A Bad Day Fishing

I quit fishing Bass Tournaments fifteen years ago, not because I couldn't compete, but because I got tired of the politics and the bullshit. Too many Chiefs and not enough Indians. Anyway, it wasn't any fun anymore. Then why was I sitting here at a launch ramp on Toledo Bend Reservoir at four thirty on a Saturday morning, waiting to launch my boat and to fish a tournament? The answer is very simple, politics. Only this time it's the politics of business.

The head of a major corporate client of mine is an avid tournament fisherman. I'm still not exactly sure where I went wrong, but I ended up being wrangled into fishing this major charity tournament as a show of friendship and goodwill. I guess it could be worse, so I decided to look on the bright side. It was going to be a beautiful spring morning and after all, it was for charity, and they did have some pretty good prize money up.

It was a draw tournament, where people with boats drew partners from a pool of fishermen who didn't. I had drawn some guy named K. Walters. I wasn't sure where he was or even who he was, he hadn't been at the meeting and party last night, where we were supposed to meet and talk strategy. I had left a message at the hotel he was supposed to stay at, describing my truck and boat, along with the time I would be launching. The Hotel said he hadn't checked in yet, but they would make sure he got the note when he came in.

I launched the boat and tied it off while I parked my truck. When I returned, there was a young woman squatting on the dock next to my boat, loading several rods and tackle boxes aboard. As she stood up I said, "Your husband needs to hurry up, we only have about fifteen minutes to get signed in and lined up for take off."

She grinned at me and replied, "I would but I'm not married, I'm not even dating anyone right now. That's why I'm fishing this weekend, in more ways than one."

I looked at her for a moment, which was easy to do, before I asked, "Why are you putting your stuff aboard my boat? Some guy named K. Walters is supposed to fish with me."

She laughed and said, "Well, my name is Kaye Walters, K.A.Y.E. but I ain't no guy. At least I wasn't when I changed out of my dress at the hotel about an hour ago."

My eyes had been checking out the long tapered legs below her tight white shorts. As my gaze wandered higher across her bare tummy to the knot in the man's long sleeved shirt she wore, I had to agree that she was all woman. The bumps in the front of that shirt were not large but they were definitely there.

Her dark hair was cut short under an old cowboy hat. My eyes automatically dropped to her feet, but there were white canvas deck shoes there, not cowboy boots. I grinned as my eyes returned to her face. Cute was my first thought. Wide dark eyes, short turned up nose, wide mouth, high cheekbones, narrow chin, wide grin, not a raving beauty, but good looking in a cute way.

"If you're through taking inventory shall we sign in? I still need to get my cooler out of the car," she said with a chuckle. I snapped back to business and grinned at her before I turned and walked back down the dock.

We hurriedly signed in and I went to warm up the boat motor while she went for her cooler. She untied the boat and pushed us off before taking a seat next to me. I had just enough time to get turned around before the flare went off signaling we had one minute until the start.

Since there was a couple of hundred boats ahead of me, I just stayed where I was when the gun went off. It was a madhouse as all those boats tried to get to the river channel first. Luckily, there's a wide clear area between the launch ramp and the channel.

I knew where I was going early and it was a fairly long run but I figured it would be worth it. Not many people wanted to make the same run because of the winding, poorly marked channel. There would be fewer fishermen and less traffic up that way.

As the boats thinned out, I brought my boat up on plane smoothly and set sail up river. My boat will cruise at around fifty, so I figured about an hours running time to the creek I wanted to fish. There is a well-marked channel for about a quarter the distance and then you have to navigate the old river channel, with all its twists and turns. Miss a turn and you're in a stump bed.

*****

I was only a few minutes behind my time estimation, but there were three boats already in the creek when I got there, so much for the fewer fishermen theory. I throttled back up and went on north headed for another place I knew about. It was a small place but deep with good cover. Two boats were in that small hole, so I went on by and turned into a cut headed toward the far side of the lake.

This channel was very narrow, so I had to slow down and be very careful. It took a while, but I finally made it to a small cove on the far shore. There were a couple of hairy moments as we ran over stumps that were just below the water and once a log kicked the motor up out of the water.

