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.

Weekend Overview

This weekend the girls wanted to do something other than fishing so Mizike and I did what was needed and allowed the girls to plan the weekend.

Friday evening we watched some movies and had Chinese food. About 11:00 we started drinking for some reason. Mizike got home shortly after that and we finished watching Yes Man and played some Karaoke on the PS2 until 4 a.m. We were up around 10:00 with the kids. The girls wanted to hike at hocking hills. We made it down there around 1:00 and walked around the flea market for a while. I found a gift for my mother. After that, we headed to Old Man's Cave. We took a short hike around the cave and by the time we got back to the beginning everybody was worn out. Could have been from the festivities the evening before. We ate ice cream then headed back home.

I had to return the movies to Redbox so Mizike and his girlfriend rode with me. We stopped at the Liquor store and picked up a few bottles then went to a couple of game stores. We got a Rayman game for the Wii that turned out to be pretty fun. We played that into the wee hours of the night.

Sunday I got up as Dad was calling. He was overly excited. He told me that he had just landed a 27 inch 6 1/2 pound walleye at a lake in Kansas. He was jigging for crappie with a 3 1/2 foot ultralight pole with 4 pound test and had the monster hit. He battled with it for quite a while. It had him hung up in trees twice before he finally got it to the boat to net it. He had thought he had hooked into a Wiper or a Catfish. Then as it got close to the boat he saw the white dot on its tail and realized he had a walleye.

It's not to often you get a fish like that. Especially this time of year. A couple months ago that fish would have went 8 pounds easy. I have never gotten one that big in the boat. I've had 2 up to the boat before they got off. Dad is a very good fisherman though and has bagged a few monsters. I know he has caught 2 walleye over 8 pounds.

My wife and I were going to go to the zoo but she decided to clean the house a little instead. After Dad's call I couldn't take it any longer. I grabbed my extendable pen size pole a small size 12 dry fly hook, a split shot, bobber and some worms and went down on the creek behind my house. It is a city watershed but looks like a small creek. I had never fished it but knew there was some decent sized creek chubs in there.

Mizike looked at me like I was crazy. I told him I would be back inside in just a minute when I caught the first one to show him you could catch fish back there. I dropped a worm down next to the shore and bam I had a bite. I lifted out a small bream. I ran inside and showed Mizike. He was surprised I caught something. I went back down and attached my bobber about a foot above the hook and cast out into the pool. As soon as it hit the bobber went under and took off. I realed in a 6 inch creek chub. It was fat. I ran that one back inside and Mizike got a look on his face that he wanted to go down too. He got the look from his girlfriend that said, if you do you will be sleeping on the couch, so he stayed inside.

I walked back down and caught a 6 inch shiner, another smaller creek chub, more bream and a decent sized bluegill. I saw some fish at a log Jam a little ways down. They looked big enough to be bass. I couldn't walk the shoreline due to the side of the water I was on had washed the bank away and there was a steep 10 foot cliff between me and the jam. I decided to go around and come in on the back side of the log jam.

I walked through the woods down a deer trail until I came to the water on the other side then followed the bank back to the log jam. The woods are covered in briars and brush. I had to make myself small and pretty much crawl through the debree until I reached the log jam. Once I got there I dropped my piece of worm in 2 spots before a fish stole it. Right after that I saw 3 large bluegill swimming around taunting me. I had not brought any more worm.

I decided that the way I came in was not great so I would go up the embankment to get to the deer trail. I was pushing tangled brush out of my way as I made my way to the top. All of a sudden a thorny vine wrapped around my head and all of the thorns stabbed into my skull at the same time from ear to ear. I was stuck for a second or 2. I reached up and peeled the thorns out of my head and into my hand at the same time. By the time I got out of the 20 foot section I walked through I was scraped and scratched from head to toe.

I went back inside and played Wii then took a nap. My backyard had turned into one of my greater adventures so far this year. At some point this summer I would like to wade and fish one of the rivers going through town. I also want to rent a canoe south of town and float fish. I have been wanting to do both and think I will this summer.

Lake Erie Weekend

Mizike took Friday off and we had plans to head to Lake Erie for the weekend. Mizike me and his girlfriend were going to take off Friday morning and drive to Lake Erie. We would find a campsite when we got there sign up for a head boat on Saturday evening and then go fish that evening then come back to camp and drink and have fun.

Thursday at work got a little crazy and I had to come in Friday to sort some things out. I worked for 2.5 hours from 8 to 10:30. I got home and we were on the road by noon.

