Murphy Hits The Stick Marsh

[flfireman]

Well guys here comes the details Lizard left out. First off let me just say " Had a wonderful time fishing with Bassintom, Lizards and Kirk". They are truly great guys and will share a boat w/ them anytime. Look forward to another day out w/ any of them. Now for the details:

Zooker has already made the phone call to me!!!Thanks Guys!! We started out about 8 am, the guys had about a 2 hr drive to meet me. After loading the boats and putting in they were all ready to get fishin. I took them to the SW corner of the Stick Marsh/Farm 13 area. This area is nothing but trees, stumps, hangups and alligators. Nice calm day, slightly overcast. Basically you fish this area as a ping pong ball. You troll, you hit a stump, you troll, hit a stump. This goes on for a while. Im proud to say, better yet Glad to say I at least caught the 1st bass of the day. Unfortunately it was my 1st of 2. Lizards soon surpassed me... hell he surpassed all three of us. I believe he ended up w/ 8 keepers (over 14 inches). Then the fun began....

As you all know I pretty much fish the Stick all the time. Today you wouldn't know it. I highsided my boat about 3 hrs into the trip, not bad, got off within 5-10 minutes. The wind picked up, and the trolling motor began to run down. So I decided to motor up a little and use the wind to my advantage, bad move. Hit a floating log, driving it downwards into the lake bottom and putting the other end in the ribs of my boat. STUCK #2. The boat was in a bad spot. Couldn't get it off. Bigger problem we were cocked to the side so bad that if either one of us leaned the wrong way, we were flippin.

After some team work and luck we got the boat off, then developed a very nasty high pitched grinding/squealing noise when the boat was in gear. After looking around we found the problem, seems my partner Kirk's spinning reel happened to find its way to close to the prop. Well after some help from Bassintom w/ a knife we pulled out a sinker, hook and about 100 yards of power pro from the prop. Time to go somewhere else. Decided to head back towards the east side and get out of the wind.

During that trip I found out my new BPS extreme pole was now a 2 piece rod. After a string of profanities I moved on. Well the day almost ended there. My trolling motor battery died, Lizards- being the well prepared boater had an extra. The trip can continue. We moved up the channel w/o much look so I figured the NE corner might be productive. After giving Bassintom and Lizards a stern warning about the submerged stumps, I promptly hung my boat up again. This tiime my 50hp Evinrude was out of the water. After jumping, shaking, cussing, and praying...........we were still stuck. After 1-2 unsuccessful attempts, Lizard pulled us off. We trolled around for another 1-2 hrs and it was finally time to head in. I beat them to the ramps and was already loading the boat on the trailer. To my amazement and surprise... I drove the boat up to my normal spot and told Kirk to go ahead. As he proceeded up the ramp, I proceeded to go back down the ramp. Now about half my boat was sitting on the cement ramp. Luckily for me Bassintom and Lizards had already come around the corner and got to witness the entire event. So that was the end of my day.

Just a recap- boat stuck bad- 3 times, dead T/M battery once, boat laying on concrete once. Besides all that, I truly had a great day. Still laughing about it. First impressions- Give me a second chance. Ive never had that bad of a day. I am glad to say, they all had a good time, a lot of LAUGHS, and some pretty nice fish were caught. Not the hawgs I was hoping for, but the fish were there. Even the very prized sought after mud spitting largemouth was caught. White shirt, black mud- Tide does wonders?? I probably forgot a thing or two....trying to forget a few more. Again, Glad to have the pleasure of meeting you guys. Will hopefully have many more times to wet some lines with you again. By the way....... Paca craws are the stuff. We all ended up using these things by days end. Again, Lizard had them.

[lizardsrule]

It was a very good day The mud spitting fish was hilarius, even if it was all me and my boat LOL I will be back to go fishing with ya again. Thanks again for the guided tour Tom will get some pics posted I'm sure a little later in the week.

Lizards

[JB]

Glad to hear ya made it out ALIVE!
Wonder if they make boats with a "4 wheel drive" feature" for next time

[betursweetbass]

Note to self, Stop my bit_hin about little things like missed fish, and give thanks for more important things like stump free waters and one piece fishing poles. End Note

Nice to see some of the forum members getting to meet and have some laughs together, here's to hoping your next trip is just as much fun, but without the hazards.