Crappie, Kayaks, and Calm

My good friend Chunsum signed us up for Kayak Wars. Kayak wars takes teams of five who catch, measure, and photo their catches for points. At the end team with the most points wins. Now, none of us live in our yaks so we have a snowballs chance in hell of winning, but we at least want to have some points. Chunsum, Sooner Bass, and I decided to meet at a small lake and we were praying for just a few points each.

It was the perfect fishing morning. This day was warmer then it had been, the water was calm, and the lake invited me to enjoy the magic it holds. I had a very stressful week at work. As I have gotten older anxiety has become a resident in my head and is getting harder and harder to deal with. Only fishing can make it shut off like a magic door to a problem-less utopia.  Once in my yak and set-up I took a deep breath and my worries drifted away and were replaced with content and calm.

It did not take long for the first of 15 fish for the day to bite! I used a few different rigs. I just rotated them, trying to find what would work best. The first rod was set up with a crappie slip float and a straight minnow. The second rod had an ice jig and a Little Atom Jumbo Wedgee. The third stick had a thill float with a double rig of a tube jig and lake fork shad. The last set-up was just a float and crawler combo.

I landed several nice fish. I landed only one crappie nice enough to score points on Kayak Wars. They don’t make it easy. One cast my Thill slowly disappeared, I set the hook and what I thought was a small fish decided to quadruple in size right at the side of my yak!!! My big fish opportunity vanished as it was covered with my expletives and tears. I didn’t have a chance.

JcCrappies (Chunsum) caught plenty of fish as well and managed 2 fish for points! Ted (Sooner) met us late but ended up with about 15 fish when he finished. It was the perfect day for fishing, laughing, and relaxation.