A couple nights and a day

The last week or so I haven't gotten to fish as much as I'd like. It probably still seems like a lot to normal people like say my wife but it wasn't as much as I'd like. So to stretch things out a bit I got out at night for and hour or so after work a few times. Throwing big curly shads trying for a shovelhead. Which I caught three of this week but they just weren't very big. I did have a good one on one night but it pulled the hook in the middle of a strong run. If you have never been out in the middle of the night throwing a big swim bait or a lipless crankbait for shovelheads your missing the next big undiscovered thing in fishing, its a blast.

But today I had free to fish. Gloriously free. I was supposed to meet someone on the water but he didn't show so I headed out solo. Solo at dawn can be a good thing. A deer bounded off thru the dark while squirrels and birds mobbed a mulberry tree. I helped myself to a few also as the path was covered in dark purple fruit. Just keep to the purple ones, the unripe ones have hallucinogenic properties. I remember one person stating they ate unripe mulberries as a child and the whole world turn to liquid for a day! Supposedly native peoples ate them to induce visions. Come to think of it I did fall flat twice today wading and I'm usually a pretty good wader.

It was a good day. First a decent hybrid stopped the grub in mid drift. Then a tiny smallmouth bopped the jig pretending it was a bigger fish. A half an hour later a much nicer stripe slammed the grub and the drag lit up with that beautiful sound. Although skinny the fish stretched the tape to 25 inches. After that things began to slow. The phone beeped. It was Dan, his day also freed itself up and we met at the river. Already afield I got there first and caught a dandy channel and a big ole carp before Dan arrived. Oh and I climbed out of the river over a steep little bank and walked right into a campsite. Everybody was still asleep except for a pretty girl in the middle of a wardrobe change. I don't know who was more startled her or I but apologized as fast as I could and split before anyone else woke up. Dan showed up and then proceeded to catch a couple small hybrids while I a few feet away caught zero. From there we wandered to yet another spot where a few more channels were caught and a couple pretty smallmouth. I think Dan's was 16 or so while I got lucky and a nineteen inch fish hit my grub. I know it doesn't quite look it but it was, I taped it. It's just the Dan the
photo guy obviously hates me and tried to make it look smaller than it was Tired and whipped but happy with some quality fish I left leaving Dan there fishing. I had to pass back by camp to leave and everybody was awake this time but friendly. But later Dan said the girl I saw half naked caught a huge smallmouth and stuffed it in a cooler so maybe they weren't so cool after all...