There was no one in sight as I shut the motor off and moved up to the front deck. Dropping the trolling motor over, I looked back at Kaye and said, "The spawn is basically over, and most of the big fish have moved out to deeper water. They won't be in much of a mood to feed for another week or so but we might be able to tease them into getting mad enough to bite. There's a large stump and log bed along here in eight to ten feet of water. I'm going to fish that."

I paused for a breath and added, "I would like you to rig up a large craw worm and spot fish it on the bottom along the grass bed on the other side of the boat. A few late spawners may still be bedded along there. You're going to have to be quick to set the hook because they will suck it in, crush it, and spit it back out very quickly. Any bump or tick of your line, set the hook. If you hang up we can go get it or break it off."

"Aye, aye, Captain. It sounds like you've done this a time or two," Kaye said as she went about rigging up a rod. "Any particular color?"

"Oh, I've done this at least a time or two; try pumpkin and pepper or motor oil first," I replied just before I set the hook on a nice fish. It only took a few seconds to horse the fat three-pounder in.

"This is a good start," I said as I moved back to weight him. I hooked a numbered marker float onto his lip and wrote the weight on a card by the number.

I dropped him in the live well and moved back forward saying, "He was next to a log in ten feet of water. I had to tease him for a couple of minutes before he sucked it in for real."

Kaye made her first cast to a small cut in the grass. It landed exactly in the middle, between the two arms of grass. She fed it slack until it touched bottom and then she took a turn on her reel before lifting her rod tip slowly.

I watched her for a second as I let my jig fall to bottom. "You've also done this a time or two, from the looks of that cast," I commented.

She nodded and grinned at me. "Yeah, a time, or two."

Suddenly, she dropped the rod tip and reeled to take up the slack. Just as she started to lift the tip again, her hands jerked upward sharply, setting the hook. The rod bowed sharply and the rod tip darted toward the surface of the water. The drag on the reel whined as the fish made a run toward deeper water, Kaye followed the fish toward the back of the boat and thrust her rod deep into the lake and tried to keep the line from tangling in the outboard motor.

I hit the trim switch trying to raise it up out of the way. Her rod came up and her line was out past the outboard. Reeling franticly, she took up the slack in her line and applied pressure to the fish trying to slow it. The drag sang again for a second but the fish turned toward the surface. Kaye again reeled franticly and caught up just as the fish rolled on the surface. It wasn't a monster, but it was twice as big as mine was.

The fish made a lunge and headed toward bottom, again Kaye applied pressure until the drag sang. The fish slowed and turned back toward the boat. I moved back and knelt in the driver's seat, ready to lip the fish when it got near enough. Kaye worked the rod and reel smoothly and the fish surfaced about three feet from me, sliding easily on its side straight to my waiting hand. My thumb went into his mouth and my fingers closed to grip the lower lip, in one quick motion, I lifted the fish up and welcomed him aboard.

Kaye was ecstatic; this was her biggest fish ever. The scales said, seven pounds and five ounces. I tagged it and deposited it in the live well. I grinned up at her and she grinned back at me. She sat down suddenly and took several deep breaths, before starting to laugh.

She settled down after a moment and I asked, "Okay, what's the joke?"

Taking another deep breath, she grinned at me. "I came down here because I needed to get away and relax for a while. I figured I would make a few token casts, catch some sun, and enjoy myself for a day on the water. I might even meet someone that I liked and have a little fun that way also. I never figured on catching the biggest fish of my life."

As I moved back forward, I chuckled and said, "How about adding, winning this tournament to that list. A few more fish like these and we will be in the money."

She stared at me a moment before asking, "You're kidding right?"

When I shook my head, she blew out a breath and said, "Oh shit, I hadn't even thought about that."

Over the next half hour, I caught two young buck bass, neither of which was big enough to keep. Kaye added a nice three pounder to the live well. We were at the end of the grass bed, where a deep creek turned inland and wandered off through the woods. Kaye and I both made a cast at the same time, hers was along the edge of the grass, and mine was up the center of the channel. She was about halfway back to the boat when she set the hook on another fish.

I was about to lay my rod down when the line started to move off. I quickly set the hook and nearly had the rod taken away from me. I had a very heavy fish on.

