A good day on the lake

Yesterday was a good day on the lake.

I decided to make a quick, early morning kayak-fishing trip as soon as I saw the stars shining down from a cloudless sky. Around seven I grabbed my little tackle box, stuck it on its Velcro strips in front of the kayaks cockpit and dropped my ultralight rod, with a reel which I've had since 1958, in beside my canvas creel and the new net Brad gave me for father's day.

It only takes about 5 minutes to drag my nine foot kayak on its little lawnmower wheeled cart from our house to Eckman Lake. The put-in that I dug out several years ago is getting overgrown with weeds and grass, so it took a little effort to slide in, but soon I was gliding across the smooth, glassy water. The sun was just starting to peek over the trees on the east shore, so I stopped in a sunny spot to rig up my rod. I've used the same home made spinners for years now; the orange and black beads and brass blade seem to work better than anything else I've tried. A few days ago I'd decided to bend down the barbs on the treble hooks to make it easier to release fish without harming them.

I decided to try a few casts, even though I was still quite a way from my favorite spot. On the second cast a big trout hit my lure, hard! My reel handle was spinning backwards, (the drag hasn't worked for 20 years!) and the kayak was turning, starting to follow the fish. I hope he doesn't jump, I thought, remembering the barbless hooks and how easily they came out. Then I could feel him shaking his head and suddenly he was gone. I reeled in and exchanged the spinner for another one with barbed hooks.

I paddled to my “sweet spot,” lining up a bush on the south shore with a power pole on the north side, a cat road on the west with a road sign on the east, and I was ready to fish! It was still in the shade so it felt much cooler, and there were clouds of steam rising from the water.

I used to think that my “sweet spot” was the old creek channel, but after running some temperature checks with a digital thermometer I found just one tiny spot that was ten degrees cooler than the rest of the lake, so it probably is a fresh water spring and the cold water attracts the trout.

A few casts later, I hooked into a ten incher and he did a typical Rainbow Trout fight, a couple of fast runs, splashing and jumping all the way. I reeled him in and released him by grabbing the hook with needle nose pliers, turning it upside down and letting him flop loose without touching him. They come off much easier with barbless hooks, but then as I had just found out, so do the keepers.

A slight north wind had started up, blowing me past my spot. I paddled back to the south far enough so that the wind would carry me back across it and started casting.

Another big fish hit, and as soon as the kayak started to follow him and my reel handle began its knuckle busting, backward spin I knew it was a keeper. I saw the taut four pound test line began to rise and I knew he was going to jump. He cleared the water and I got a good look at him before he took off on another run that made my line sizzle through the water. This is a good one! I thought, as I slid my Father's Day net out and put it in my lap.

He had towed me over to shallower water and then he did something that Rainbows seldom do, he went for the bottom. The bottom of the lake, especially in the shallow water, is covered in great blobs of moss and I tried to keep him from getting tangled in one. He managed to get a fair sized glob tangled in the hooks and then took off for deeper water, pulling me and my boat behind him. I began to think that there was no way I could ever land him.

He jumped again several times, and he kept trying to get behind me, spinning the kayak around in a circle. I could tell he was tiring, he was fighting both me and the glob of moss hanging from the lure. I usually try to land a fish on the left side of my boat but this one just wouldn't co-operate, so I switched my rod to my left hand and picked up the net with my right. Several times I got him in close enough to make a stab at netting him but he was almost too big for the net and I kept flubbing it. Once I had him in the net, but he flopped out before I could lift him into the boat.

Finally I got it right and put him, still in the net, between my legs on the kayak floor, broke down my rod and paddled for the boat dock where I always take out, and home.

The beautifully colored Rainbow was 19 inches long and weighed 3 pounds. I had a half of one of the bright orange fillets for lunch today.