Whoops!
I sent my brother a text message as I was leaving the boat dock at Lake Mary late last night. Technically it was first thing this morning. I had to tell him what just happened to me.
I had been looking forward to doing a little catfishing out by the boat ramp for a couple of days. I haven’t had any luck out at Lake Mary, but I keep trying; the very definition of insanity, I know. My brother calls the lake, “Lake Maybe”, when he’s being nice. A dirty whore of a lake that takes and takes and never gives anything back when he’s not. Many bobbers, weights, hooks and bait are gobbled up by the lake with little to no return of fish.
Last night I headed out with two poles and other gear to try to hook an elusive fish. I forgot my landing net (which I seem to do quite frequently) and I got out to the lake much later than I thought I would, around 9:00. I fished with anchovies and catfish bait for most of the night. The anchovies were stripped off the hook by those roaches of the water, crayfish. The catfish bait might have been as well.
I fished from shore because even though it was late there were still boats on the water and the dock was a bit busy. I was really hoping to have the boat dock to fish from, but the lake didn’t clear out until around 11:00pm. I moved over to the dock once everyone left the parking lot and continued my less than stellar fishing experience. About 12:30am, I pulled the remaining bait from one of my lines and thought just for the heck of it I’ll put on a lure and cast out a few times. I walked to the furthest end of the dock and cast and reeled in three times. I heard the bell attached to my other rod start to jingle and turned to grab the pole sitting about 20 feet away. I could make out the pole bobbing up and down in the dark. The fish hit the drag and it zzzzzzipped out. Six feet away from the pole it dropped off the pickle bucket that it was propped on and headed toward open water. I dropped down onto my knees to reach for it, but my hand only grabbed air. I missed the pole by two or three feet. Somewhere in the lake is a fish with a pole mounted over its fireplace.
I guess I will have to use some kind of light rope to secure my poles when I’m fishing this way. I guess we chalk that up to a life lesson.