Kaye quickly landed another three pounder and moved forward to give me a hand. My fish had made a couple of hard runs back and forth across the channel and had now decided it was time to head for the main lake. As he made a mad run under the boat, I had to scramble to keep the line from tangling in the trolling motor. Once I was clear of that, I applied as much pressure as I dared, the fish headed for the surface and rolled.

"Holy, shit!" Kaye and I both said at the same time.

This fish was twice as big as Kaye's was. I was grinning from ear to ear as I quickly knelt on the deck and dropped the rod tip a couple of feet into the water. I did not want him to jump. He had other ideas and headed back toward the bottom. I brought the rod back up and applied pressure, the drag sang for a couple of seconds before he turned and headed back for the boat.

"What do you want me to do?" Kaye asked softly.

"Just wait," I said, "I don't want to spook him anymore than we have to. I'm going to let the rod tire him out; he's hooked good. Don't even try for him until he's on his side."

She lay down on the deck next to me and put her hand in the water. The fish made another short run and then turned and moved slowly toward the surface and the boat. As he surfaced, he rolled onto his side about five feet from the boat. I used the rod to guide him toward Kaye's waiting hand.

Somewhere in the back of my mind, the thought that this was my biggest fish ever, surfaced. I also wondered if Kaye was strong enough to hold him, once she got her hands on him.

That was one thing I did not have to worry about. Kaye grabbed his lower lip with both thumbs, and rolled over as she lifted the fish up and onto the deck. Quickly she sat up, lifted the fish off the deck, and held it there. I reached across and unhooked the jig from his upper lip.

Kaye turned and wiggled forward until she reached the edge of the deck and stood up. She headed for the livewell with me right behind her. I opened the lid and she deposited the fish inside. As I dropped the lid, she turned and sat down on it. For some reason, this struck me as hilarious and I broke up with laughter.

Kaye grinned at me for a second and then said, "Okay, so I probably don't need to sit on him, but I ain't taking no chances."

I sat down on the edge of the front casting deck and took several deep breaths. As I calmed down, my grin returned. After another moment or two I said, "Well, now we both have the biggest fish of our lives."

Kaye took a deep breath and said, "We also have our five fish. What's next? Do we start culling or do we head in?"

I looked at my watch; it was a little after ten. "I figure it'll take us about two hours to get back to the launch ramp, that'll make it noon. Weight in is at three. Lets not push our luck. I think we need to start back now so we don't have to hurry. We can hit a couple of spots I know down near the marina."

She just nodded and said, "You're the Captain." After a moments pause, she asked, "Do you really think we have a chance?"

I chuckled and replied, "If you mean winning the tournament, yes a very good chance."

She looked at me funny for a second and then began to laugh. I wasn't sure what was so funny, so I got up and started to gather up my gear and to stow it away. She stopped laughing suddenly and watched me for a moment before she said, "I wasn't laughing at you."

When I turned and looked at her, she grinned and continued, "To tell the truth I was laughing at me. By the way, are you married?"

Now it was my turn to laugh.

*****

With our gear stored away, I fired up the outboard and eased us back the way we had come. As I neared, the creek where we had come in, I kicked the motor out of gear and shut it off.

Kaye looked at me and asked, "Is there a problem?"

I nodded and pointed to the open water between the river channel and us. Large white-capped waves were running down the lake from the brisk north wind. We had been on the leeward side of a long point and I hadn't noticed the wind picking up.

"It's too rough for us to negotiate that narrow channel, we'd end up on a stump and swamped or turned over. We'll have to find another way back. If we hug this shoreline, we should be safe enough, even with all the stumps and logs. There's a wide cross channel about six miles south of here that we may be able to cross the lake on."

With a look of disappointment on her face, she asked, "How long is it going to take us to get to weight in?"

"We might still make it on time, but I'm not going to risk your life or mine. This lake can get mean and nasty at times and this looks like one of them," I answered as I started the motor.

We were about halfway to the cross channel and the going was slow. The clouds were building to the northwest and getting black. The wind if anything was even higher. I had eased the boat in toward the eastern shoreline as close as I dared to get and we were still bucking large waves.

