Patoka Lake - Deadliest Catch Style

[nofearengineer]

Dude! I need to say it again...DUDE!!

The only thing missing was the crab!

After spending the morning fishing my right shoulder off, my buddy Mike (different Mike from last time) decided to pack it up and leave for home, but the stupid phrase "let's just fish one more spot" came into play.

We headed into Fleming Creek, and took a look at the horizon, and saw some dark clouds, and they were blowing straight at us. I looked at the time, and it was about 2:00. Damn...the FLW tournament was on Patoka today, and they were starting weigh-ins at 2:30, so I knew we weren't going to get off the lake any time soon. So we decided to just keep fishing, and hope we didn't get into anything too hairy. That was a BIG mistake.

When we first saw the curtain of rain come over the trees towards us, we both commented on how cool it looked. I wished we had a video camera. However, if we had had a video camera, it would have captured the next twenty minutes of stark, raving terror.

When the rain hit us, we got slammed with 60-70 mph winds that threatened to run us onto the shore, which, I could no longer see, since the rain was absolutely blinding. Still I knew the shore was only about 30 feet away. I got really scared when I could not see the nose of my boat through the hurricane-like stinging rain. I would have sworn it was hail with how much it hurt when it hit my face.

Also, when the rain hit, it was so cold, I was totally gasping for breath...you know the effect when you jump into a pool that is really cold on a hot day? We were both drenched to the bone, and it was all I could do to turn the nose of the boat into the wind. I really had no idea which direction I was pointed..."just keep her into the wind", I thought.

When the wind finally let up a little, I started over to the windward shore to try to get a little cover from the tall trees there. And wouldn't you know it, the rain was still so heavy that you couldn't see 100 feet in front of you, but there were still a couple of stupid tournament guys who were blasting out of the creek area at 30-40 mph, so they wouldn't be late for weigh in! Man, I wanted to kill those guys. If one of them had hit me, I probably would have.

Anyways, it wasn't all bad...we made it back to the ramp, soaking wet and freezing, but laughing about it...I'll remember today forever, definitely.

On a good note, I finally caught my first bass on a spinnerbait! It was just a 12-incher, but probably 1-1/2 lbs...fat little chunk. Since I made the move to baitcasters, spinnerbaits are so much easier to fish with! Even with 30lb braid and a Silver Max, I was chucking it 50 yards easily. And my accuracy was greatly improved, since I finally got the whole "two handed, overhead cast" thing going. It was still a good day, despite the scary-a$$ weather.

I wonder if FLW's website will mention the weather. One guy got swamped. He had a nice Ranger boat, but he was beached and bailing water. I don't think he made it to the weigh-in.

Oh, and Woody...can you believe it? I got stopped by DNR AGAIN. You'd think those guys would know me by now. Big guy, silver boat, red shirt...