Mothers day non-yak at Lake of the Pines

As part of her Mother's Day "gift package"  I told Maggie that Sunday was her day to do whatever she wanted, on me. Well I lucked out, because one of the things that she wanted was to go out on our cataraft as a family and do a little fishing.  Let me tell you, if you think that you take too long rigging your kayak before you can launch, you ain't see nothing till you ready a 14' cat for fishing. Eventually, as in 2 hours later, I get the boat on the water. The adults need to fish one at a time while the other holds James. James was pretty cranky at having to wear his pint-sized PFD, and thus needed to be held, rather than sit in his seat. As time went on though he got bored/tired and he fell asleep on top of our life vests and windbreakers in the Action Packer That alone was pretty darn cute, and was worth the trip and in and of itself.

We start out trading off the baby and the fishing rod though. Maggie is having all sorts of problems casting at the beginning. She's releasing the line too soon or too late, and soon get's frustrated and hands me the rod. Sure enough, my third cast, I hook a P-I-G pig.  It's zipping through the weeds, but to no avail, as it's on the Hawginator rod - MH action and with 20 lb powerpro and 20 lb fluorocarbon leader. I get her to the boat and bad news, she's hooked a bit deep, and bleeding pretty good. I have to get her out of the water and onto the mesh floor of the cataraft. I am able to easily put my whole hand in her mouth to work the jig loose. It takes about a minute to do this. I don't like keeping fish out of the water this long, even if they are lying on the very wet mesh floor of the cataraft, So I decide to put her in the water ASAP. The idea being that I'd let her revive a bit before getting a quick measurement. She goes ballistic immediately though, and get's away. She's swimming very strongly, so there's some hope for her despite the previous bleeding. This was definitely a personal best LMB for me, I only wish I knew just how big she was. 

I offer Maggie the rod again, pointing her to a hole where I'd seen a bass hit something on the surface. She's still having problems with early release, and just can't get the lure to the hole. So again she gets tired of putting the jig into the weeds, and we swap the baby for the rod again. I put the jig into the hole on the first cast, and hook up solidly again. This time with a 19" fish that looks pretty small compared to the one previous. This time I get to let the baby get a good look at the fish. He's entranced. A good sign, I hope

We continue on to the eternal honey hole, where Maggie eventually get's the hang of casting again, sticking a good sized fish, but it does a long distance release. We then start heading back, as it's close to sundown and starting to get cool. We stop at one last spot close to the launch ramp, and Maggie get's two fish to the boat for 4 hits. Both of these are nice fish in the 15-16" range. As soon as we get back to the launch, Maggie heads off with James so they both don't get too chilly. I get to deal with the boat. At least tearing it apart, getting it on the truck, and putting it away when I get home only takes an hour. All in all, a great day on the water, even if it wasn't on a yak.

Scott

P.S. I'd been trying all evening to pick up a fish on a Spook. As soon as the cat is on my truck, I take one last cast, and get my topwater fish. It wasn't all that big though, and self releases just as I get it at my feet near shore. I love this time of year. The fishing possibilities are endless.