Wakonda Lake Vacation

After the Deer Creek on Sunday I got home and finished mowing, packed the van with camping and fishing gear and we were finally on the road late that evening.

The next day around 2:00 P.M we arrived at Waconda Lake. We spent some time in the campground as the wind was blowing around 30 m.p.h. In the evening Dad, Mom, Leo and I drove over to the marina to fish for some crappie.

It was excellent fishing and we got a half a bucket of 12-14 inchers for a meal. We threw a lot of fish back due to not having freezer room to freeze fish yet.




We were going to celebrate Gavin's 2nd birthday but he fell asleep so we had to wait until Tuesday to celebrate.



That night I did not put up my tent due to the storm that was blowing in. A little before dark it finally reached us. We had been watching the lightning and the wall cloud as it approached. It blew in with some fury and we were scrambling to finish getting everything tied down. The wind kicked up to about 60 mph. June bugs were getting blown out of the trees and they kept whacking me upside the face over and over again along with the blowing sand until I finally made it into Mom and Dad's 5th wheel.



The next morning the wind had died down and we eventually made it out to the lake. We caught a ton of crappie and a few short walleye trolling. We came back into camp when it got hot then that evening went out for another hour before dark.



Again at dark a storm was rolling in. This one had produced a tornado a ways away at a town named Gove. We decided that since the wind was not blowing as hard the storms wind would not be too strong. Wrong! We woke up with the tent slapping us in the face due to broken poles and lightning striking all around us. We grabbed the kids and scrambled to the camper. I grabbed some bedding and dropped the tent so the poles that were not broken would stay that way.

The next morning the camp was waterlogged. I put the tent back up and drained the massive amounts of water out of it. There was also a lot of bedding and air beds to dry out.

We went out fishing again and Mom caught a nice 21" walleye and her and Dad both caught a crappie that were almost 16". We kept several other crappie since we had the walleye to clean. Dad caught a 4 pound drum and I caught a 4 1/2 pound drum in the same spot a while later. I also got a 2 1/2 pound catfish casting a bomber with a spiderman pole for bass along a shoreline in the creek. I had a good cast between a couple bushes in the water. There was a wake as the fish took off toward the crank. That was quite a fight as he kept diving under the boat and stripping line off the little reel. There was a funny moment later when Dad had a hard time getting back in the boat after we stopped on bank for a break. Mom was laughing so hard she couldn't breath and Dad was stuck in quite an uncomfortable position. I had to get a picture instead of helping him in.





Christina drove to her Mother's house to do some laundry since her and the kids bag of cloths had been left in the tent the night before.

She brought back my nephew Peyton to do some fishing with us. I got into some white bass off the bank along with some crappie, walleye, and smallmouth before dark. I took Peyton back down there just after dark and did not have any luck.

The next morning we went back to the point and I hooked into a large gar that I fought for almost an hour with my microlight crappie pole with 6 lb test. I would get her close to shore then he would go on a run and strip most of my line off. Peyton had time to walk back to camp to get the net. I finally got him into the rocks and Peyton went to net him but the net was way to small and she would slide right out of it. The group of boats that had gathered to watch the fight were a little disappointed when my line finally broke on the last attempt to get the fish onto the rocks to get ahold of it. I have to say I was a little disappointed too. It was one of the larger gar I had seen all week and would have loved to have gotten my picture taken with her.

Peyton was able to net a few of the other gar that swimming around the area and I had a few more bite my tiny dancer but couldn't get a good hook into their toothy snout.



We didn't make it out in the boat since my Grandparents came out to stay with us. Peyton and I tried the Marina again, this time with less luck. The east wind was changing the fishing.



The next day we got out in the boat and caught a lot of fish again. Peyton caught a nice 18 1/2" walleye. We all caught a lot of shorts and tons or crappie and white bass.



The following day we did a lot of catching fish to keep as it was my last day. It was hot and windy but we still caught a lot of fish trolling and drifting.

The last morning we awoke to a strong North wind blowing in a storm. The tent was slapping us in the face again. This time was leaking water and the poles were not holding any more. We quickly packed up all of our stuff and got in the camper while the storm passed through. I rolled up the tent we have had forever and got it ready for the trash bin. It was leaking water and the poles were annihilated. It battled with the Kansas winds and the Kansas winds gave it a whoopin.

We left the lake around 10:00. There were a lot of stops made on the way home. The drive back is just so long. We visited Bass Pro and picked out another tent. We stopped in Terra Haute and got a motel for the night then continued our drive the rest of the way home on Monday.

Alum Creek Suageye and Crappie

Saturday night after the tournament I was beat. Getting up at 3:30 in the morning is something I rarely do. It is more likely that I stay up until that time.

When I got home from the tournament and put the boat in the garage, Christina said that we should have a family movie night so I picked out some DVD's that were kid appropriate, sort of. Leo picked out The Hulk from the group so we sat down to watch it. The recliner sucked me in and after 15 or so minutes it was Z time. I woke up at the end of the movie and went to bed at 9:30 on a Saturday night. At 9:00 the next morning I awoke.

Gene was sleeping on the couch. Instead of waking him up in a conventional way, I got a dog toy and got Kimber's dog Hunter to jump up on him and run back and forth across him. Gene finally opened his eyes and we started to get the boat ready.

His brother Glenn wanted to go so we invited him along.

Once at Alum Creek we boated to a regular bass spot to try for some bass and the possibility of a bonus musky. Glenn hooked into the first fish on a nightcrawler he was dragging along the bottom behind the boat. When he got it to the boat we realized it was a saugeye, about a 17 incher. He took it off the hook and chucked it back in the water. Gene and I looked at each other then let Glenn know that he could have kept that fish. Glenn said he had never caught a saugeye before and didn't know they were good eating.

