St. Mary's Lake Slam! But at a Price...

What was going to be a wrap up of my Easter Break adventures in fishing took a bit of a bad spin this morning. I can say that I have enjoyed the break by getting a chance to visit a couple of new locations and I've caught a good number of fish. But for the want of a $8.18 (according to the Walmart website) item, I have mixed thoughts about my true enjoyment of the long weekend.

This morning, Tuesday morning, I got up at normal school day time and headed down to St. Mary's Lake. As I drove down to the launch I spotted a friend preparing her kayak as well. Julie* is an avid kayak angler and does a very nice job. We talked a little and then went to park our vehicles. Upon getting back to the launch I noticed that she had small pieces of foam on each of her three rods. I thought to myself "What a great idea, I should look into those." But then I thought "My homemade PVC rod holder does a nice job" and I paddled off.

Typically when I head out on freshwater I have three rods rigged with different baits. I usually have one for panfish with a small jig, with a soft plastic, under a float. Another rod will usually have a hard plastic bait on it like a crankbait or a Rat-L-Trap. This morning it was the bleeding minnow Rat-L-Trap. The third rod usually has a finesse presentation like a Carolina rigged worm or a dropshot. I can change baits as I go along since I carry a small tackle bag with me as well. I began by paddling to an area I don't hit often and made casts with both the small jig and the Rat-L-Trap.

Nothing bit so I just continued down the shoreline until I found one small area that looked promising. Another cast, with the hair jig, to about 4 feet from the shoreline, into 3 feet of water, and the float went down. I reeled down and brought in a nice 8 inch redear sunfish. He/she was pretty thick so I figured some babies would be coming soon so I released it. I paddled around some more trying the various presentations I brought. The hair jig wasn't producing any bites so I changed it out to a jig and plastic critter from Johnson's. Again no real bites, so that rod went into the rod holder.

The Rat-L-Trap solicited the next good bite. I would make longer casts and let it sink. Then I'd rip it up from the bottom and crank in some line and let it sink again. On one cast it got hit and I was able to boat a 15 inch chain pickerel. It was released as well and I paddled a little further on.

As I approached the point directly across from the launch I tried the jig again and did catch one crappie. Not the biggest fish, but a third species in three fish. After that fish I grabbed the rod with the dropshot tied onto it. It's not my most confident technique but I want to spend more time with it this year. I'm using VMC Spinshot hooks since I found some on sale. It got hit on the third or fourth cast by the typical "bite bite thump" and I figured I had a largemouth. As I reeled it in I found that I had my second pickerel of the day. I released it and paddled further on.

I came to another area and went through the progression of baits again. I started with the hard bait, with went unsuccessfully. I switched to the jig to no avail. When that didn't work I placed it in the rod holder, which is the reason for this entire post. My rod holders are homemade out of 1 inch PVC pipe. They set in the scupper holes behind me as I paddle. I've become adept taking rods out and replacing them without much trouble. Until today... As I placed the rod with the jig in the holder, and went to pull out the rod with dropshot, the handles became entangled together. And as I pulled one rod out the car went into the drink. I saw it go under but was completely too slow to catch it. I tried to hold my location to feel around with the paddle but alas I figured it was too late. So as I mentioned at the beginning of this post, for the want of $8.18 rod floats, I'd still have one of my rods. Would I say it was my favorite rod? No! Was it a terribly expensive rod? No I actually found it on a dock at the end of a day last summer. I put a new reel on but it wasn't really expensive either. What I liked about the rod was I considered it my "travel rod." It was short enough to fit in the back end of my Prius or the trunk on my wife's car without any bend in it at all. It could be stowed anyway easily and it did a nice job. But all I can say now is "It's gone."

After mentally kicking myself in the hind parts for about 15 minutes, since I couldn't literally kick myself on the kayak, I paddled to another area and did catch one small bass, maybe 11 or 12 inches long, on the Rat-L-Trap, for a total of five fish on the day, with four different species. Hence the "grand slam."

But the experience taught me: an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. Or in this case I could have saved some money. Until next time...Tight Lines!

Julie* and her family are the owners of Hard Head Custom Baits, a local tackle company that makes jigs and lures for jigging and trolling. 5% of all of their sales go to Heroes on the Water, a non profit that takes veterans on kayak fishing outings. You can find them at Hard Head Custom Baits as well as on FaceBook as well.