Getting Outfished by a 3 Year Old - Cont.

We got to the lake around 3 PM and started setting up camp. Mizike's girlfriend was watching her new puppy and my wife was watching our 2 kids so I pretty much had to set up camp by myself.

I set up the tent and got out the air mattresses and went to blow them up. My wife mentions that our air filler had been moved from the camping supplies to our bedroom somehow and must still be there. There was a Wal-mart about 15 minutes away so instead of running an hour back home we drove to Wal-mart and picked up a new one that is rechargeable. I had been wanting the rechargeable type anyway.

We got back to the lake about 4 and by 5 had the camp completely set up and were heading to the water. The wind was blowing pretty hard and the lake had 2 foot swells. I was glad we had the pontoon. I knew I could not keep it in one spot even with the trolling motor or anchors so I decided to troll the points to see if we could pick up a Musky or a Walleye. I put a green rapala on my son's scooby pole and I put on a perch colored rapala. We started down the West bank north of Cheshire road where I have had some luck before.

We had not been trolling long. My son was letting his line out a little ways then reeling it back into the boat. He yelled out, "I got one, I got one." I figured it was just the pull of the lure in the water. I looked back and line is singing out of his scooby reel and his 2 1/2 foot rod is doubled over. I put the boat in neutral and reeled my line in. My son would pull up on the rod and reel it back down the drag sounding the whole time. I was pretty impressed with his fishing skill for a 3 year old. He got it close to the boat and handed the pole to his Mom who lifted the fish over the edge of the boat. It was about a 2 1/2 pound white bass. He had caught the 1st fish and there were 2 other witnesses in the boat so I couldn't even get out of that one. It also ended up being the biggest fish for the day and the weekend. I caught one crappie to tie for most that was big for a crappie but not big enough to beat the white bass.

We fished for about an hour then I took everybody back to shore so they could go back to camp and I could try some bass fishing. I fished around the State park boat ramp with a yellow and white spinnerbait but had no luck. It was still windy and I wanted to get supper started so I trailered the boat and headed back to camp.

I started a fire and everybody wanted hot dogs so I found a good stick and carved it into a fine hot dog cooking tool and proceeded to slow cook hot dogs for everybody over a nice bed of coals. We got the kids to bed at a decent time and had a few drinks then the girls went to bed. I stayed up until the fire burned down then went to bed as well.

The next day we got up and I called my buddy. He was planning on coming out on Sunday to fish with us. My wife's cell phone was dying and I needed to know when and where to pick him up. We packed up camp after I cooked up some sausages and toasted some bread over a fire. Then we launched the boat and headed out fishing again.

The sun was pretty intense. I had gotten a bit of a burn the previous day. It was calm in the morning though. I trolled over the spot we had caught the crappie and the white bass to see if we could get into the fish. We didn't have any luck so I boated back to the Northwest side of the lake in a cove by the islands to try a little bass fishing. I cast a brown 6" curltail worm into a shallow area of the cove with lots of fallen branches sticking out of the water. I felt a tap tap tap and set the hook. It was a nice 12" largemouth.

We had trolled all the way back to that spot and had fished around another cove. We also had to idle back to the main lake area so we left that spot to go pick up my buddy. We met him at the Cheshire ramp and had lunch. The girls and kids headed home as everybody was feeling a little burnt and hot. It was about 86 degrees.

While we were eating the wind picked up. I asked my buddy if he wanted to go after some crappie. He said ok. The wind was too strong to hold the boat in one area again on the main lake so we headed back towards the river. We stopped at the first cove on the East side of the lake past hwy 36 and fished it. We didn't get a bite right away so I layed down on the pontoon and fell asleep with my line dangling over in the water.

I woke up about 20 minutes later sweating. My buddy had walked around the cove and did not have any luck. We decided to keep heading up the river. We went under the next bridge (i'm not sure which road that is) and saw a lot of boats and people fishing the west bank. We found a spot that nobody was fishing. I liked it because it had a tiny cove where a little stream ran into the lake. We pulled the boat onto land and walked back into the little cove. It was covered with branches in the water. I cast with a pink jig head and crappie skirt into the branches. I got a bite but missed it. A few casts later my buddy caught a small sunfish and tossed it at my feet in the water. I caught a small sunny a few casts after that and let it go. I walked to the mouth of the cove to try it. I caught a 9 1/2 inch crappie and put it in the livewell. We caught a couple more crappie in that spot but felt we had fished it out for the time being.

Ont the East side there was a cove with a little island. We boated to the backside of the island and saw some trees layed over in the water. We tied off to them and started to fish next to the trees. We found the spot and started smashing the crappie. About every four or five casts we were reeling one in. We ended up keeping about 22 that were mainly over 10 inches and throwing everything else back. I didn't think we had that many or we would have thrown a few more back before leaving. I don't like cleaning a lot of fish at once. We probably caught about 100 crappie out of that spot.

One time I cast under the tree and hooked a crappie. I was pulling him out and he got loose. My lure came flying out of the water and right behind it a gigantic largemouth came out after it. He tried to catch it mid air but missed. I haven't seen a bass that size in Ohio. He was 5 1/2 to 6 lbs. I cast right back in there and caught another crappie. I think the next five casts into that spot I caught a crappie.

We lost a lot of jigs in the structure but had a fantastic day. We left with about an hour of daylight left to get back to the docks by dark. We had to idle 3/4 of the way due to no wake zone. We got back and got the boat unloaded right at dark. We took the boat to storage and headed to find a Chinese buffett. It is a tradition of ours to eat Chinese Buffett after a good day of fishing. We got back to Columbus a little after 10 so by the time we got to the Chinese place it was closed. I was not to hungry and wanted to get the fish cleaned so we parted ways.

I got home and had the fish cleaned and was ready for bed by 11:30. I got a picture of the fish I will try to post on here. It might take me some time to figure it out though.