Easter Sunday, Day One of Vacation:
Dad and I wake up early, so we can go to the resort, get our fishing liscenses, Reelfoot Permits, bait, etc... But first things first, Dad and I went to the gas station, got some food, and had ourselves an Easter Breakfast. Everything was fine, except the fact that it was cold, and extremely windy. But we figured what the hell, we are here to fish, lets go and find a place to fish.
We get down to the spillway, and see a few people standing along side this little ditch puddle looking thing. The first thing I notice is that the water is just roaring on past, because of all the rain and flooding a lot of water needed to be drained out of said spillway. The next thing I notice, and Dad noticed too, was that people were there with giant catfish gear. 7 foot rods, huge reels with 80 lb test line. - Note - I know most of you dont fish, or even like fishing, but trust me on this, the gear they are using is freakin huge. We also see gian fish, stacked like cordwood on the shore. After a little while, its obvious that the fish wont bite, so we decide to go back, get our gigantic catfish gear, and come back to the spillway. We couldnt get out on the boat, so this was the next best thing.
Upon arriving back to the spillway, more people are there, with their big fish gear, and snagging hooks. Carp are considered "rough fish" meaning that there is no size limit, no bag limit, and generally, they dont want you to throw them back. People keep these fish just to throw into gardens, they dont taste good, but make damn fine fertalizer.
Dad and I are used to snagging, there is a brief season for snagging salmon and trout on Lake Michigan, so here is what you do. You take a really really big treble hook (three pronged hook, with a gap about 2 inches, freakin huge). A big weight, 2 or 3 ounces (also freaking huge), and whats funny, this water was so fast it was making a 3 ounce weight not hold bottom. Very very fast. You then cast said freakishly large hook and weight into the water, and begin ripping it back. The desired result is to hook said fish in the tail, giving the best fight.
We got a couple, maybe 20-30 pounds. But by no means is this a big fish. Dad and I watched a guy bring in TWO new Tennessee state records, the first fish, being about 75 lbs. The next one, blew it out of the water, literally and figuratively, 102 lbs. That big 'ol bastard was just a beast.
We got cold, so we decided to ride around, look for other places to fish, stopped at a couple of "water shed lakes" these are just gravel pits used to hold flood waters, and hold them they did. Every body of water was stained, and flooded. This one particular water shed, had a racist name, which I will not mention here because of Adam's rules and I just dont want to. Trust me on this one, I thought it was a joke until I saw Ranger's map.
We go back to the trailer, watch a Die Hard movie, do a little more riding around, and go to sleep.
Tomorrow, another exciting chapter in "Schultzie's Tails of Fishing Mis-Adventures". If you want to get an idea of what my Monday was like, go and Youtube "Bill Dance"
Later Guys
