Winter Saugeye Trip

With the snow coming down outside it makes me want to be fishing now more than ever. I had been dreading this winter and the long stretch of not being able to make it out fishing.

I did make it out the weekend before Christmas to try some Saugeye fishing in a river running out of Hoover lake. There is a little pool that I heard had produced a few years back this time of year. I was bored and couldn't handle being in the house any longer so Mizike, Gene and I decided to give it a try.

We got out of the house late around 2. By the time we stopped by Gene's house and waited on him forever to gather all of his supplies we made it to the river about 3:30. Only a couple of hours of daylight left.

We had 2 pairs of hip waders so I waded to an island and took mine off and Gene waded them back to Mizike so he could get out to the island then I got them back and waded to the middle of the stream.

I used a green twist tail on a 1/4 oz. head and cast and drug it along the bottom back to me. After a bunch of casts I tried a white twist tail still with no luck. The water was down a little and it had been a while since they would have let a lot of water out of the dam. I think there were not that many fish in the pool.

It started to snow while we were out there and the view down there was pretty awesome. I could see the guys were starting to get a little ancy so I said at least I usually snag something outta here when I fish this spot. A couple casts later Gene said I got something and his pole was doubled over.

He got the fish to him and lifted it out of the water. He had snagged a carp in the dorsal fin. It had been so long since we had caught any fish Mizike and I were pretty jealous. We started ripping out lures through the water where Gene had released the carp.

It was getting late and I had to take my kids to see Santa so we got ready to leave. I waded over to shore and acted like I was going to leave Mizike stranded on the island. He yelled out "I knew you were going to do that." I took off my waders and slid them down the bank to Gene so he could wade them back across. We were joking about dunking the waders so Mizike would have to get wet anyway but that would have been really mean.

Gene started across the little stretch of water between the island and shore and went to throw the waders the rest of the way. The wader caught the only branch around and landed in the water. Mizike complained the whole way home about his wet frost bitten foot. It wasn't really frost bitten but I'm sure it was cold from the temperature of that water and then the air on the hike back to the car.

It was good to get out even for just a little bit. I am thinking that after this snow melts and they let some water out of Hoover lake the fishing in that spot will really be hot. I might have to sneak back and give it a try if the conditions are right. Ice fishing is probably in the near future as well as Indian lake is getting snowmobile traffic already. I heard a report that a couple guys made it out for 3 hours the other day and both limited out on saugeye.

Hoover Lake Fall Crappie

The recliner was pretty comfortable yesterday after a full night of drinking rum on Saturday. Mizike said "Let's go fishing". I finished the game of poker I had already started then we started loading the Blazer with fishing supplies. My 3 year old heard fishing and wanted to go too. I took him even though it was a little chilly and I knew he was going to whine a lot about being cold.

We made it to Hoover lake about 3:30 PM. I had fished a spot 4 years ago that had good crappie fishing but could not remember where it was at. We drove around looking for it for a while before we realized that we needed to get to fishing since we didn't have a lot of time before dark. We started under a bridge that was above a small cove. I had a few nibbles in the rocks under the bridge using a white beetle spin. My son played around and was having fun.

We packed up the Blazer and drove some more looking for my secret honey hole (so secret even I can't find it again). We found another promising spot on a penninsula that went out in the lake a ways. It had a cove on one side and islands around in front of it. There was a road that went clear out to the point with water on both sides. We fished a couple small coves with no luck. Then went to fish the rocks on the sides of the road.

It started getting cooler as it got dark and my son started whining a lot about being cold. I got his blanket and sat him down and put his blanket around him. He was still whining but I knew he would be o.k. until dark.

I fished around some laydowns and had a few nibbles on the beetle spin but missed getting them hooked. I lost a couple jig heads with skirts in the laydown. Then I fished under a mat of leaves that had blown into the corner of the cove. I saw a fish raise in the leaves and dropped my skirt down in that area and started to twitch it. After a few minutes I got the crappie to bite and reeled it in. I hadn't caught a fish in over a month so it felt really good to catch that little crappie.

We left shortly after that as it was getting dark. I saw a little activity but the fish might have been turned off by the cold rains we have been getting. The lake was up quite a bit and had quite a few green bushes in the water.

Mizike has been borrowing the Blazer since he hit the deer. This morning he text me and said that the Blazer's motor is knocking. The other day we noticed that our front van tire has slashes through the tread all the way to the steel belting. Out of the 5 vehicles we have at the house only 2 are drivable now. I hope that I can figure something out before next spring. I definately can't afford another vehicle payment right now.

Tonight I have the bass club meeting. My wife is going to drop me off and pick me up for that since we are riding together to work to save on gas money. I will be there an hour early and then wait for her to drive the 30 miles to come pick me up when it is done.

I need to start ebaying again to come up with some extra cash for tires, fishing, christmas, and everthing else that is piling up while we're trying to get debt paid down.