Night time is the right time…

On Friday I was entertaining the idea of going for an early-morning carp session this morning, but, due to unforeseeable circumstances at home Friday night, I couldn’t get to bed until almost midnight.  I set my alarm for 6:30 AM, but when it went off, I felt like a freight train had run over me.  I went back to bed until around 11 AM, which I never do unless I’m sick.  I’m really getting tired of whatever this “crud” is that I’ve had for the last several weeks.  Chest congestion, coughing, and feeling less-than-100%.  Hopefully, this, too, will pass.  Sooner than later, I’m hoping.

My day was not a productive one.  I fixed a big breakfast of scrambled eggs, turkey bacon, toast with butter and grape jelly, and coffee.  I helped Carolyn go through the songs she sang at church tonight.  I did three or four sink-fulls of dishes.  I continued my reading in Luke 12 about being continually ready for Jesus’ return, regardless of how long He delays.  I prayed through the Lord’s (aka the disciples’) Prayer, as I usually do when I have time—not as a rote playback, but as an outline of prayer topics: submission, provision, forgiveness, and deliverance from the day’s coming temptations.  Afterward, as I always do on Saturdays, I prayed for each family member and some friends who are undergoing medical challenges.

By the time these few things were done, it was time for Carolyn to leave for worship sound check at church.  After downing a bowl of delicious Indian chicken she made before she left, I still had a little daylight left, and my thoughts turned toward a little peaceful bank time.

By the time I was able to collect my two rods, knee boots, bucket of punch bait, thawed prepped deer corn, a zip-lock of sweet corn, net, rain suit, and rucksack, it was about 5:30 and dark.  I quickly texted Carolyn to tell her what I was up to, and that I was planning on being home about 7:30 so we could spend the evening together.

I walked the fifty yards or so to the right of my house down the common area strip that borders the neighborhood lake to one of my favorite night-fishing spots.  It is an open area of shore with no shrubs that is about 30 yards wide.  As usual of late, I had one rod (ultralight, panfish spinning outfit) for carp, and the other (6.5-foot Ugly Stik rigged with a slip bobber and #6 treble for fishing punch bait) for channel cats.  Plopped down in an area where I have pulled up the bankside grass to make an open spot to fish from.  I always carry a large trash can liner to sit on—keeps my backside dry from the evening dew (or, in tonight’s case, the day’s rain).  Job one was to activate a couple of 2” glow sticks and attach them to both my carp and catfish floats so I could detect takes in the dark.  I cast out my carp float to the right, about 10 feet off shore and 15 feet down from where I was sitting.  Catapulted three pouchfuls of prepped deer corn around the float to hopefully get the carp grubbing around in the vicinity of my hookbait, which, tonight, was a single kernel of yellow fake (soft plastic) corn.  Then, as per my custom, loaded up the treble hook on the catfish rod with punchbait and cast it pretty near the left shoreline with the depth set to about 12”.   After the initial cast, I continue fan casting my way around from left to right, each cast deepening the float by 6” until I reach just a depth where I get a bite.

By the second or third cast with the catfish rod, I had a nice take, and, once I had set the hook, it felt like a decent fish by the weight and fight it put up.  A few minutes later, I netted a nice 2-pound channel cat.  This was to be the first of about a dozen.  Unfortunately, the rest were much smaller, ranging from about six inches to around a foot.  All except one were caught on the catfish rod.  One was caught using sweet corn on a #10 hook on the carp rod.  Once again, no carp action tonight.  I know they’re around, because this lake is full of them, and I also heard one breach not too far down toward the left, but they haven’t been biting my last three or so times out, at least not on either fake corn or, tonight, on sweet corn, which I changed to after a half-hour’s runless carping.

My last take on the carp rod turned out to be a tail-hooked snapping turtle of around 15-20 pounds.  Fortunately, the line broke as I was trying to get it in the net.  Considering its ferocity, nasty temperament, and powerful, sharp jaws, I was just as happy not to have to contend with unhooking it, even in the restriction of the net.

After the snapper rendered my carp rod hookless, I checked my phone and it was 7:28, time for “one last cast”.  Fortunately, within a couple of minutes I had a take and landed another hand-sized channel cat.  Up to that point, I had gotten into a rhythm where I was getting a take (and landing a channel cat) almost every cast out, which kept things interesting.

Although it was not raining when I first started fishing, within a half-hour it started and continued steadily throughout the remainder of my time out.  Fortunately I had brought my rain suit.  I quickly donned my rain jacket, but was too lazy to put on the pants.  I just took out my carp mat and laid it across my lap as a makeshift rain shield.  Would have liked some carp action and some larger kitties, but it was a beautiful two hours on the water, despite the rain.  There’s something soul-satisfying about being out on the water where it’s quiet and beautiful, regardless of the season, weather, or time of day (or night!).

PS I snapped pix of the first three fish, after which it started raining, so I stopped taking pictures!