We stopped at KFC / Long John Silvers on our way out of town. We ordered our food and they said they were out of biscuits and it would take about 9 minutes for them to be done. We decided we would wait so the drive through guy gave us our drinks for free. That saved us 5 bucks for 9 minutes of our time. They had us pull forward to wait.

Mizike was complaining because the last 2 times he stopped KFC was out of Crispy Chicken and this time they were out of biscuits. About 2 minutes into waiting a guy brought our food out. I thought it was strange so I had Mizike's girlfriend check through the bag to make sure everything was there. We were missing fries from one of the meals and all of the biscuits.

I pulled into a parking stall and Mizike went racing inside to complain. He was very irritated. By the time I got inside he was already calm. He said the guy that brought the food out got yelled at for taking the food out too quickly. As I was sitting there waiting they told another guy they were out of wings. They must have the worst order person of all time working there to be out of so much all the time. Looks like I know a good place to get free soda's.

It was not long and we were on the road again. It took about 3 hours with a gas stop to reach the lake. Mizike and his girlfriend had never been there. We went over Sandusky Bay. It was really neat. Then drove into Port Clinton. It reminds you of a small beach town next to the ocean. They thought it was really awesome especially the bridge that raises up to let boats through.

We stopped at Fisherman's Wharf to sign up for a head boat. I always go there because the staff is super friendly and helpful every time. They were booked full for Saturday. They said they would put us on reserve and call us if a spot opened. They had lots of openings on Sunday so we were o.k. with that. They helped us locate some primitive camping next to the portage river so we went to check it out.

At first we were skeptical about the campground. It was full of year round campers but had one small area for tents with a firering and picnic tables. We drove and checked out East Harbor State Campground. It was nice but not near the water and they don't allow alcoholic beverages so we opted for the private campground.

We set up camp and headed to the river to wet some lines. Mizike's girlfriend caught a small rock bass right away. She then caught a sheephead. Mizike followed with a catfish. I didn't have any luck. My worm was drowned and untouched by the time we left.

We had saw a sign for Crabby Joe's on the way to East Harbor so we drove back that way to find Crabby Joe's. We found it a little past the campground. It didn't look great from the outside but on the inside had a deck over the water so it seemed worth the stop. A band started playing right after we got there and they had awesome food. I got the walleye platter. Mizike got the cheeseburger and his girlfriend got the crab legs. We split an order of clams served in a beer pitcher. They were fantastic.

They had a claw game that had lobsters in it. If you caught a lobster and dropped it they would cook it and serve it with baked potato and a full meat. It was 2.00 to play and Mizike tried it. He started moving the claw and a crowd gathered around. He got a good grab from the far side of the tank and the claw lifted the lobster out of the water. It was slow moving across the tank. Right as it got to the other side the lobster started moving and slid out of the claw. Another 2 inches and he'd have been lobster dinner.

We had a fantastic dinner and a couple drinks then headed back to camp after buying some firewood. We got the fire started then Mizike grabbed a stick that had been in the fire pit and laid it across to burn. I started to grab it back out to use as a poker and Mizike say's "Don't grab that stick." I asked why. He said, "I got poo on my hands." His girfriend says "Poo Poo?" I look down as Mizike says "Yes Poo Poo!" and see something dripping off the end of the stick. Somebody had stabbed poo with it and thrown it in the pit to be burned and Mizike had grabbed the bad end.

Mizike headed towards the bathroom to wash his hands while we burned his poo stick. A little after we left we heard 2 cats making screaching noises. We joked that Mizike had been attacked for smelling like dog poo. It took a while and when Mizike returned he looked very unhappy. He said that when he had gotten the poo of his hands he had needed to poo himself. The light switch was on a timer and as he was taking care of business he realized he had taken too long when he heard a click and darkness fell upon him. He had to use the light of his cell phone to finish.

The rest of the night was filled with drinking, and drinking, and drinking. At one point I watched as Mizike grabbed a burning end of a log and rotated it. He had just pulled it out of the fire to burn the log in 2. I yelled stop but it was too late. He had ahold of it and didn't realize it was hot. I had him put his hand in the cooler right away and after a couple of seconds he felt the burning.

We made a lot of stick jokes the rest of the weekend. We were able to get out on the headboat Saturday evening but a coldfront moved through so we only caught a couple of walleye before they quit biting. The rest of the weekend was pretty uneventful.

We did stop at Wal-mart on Sunday and purchase a Spiderman 2 piece pole for my oldest son and fished off a pier. Mizike caught a bullhead catfish. We didn't have any luck other than that.