P4 turning the clock backwards

I told my fishing partner before leaving the docks of Everts Resort that it was going to be an early night. Stuart agreed…but I know how I am, “early” generally means early in the morning! To ensure we didn’t get carried away, I cut down on our bait supply. Since we were going to be fishing rocks and wood, 14 bullies took a ride with us.

It was a night off from guiding and a good time to do some scouting and relaxing with a good friend. Greg from Vandy’s Guide Service gave me a tip as to where he’s been catching a few flats consistently on bucktails while walleye fishing. So I suggested to Stuart that we make that our first stop, then move on to some other haunts on the upper end of P4. Armed with a couple bottles of Mountain Dew, we headed to the first and what turned out to be our only destination.

We anchored (thanks for the boat control help Stuart!) in a large eddie area that made our boat point down stream and our casts go up river. Yup…bass akwards. The left front rod had the bait dropped straight down, the two back rods were cast back to a currant seam on a shelf that dropped off to…well, deep water. The right front rod was cast down stream in a current break line.

It wasn’t long about 8:30 and we had our first run…it was hard to detect because of the eddie. Once we notice either strange movement in the rod tip or the line, it was easy to tell if it was the slight boat swing and a rock or an actual fish. We did miss a number of fish on hook set. I think it was because of slack in the line between the fish and the sinker. It was really hard to tell as we could feel the fish moving, but when the moment to truth came…nothing…I didn’t even feel the sinker. We did manage to boat a couple little guys and the 15 pounder pictured above.

At 9:30 the action seemed to slow and we figured it was time to move on to our next location. I picked up Stuarts rod and gave it a mild pop in the air to get the hook/sinker over any rocks…and it pulled back! I gave the rod to Stuart and said “here, hold this!” LOL! Fish on! Pulling drag and bulldogging out into the currant. I thought I was going to have to grab on to the the kids pants…but figured I would rather the cat pull him over the side of the boat…and I think Stuart might have felt that way too.

A couple minutes into the battle, while I was assembling the net I heard the sound that I seldom hear once a fight has been on that long…unfortunately, I can’t type it here. The hook came out. I speculated that it would have exceeded the MN and WI state records…by at least 20 lbs, but Stuart insisted that it was a fish less than 5.

Now should we move or should we stay? With the action we were having…even if most were small fish, we elected to stay in a so far…productive area. It was a good choice we found out about a half hour later.

I saw the rod tip bounce in a way only a flathead can make it bounce. Stuart got into position, lifting the rod from the Folbe….let him take a little line to get the rod tip into the horizontal position….and…..gave’r all he had! You know, how when a guys sets the hook and when it’s as smaller fish, it goes all the way back to 1 o’clock…and if it’s a better fish, it’ll stop the rod at 11 o’clock?? Well, when ol’ Stuart set the hook it stopped at 9 o’clock and pulled him back to the 8 o’clock position! For a second I thought he had a rock…but when he started pulsing the rod we both started laughing! Maybe you had to be there but to see that rod stop so low and actually pull back down was really cool and surprised both of us!

A beautiful 34 pounder for Mr. Stuart!

We lost a few more baits and since I shorted us…we came in at 11:30. I know if we would have had more bullies we would have both wanted to stay for another couple hours.

Thanks for the great night Stuart!

Nice!

Awesome Read and Great Report Mr. K

Man, that sounded like fun.

Great job! Your good description of watching someone in the boat set the hook made me think again that sometimes its better to be the netman than reeling in the fish. Thanks for the report. Brian any sign of spawning marks on any of these cats?

We’ve been seeing some marks on the P3 fish, but none so far on the P4 fish.

I think I should have title it…”Setting Stuart’s Clock Backwards on P4.

Very nice lookin’ cats guys

nice fish

nice fish,sounded like a good night

VERY nice fish guys. Thanks for the report and pics.
Thanks, Bill

Cool report! I wish we could have gotten into some like those Friday night/Saturday morning! It was a long night 345am we decided to pack it up after we started scaring off the wildlife with Farmboy and my snores those big bullies and clickers dont mix when your trying to sleep… bzzzzzzzzzz!!!!!

Nice night! Wow, that’s a short bait supply for 4 rods!!!

Thank you For a night that wont be forgotten for a long long time.

Quote:

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It was a long night 345am we decided to pack it up after we started scaring off the wildlife with Farmboy and my snores those big bullies and clickers dont mix when your trying to sleep… bzzzzzzzzzz!!!!!

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Come on Marc, 33 hours on the water and you are making fun of me for sleeping A few runs would have woke me up

Nice trip Brian and Stuart,

Jack..