someone on the other side of the dam shooting off fireworks.
Ran back up the lake, looking for shelter, because the storm is coming close, and the lightning is getting pretty steady. Stayed near the big bridge for awhile, and then returned to fishing. Of course, a pretty good rain entailed, so we slipped on the rain suits, and continued to fish.
Partner picks up one fish on a buzz bait. We continue down the shore for about 30 minutes, hitting those buzz baits hard. Get ready to move, and the big battery won't crank the engine. I had wondered about the batteries, because there's just no way to know how well they've been taken care of, and these were off brands. Took my new jumper cables (yeah - did something right) and got us started up. After idling for about 5 minutes, the battery got enough charge to disconnect the jumpers. We then rode around the lake at about 40mph for 35-45 minutes, just to charge the battery.
Next I start having all kinds of tackle problems. Line problems, reel problems, tangles, etc. One of my rigs, with a new spinnerbait on it, had somewhat of an overrun that I could feel with my thumb. So to be safe, I decided to peel line until it was taken off, then re-spool it with the proper tension on it. A little preventive measure. After I just about got it cleared, the line broke. I cleaned up the old line, put my spinner away, and put the rod/reel back in the locker.
All this time (2-3 hours), and I've probably not fished for more than 30 minutes at most, and certainly haven't gotten any more bites/fish. I decided to go back to a smaller crank bait, and spent about 10 minutes threading the line from the 'overrun reel', back on the rod and got the crankbait tied on. I check the tension setting on the reel, check the brake, make sure that the crankbait is running true, then cast it towards shore. It went about 20 feet, and stopped. Guess I should have checked how much line was left on the reel!
I put everything away except for one rod, and it was laid on the deck. I just piloted the boat around. Got back to the ramp, and was loading the boat. Everything going smoothly, except that this ramp was shallower, and my prop starts to bounce off the concrete. No damage done, but I thought I was about to buy a new SS prop.
Once at the weigh in, the real sour point of the night came. Virtually all teams, except ours and one other, had nice limits.
Closet I've come to throwing gear overboard on purpose. I figure that about 9:00PM or so, I 'tuned' out for the night. After that, it would have taken a miracle for<
