Windy and wet

Windy and wet

Outdoors Columnist Nothing like a cold wet day with about 20 mph winds to ruin a fishing trip. Winds are worst than the rain for making a trip miserable and also very dangerous if you are boat fishing. I visited Horseshoe a couple of times last week and a surf board would have been more useful than a fishing pole. There were few boats at either Kare Free or Bonds public ramp. Wapanocca was not as bad because you can at least get back in the woods out of the wind. When the winds are bad, play it safe.

The odds are you will not catch any fish and it can be miserable and dangerous.

Rain is not as bad because you have rain gear, but if there are kids involved, well, that’s no fun.

Speaking of rain, our area is about 10 inches above normal in rainfall. The Mississippi River is on the rise again.

Some of the happiest fisherman I visited with this week were fishing Tilden Rodgers Lake. All you need is a comfortable chair, some bait, and a drink cooler to keep the sody waters cold and a place to keep your fish.

Shrimp and night crawlers seem to be the baits of choice as catfish are the fish most folks are after.

Most of the catfish are in the pound to three pound class, with a few larger ones being caught. One lady had her limit of three catfish with the string topper about 15 pounds. I got to the park just as she was bringing the big cat to the bank. Someone had a dip net and helped her land the big fish. She had gathered quite a crowd cheering her on. She declined getting her picture taken, saying wait until she gets a big fish! A few bream are being caught, but most of them were small. Barely big enough to eat. One thing I noticed about the park fishermen, they are all serious about catching supper. These fish do not go to waste!

Friday afternoon Dr. Keith and I fished Wapanocca, arriving at the ramp about 3 p.m. There were several boat trailers on the grounds and quite a few fishermen coming in with very few fish. After visiting several folks coming in, there were not a lot of fish being caught. One boat had three fishermen that had been fishing since early morning and they had maybe 20 fish, a mixture of nice crappie and a few small bream. The Doctor and I launched and headed to the north woods to get out of the wind. We used fly rods with crickets and ultra light spin cast rigs. We only caught about 20 bream, but they were very nice blue gills, and we got most of them on the blue jugs. We fished until about 7 p.m. and most of the trucks were gone at the ramp when we returned.

There were still a few fishermen out in the tall sawgrass.

I have not heard any reports from Midway or Dacus Lake. The Big River really affects the water level. It takes a higher river to get into Midway. I am sure there is an abundance of jumping carp in all these river chutes.

Take that kid or kids fishing and send me some pictures and fish stories. I enjoy the tales of the chase. Remember, Lakeside Taxidermy mounts a beautiful fish.

Papa Duck

Lakeside Taxidermy 870- 732- 0455 or 901- 482- 3430 jhcriner@ hotmail. com

By John Criner