My “old” friend (Hey! He’s retired!) Comancharo15 and I hooked up last night for some tough August flatheading on P3 of the Mississippi.
Steve had a plan of attack figured out before we left and I agreed because the river flow has slowed to a trickle and most of the backwater catten areas are void of fish. We were going to fish shorelines close to area that had sometype of current deflection and areas where the waters funneled down to create some moving water. With the water surface temps in the low 80’s we knew the bigger fish would be holding and feeding in deeper water…compared to earlier this summer.
It was an absolute gorgeous night to be out. Very few skeeters, glass smooth river, not another fisherman / pleasure craft to be found as far as we could see. Temps hit the high 60’s low 70’s so a heavy jacket made us feel warm and cozy on the ride home.
Steve has this ritual of bringing along a bag or two of red licorice. We normally crack the bag open after the first fish is landed and released. Tonight was to be no exception.
Our first spot looked so fishy, that when I look at it…I get hungry for bait! It produced a big goose egg. Not a nibble and I was getting hungry for some licorise.
Moving to the second location, a funnel area, Steve had a run…but it wasn’t to happen. A swing and a miss….which reminded me there was a ball game on. I knew Steve likes listening to the ball game and when I’m fishing a lone and notice a game on the radio…I think of him fishing up on the Croix. If there’s a ball game on at night, you can bet Steve’s out tracking them fish up there!
The count was 0-1 at this time in the 7th inning.
Moving to our third and final location for the night…once set up it didn’t take too long for a fish around 5 lbs to take my bullhead. Once in the boat and released we broke out the red licorice. ☺
Nothing tastes as good as red licorice with cat slime on it…absolutely nothing! Washed down with a little pepsi…MMMMmmmm Good!
We were both surprised as to how fast the time was moving…Since I needed to get up in the morning, I didn’t want to stay out too late…so I said to my self…we’ll stay until the ball game was over….
Yep, you guessed it! 14 innings, a 4 and ½ hour game!
It was pretty quiet after the one little flatty…with only one more run on Steve’s rod. The ball game was (finally) over with the Twinkies winning and it was time to pull in the rods. I felt bad because we were leaving and Steve didn’t get to feel a fish…big or small. As we all know…that’s fishing…He had one rod in and working on the other. I had started the GPS, put a few things away, turned the lights on and motor running….I was standing next to my rod and saw the bite…gingerly I pulled the rod out of the holder and handed it to Steve telling him 
“here, reel this in for me”. As he pulled in he thought that it was a pretty heavy bullhead on there (actually the fish was swimming towards us)…I figured I better tell him…so, once I said “DON’T LOOSE HIM!” the fight was on. We were in a area void of underwater structure and he had a nice fight…didn’t have to horse him in as we normally have to do. Once to the boat, he had his work cut out for him. This little guy wasn’t coming up! My old Quantum Big Cat rod was bending real nice, with some line going out on the cinch down drag. Once we got this sow into the boat, we taped ‘er at 39 inches and the digital scale said 31.9. We nick named her our 14th inning flathead and gave her a little CPR before the release.
If you have ever met Steve…he ALWAYS has a smile on his face. As you can see in the pictures, it was a little bigger tonight.
What a way to end a great night!
Thanks Steve! (ps my wife nicknamed you smiley, ‘cause of your great smile you always wear!)
I had fun, it was a beautiful evening, a memorable ballgame, and to top it off a nice fish. 
We were BOB and those 
) 