So Sunday morning I got off the train at about 6am and felt pretty good (and awake) so I rushed home, loaded up the kayak and gear, shoveled a few pieces of cold pizza down my throat, kicked the cat, kissed The Wife Unit, ran to the car and raced to "No Name"... I make it sound like all that took about 5 minutes, but in reality I didn't even get onto the water until about 9AM.
It was one of those days when the first fish of the day came within the first 5 minutes and is a decent fish and your all like "Oh yeah baby... this is going to be an awesome day!" and it turns out to be a really tough day and the first fish of the day was the biggest... you know those kind of days.
Well like I just said, the first fish of the day was the biggest at a tick under 17 inches, and was on within the first dozen casts or so of a top water popper. Here it is.
I landed a few smaller ones on the popper in the next two hours or so and then it just totally freaking died.
I started throwing all kinds of plastics... weighted, unweighted, small, big, etc. I caught a few unremarkable, really small ones dragging an unweighted 10 inch ribbon tail worm along the bottom and then I started throwing a an X-Rap in that rusty crawdad color and started getting some hook ups.
And then I figured them out enough to catch about a dozen more by ripping the X-Rap though the deeper edges of weed beds that looked like this:
So then I just paddled around to where all the weed beds were and looked for weeds that were spaced out just like that and started flinging that X-Rap like a mad man. Most of them were about this size:
I also got a nice little bluegill on that X-rap.
And of course there has to be a "Big heart, small body" award winner for the day, so here it is:
I had to get off the water at about 3pm... but its a good thing because I got a nasty sunburn... I put on some sun screen, but it sure didn't work! Plus, I was starting to get pretty darn tired as I had only gotten a three hour nap in the day before from noon to 3 and then I got on the train at 7PM and home at 6AM and then right out to the lake... I was freaking beat down and I still had stuff to take care of at home!
I ended up not going to bed until close to 10PM (awake for 31 hours) and then got the phone call at 4:40 AM Monday to get back to work to get on the train bound back to North Baltimore! So we got the train to North Baltimore in about 10 and a half hours and the plan was to get a ride back to the North Baltimore Reservoir after we got all settled into the hotel... Yeah right.
I freaking crashed HARD! I decided it was better to get some rest and then get up in the morning and give the lake a shot. So that's what I did.The next day (Tuesday) I woke up had some breakfast and arranged to be dropped off at the Reservoir the next time the van had to go back to the yard. That wasn't until a little after 10AM when the van left the hotel. So I got top the Reservoir about 10:30ish and was able to fish until 2PM when I needed to be picked up to be taken back to the hotel to get ready for our return trip back to Cleveland. Anyway... I did pretty good considering it was the middle of the day and getting pretty darn hot. I caught 4 different species and was able to take some home with me to eat. I lost one of the saugeye I had on the line just as I was trying to get it out of the water because it went totally ape sh*t crazy when I reached down to grab it. I really didn't want an arm (or worse) full of treble hooks... ya know what I mean? I also lost a pretty big channel cat that I saw take a swipe at the jerkbait... it took off and started rolling around and popped off in less than 10 seconds.
So here are some of the fish I caught:
One of the what I am finding out to be the "average sized North Baltimore Reservoir LMB" (I caught about 5 or 6 of em')
A bluegill. They also all pretty much seem to be about this size:
That bluegill's feisty little brother:
A very pretty baby catfish:
And one of the two saugeye (the bigger one) I managed to drag out of the water successfully:
And both of them before the van ride to the hotel...
...And after the van ride to the hotel.
*yes, that is the freezer in the hotel mini-fridge.
I have already been home, had about 30 hours off, and then have gotten back out to North Baltimore... I went tonight for a few hours. Got two more saugeye and caught a few more LMB's. the fishing was actually pretty tough and I really had to work at it to get the few I got. I am going to be back out there again about 6am for 4 hours or so before I have to get back to the hotel and get a quick nap in before getting our train back home tomorrow night because Im probably only going to get about 4 hours of sleep tonight before I have to get up for the van ride to the reservoir in the morning.
Here is one of the saugeye from tonight and a pretty cool cloud formation that was in the sky tonight as the sun went down.
Ok... that's that. Time to crash for a few hours.
not feeling any better yet? 