Gene hooked into the next 2 saugeye, a 16 and a 17 incher, with a Rapala Extreem Shad. We anchored the boat and rigged up worms to try to catch some more. It had been raining and a thunderstorm was approaching. The wind picked up and even in the tree surrounded cove the wind was blowing hard. Rain started pouring down. It was a quick passing storm. The fish stopped co-operating in that cove so we went to try the next cove over.

In the next cove we tried several areas with hardly any luck. Glenn cuaght a small catfish on his worm. I think most of the time we were moving the boat around trying to get those 2 out of snags. Finally we started making our way back out of the cove. I had saw a couple small swirls in the back of the cove and started using my tiny dancer as I thought they were crappie swirls.

A couple guys came down on the bank and started casting bobbers and minnows into the water. They asked if we had caught any crappie. I answered no and at that time Gene was hung up in a laydown again. We pulled over to the laydown for Gene to free his lure and I cast neer the structure and pulled out a crappie. I ended up catching about 50 crappie in that spot. There were a lot of small fish but I pulled out a few 10 inchers to keep. Gene was using the same thing and only managed to pull out 1 crappie. It was a slab measuring about 13 inches and made my 10 inchers look tiny.

That spot dried up after a while and Gene and Glenn wanted to try for some more saugeye so we made our way back to the first cove. We worked it all the way to the back of the cove and I found another crappie spot where I pulled out about another 50 crappie. This time only 2 keepers. Glenn pulled out a couple small bass and Gene finally catching a few crappie.

At one point when Glenn had snagged on the bank, Gene had pulled the boat to the bank to free the lure. We were next to a fallen tree in the water so once Gene got the lure I used my foot to push off the roots of the tree to get us back out away from bank. The roots were rotted and broke under the force causing me to lose my balance. I fell trying to make it back in the boat. Instead of falling outward or into the boat I fell straight down. My left leg made it in the water up to the knee before the trolling motor finally caught me right in between my legs. It stopped me from going into the lake but I don't know if it was worth it.

I sat down for a little bit recovering while Gene and Glenn had a good chuckle.

We tried one other spot for a while before giving it up for the day around 6:30. By the time we left we were all cold and soaked.

My First Fish of the Year

I made it out to Delaware lake today. After a long winter the ice is finally off most of the lakes and ponds in the area and I was able to pick up my first fish of the year. I found a slow spot in the river dumping into Delaware and popped a jig under a bobber in about 1 to 2 foot of water. I ended up catching about 10 crappie, 3 of which were well over 9 inches. I had 2 that touched 9 inches but it was close so they got to swim another day.


It started out nice today with it reaching close to 50 degrees, the last week has been great with temperatures around 55-70. I caught my 10 fish then it started blowing from the North and got chilly really fast. The fish were affected by it and I couldn't get any more bites once the cold wind hit.

You could tell the lake just finished with ice out as there were dead shad everywhere around the banks. The birds will eat good for a while.

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.

Indian Lake Tournament No Go

I got home from work on Friday and the parts had not came in. I e-mailed the person I bought them from and he said that he had shipped them ups instead of priority mail which was what was listed in his description. He said that the tracking shows that it would arrive on Monday.

I got on the computer and looked at a couple different sites to try to try to find some used parts to get me by until the hubs arrived. I found the same year blazer on craigslist that somebody was parting out. I called and he still had those parts but I wouldn't be able to get them until Sunday. That would be too late. I looked into rental cars but they do not allow towing. U-haul only allows you to pull U-haul trailers. I had a hitch lined up that u-haul would install on the mini-van and thought everything was going to work out but I found out that I needed to look at the specs for the van. Insurance will not cover an accident if you are pulling more than what the specs say you can haul. The van can pull 1500 pounds but the boat is close to 3000 pounds. I did find out that I might be able to rent a truck from a dealership but by the time I found that out it was Saturday night and I had to be at the lake by 6 am to register for the tournament and they were not open.

Team MiRketti was not able to make it to the tournament and were out 85.00. We did still want to fish though so we went down to Deer Creek lake and fished the dam for Crappie. I caught the first 10 incher on a 1/16 oz. jig head and black and green skirt and a couple more on a white skirt. Mizike caught quite a few more fish on bobber and minnow. My oldest boy had a few bites on jig and minnow but did not catch any. Mizike added 4 more to the stringer before my son started crying to go home. It was raining and a little chilly.

Friday night we stayed up until 5 AM going to the bar and having some after hours poker. I made up 15.00 that I lost on Sunday so I guess it was not too bad. Saturday I was up around 10 and was feeling pretty good so I watched some more dvr'd tv. When Mizike got up we headed out to do a little garage sale shopping. We only found 2 but got some pretty neat toys for the kids. It was a really nice day on Saturday.

The next 2 weekends Mizike is working so we will not have any tournaments. This weekend is supposed to be a very nice close to 80 degree weekend. I am weighing going camping at Alum Creek and fishing all weekend or loading up the wife and kids and heading to Tennessee, Kentucky, or West Virginia to see some more country.

I moved to Ohio from Kansas about 5 years ago and like to go on little trips each year to see some more of the country. We always find really cool places when we load the car and go. Two years ago we went to West Virginia and found a stream in the middle of nowhere that had lots of free camping all along it. There was hiking and bike trails close. There was also a cave close that had a resteraunt that had a killer breakfast for real reasonable prices. Last year we went to Kentucky on a whim to the cave area. We went down to see Dinosaur land but there was all kinds of things to see and do there.

I kind of like the idea of camping and fishing though. I would like to take my 3 year old and just the 2 of us spend the weekend camping and fishing.