Sunday Report

[Looseties]

Any report is better than none at all. Launch at Ivy Hill about 7:00 PM on Sunday evening for a night of "fish on" fun or at least we thought. Back out to try night striper fishing under lights and stayed within 2 miles of the ramp. Sounded the area before settling in on the main channel after marking bait and a few arches on the graph. Using the Sibiki rigs we attempted to catch bait, but could not come up with anything of size after about 1-1/2 hours and prepared to move. It was at this time that the starter bendix decided to go out on the boat. Lucky were were still within a mile or two of the dock. We proceeded to head into the wind and picked another spot to drop the light. Over the course of the next 3-4 hours, we picked up small bait, two very large crappie (1-1/2# each and two baby stripers (8" or so long)...all in 70 foot of water. Around 3:00 AM, Firecap and I headed to the launch under trolling motor power. The water temp was still in the low 80s. One word of caution to anyone on the lake at night....watch for rafts of loons or what we think were loons. Within about 100 yards of the dock, we saw something in the water about 25 yards in front of us. Of course we switched on the spotlight and woke a flock of sleeping birds. The caution part: bird can fly at night pretty well, but can be blinded by a spot light. We had one water run directly to us and take flight, right to the light. By the time we reacted to it, it flew directly between us giving us the old shoulder tap with its wings. I'm surprised it did not get hung up on any of the rods or anchor light. It actually was pretty funny, small boat and two grown men trying to duck for cover at the same time. That experience and the 40 or so deer standing on the road during the trip home at 4:00 AM was about enough nature as I would like to have in one trip. All in all, nice to be on the lake; good moon, nice breeze, fun night.
Tie em' tight,
Looseties