At the first spat of cold rain, I told Kaye to look under her seat and find the rain suits I had there. As she got them out and opened the packages, she grinned at me and said, "I have a feeling we aren't going to make weight in."

"Kind of looks that way," I said, as I struggled to keep control of the boat and to get the top half of the slicker suit on. Kaye leaned over and gave me a hand with mine before she put hers on. She had to lie down in the floor to get the pants on because of the tossing of the boat. I didn't even try to put mine on.

The rain was not thick but the drops were large and ice cold. I had seen fronts blow in like this before and I started to look for shelter. This section of shoreline is remote and mostly deserted. There was a creek running inland not far from here, that I was trying to make. I remembered an old hunting shack not too far up it.

The wind was far worse as I made the turn into the creek mouth. We had literally surfed the last few hundred yards, almost blinded by the now pouring rain. The trees along the bank blocked most of the wind and even some of the rain but by the time, I found the cabin, my teeth were chattering. I was soaking wet from the thighs down in front and sitting on a very wet seat.

Kaye was a little better in her full suit, except for her hands and feet. There was a flat cut in the bank just above the cabin, I ran the boat up into it and gassed the motor a couple of times to get it as far up on the shore as I could.

I told Kaye to grab her ice chest and to go stand under the cabin, which was raised up on posts about fifteen feet off the ground. I shut the motor down and checked to make sure the bilge pump was on automatic, before I dug under the seat and got the ropes off both my anchors. I hooked one to the bowline of the boat and paid it out toward the cabin. I tied on the second rope and had just enough to reach the second post of the stairs leading up to the cabin itself.

Kaye asked, "Why are you tying the boat up here instead of down by the creek?"

I told her, "If it rains this hard for very long, these woods will flood. I want to be able to pull the boat over here and to get it under the cabin if it does. It won't wash away and under the cabin will keep it dry to save the batteries. The bilge pump will keep it from sinking until then."

She followed me up the steps, asking as we went, "Do you think it will get that bad?"

I hunted around for a spare key to the padlock but didn't find one, so I used a screwdriver from the boat to pry off the hasp. I'd have to figure out some way to re-lock the place when we left and to leave some money to pay for damages.

As I opened the door and stepped inside, I told her, "Yeah, it's going to get bad. The weather report I saw last night had this cold front stalled up north of here. It had dumped ten to twelve inches of rain on Dallas as of last night. It must have gotten in high gear this morning to be here now. Most of the rain that was dumped up there will be here in less than twenty-four hours. The lake was already on the rise this morning when we launched."

The cabin was small but dry. A large cast iron wood stove sat in the middle of the room. That was the first order of business. There was a small stack of wood by the wall, next to the door. I had seen a large wood rack under the cabin and it was full, that would not be a problem.

As I set about lighting a fire, Kaye asked, "What are our chances of getting back across and down the lake?"

I chuckled and shook my head. "Right now, slim, and none. We had two to three foot waves along this shoreline as we made it into the creek; the main lake will have six foot or better running waves with this wind. It would make for great surfing but there ain't no way we could navigate the river channel. We will just have to ride it out here. It could be worse."

When she gave me a quizzical look, I said, "We could be stuck somewhere out in the open, under a tree, or swimming around in the lake."

She nodded, as her eyes got a little bigger, "You have a point there, I think I'll count my blessings and leave it at that."

"Good girl," I said as the fire started to catch. "We'll have some heat here in a minute and as soon as I dry off some, I'll go get a load or two of wood and some things from the boat. Why don't you look around and see if there are any canned goods. Food will be our main problem for the most part."

"How long do you expect for us to be here?" She asked as she started looking through the cabinets in the small kitchen area.

I shrugged and replied, "I don't really know. It could be just a few hours or it could be a few days. These storms are unpredictable. Sometimes they fly through and then they could hang around for days or going back and forth between here and the coast. That would be the worst, those type dump a lot of rain. The rains not a problem, or not much anyway, the wind will continually change direction and speed, calm one minute and thirty miles an hour the next. Not the kind of conditions I'd feel safe negotiating this lake under. I figure we're about a half hour north of the cross-lake channel. Then it's thirty to forty minutes to the river channel and another forty-five minutes to the launch ramp. Call it two hours total. Much too long, even if the wind does die down for a while."