Keeping the Priorities Straight

My family and fishing.  Undoubtedly two of my highest priorities in life.  Luckily for me, occasionally I get to spend quality time with both at the same time.  Yesterday was one of those days!

The C-ster and his Dad.  I already love this picture!  Someday I hope he'll be
as excited about the fish as he is about mom yelling "TWO!" really loud.

The prelude:
     Thursday I unexpectedly got the afternoon off.  There was no doubt that I was going fishing.  Fishing would totally blow up the C-ster's nap schedule, so Cheryl decided not to come.  Although I love fishing with her, I also enjoy fishing by myself, especially on exploratory trips.
     Long story short, I think I figured the white bass out.  Although I did bring my fly rod, I was catching so many fish on my spinning rig I never got it out.  I caught over 40 white bass and 2 small largemouth for the afternoon, and had a lot of fun doing it.  The highlights were three 15" white bass tanks.  White bass fight well for their size, and 15" slabs fight really well!  They were fun.

My first largemouth of 2012.  Yes, I am 6'3", but no, I don't have huge hands!

The main event:
     After the C-ster woke up from him morning nap we hit the road.  We were able to fish for an hour and a half before the C-ster started to get fussy in the backpack.  Saturday I only brought my fly rod.  I had tied up a couple chartreuse over white Clousers, and it turns out that was all I needed.  Although Cheryl definitely got more casts in with the spinning rod, I think that I was able to present the Clouser better with the fly rod than she could with the jig.  We ended up catching about even numbers of fish.  

Intermission:
    The C-ster was ready for some food and a nap, so we drove down a nearby dirt road so Cheryl could feed the little man and he could take a nap.  We had an ingenious idea that morning.  We brought the pad from his pack and play and put it in the trunk of our Matrix hatchback.  It worked perfectly.  He was able to nap in peace.  Meanwhile I grabbed the spinning rod and went exploring.  I hit a new, bigger body of water with my spinning rod.  After loosing a Rapala and getting bored, I finally hooked something big - an alligator gar.  I had heard that their mouths were so bony that hooks wouldn't stick in them.  I can now attest that this is not true.  I also heard that you needed to be very careful removing hooks from them, so I was!  I never actually touched the fish.  They are crazy looking for those of you who haven't seen them.

A muddy alligator gar.  Wacky fish, and definitely a surprise catch!

     Eventually I made my way back to Cheryl and the C-ster.  Right by the car there was a small pond that looked like it was about ready to dry up.  It had a bunch of minnows in it.  I quickly put on my smallest Rapala and proceeded to catch half a dozen baby largemouth.  Sometimes two at a time!

Now I know why they put two hooks on those Rapalas!

I let Cheryl fish for a bit while I watched the C-ster sleep.  Back at the car I rigged up my fly rod with a #12 olive semiseal leech.  I ran it over to Cheryl.  Immediately she started catching fish.  She actually caught a couple small bass (as opposed to baby bass, like the rest of them!)  After ten minutes we switched again, and I started catching fish.  First a bass, then a blue gill, then a couple crappie, then what they call shell crackers here I believe (they call them pumpkinseeds in Minnesota).  This variety continued for a while.  They were all tiny, but it was fun.  As I'm sure the pond was about to dry up, I threw - quite literally - all the fish over the rock embankment into a much larger pond.  Got to do my good deed for the day.

One of Cheryl's bass.  Unlike me, she really does have huge
hands - NOT!  I promise we did this on purpose and not all
of our pictures are like this!

Now back to the main event:
     Once the C-ster woke up we headed back to the white bass water and proceeded to catch more than our share for another hour.  We were all ready to head back home (especially the C-ster).

Cheryl with a nice white bass from the evening.

The Bottom Line:
     The water was muddy.  There were people throwing stink bait to catfish in the same water we were fishing.  My day got broken in half by a 6 month old that goes nuts if he doesn't get a nap every two hours.  The surroundings were certainly less than pristine wilderness.  However, I got to spend the entire day with my two favorite people pursuing and succeeding at my favorite past time.  It doesn't get much better than that!  I hope to do it again very soon!