The Fall Trip 10/11-19/03By:Chris ErwinWe make it to the lake Saturday morning about 8am the weather is great.. Big bright day Clear skies and warm. I figure the fishing will be slow today because of the blue bird Sky so after putting in my boat at the Popin Rock ramp I head on over to the cove and head up to the camp where we set up for the week. I did get out Saturday evening.. We never raised any Muskie but I did catch a few bass on crankbaits along with that we did get to run about 4 or 5 miles and look the water over so we could make some plans for the rest of the week.
Sunday:We fish all day on Sunday..We didn't see a muskie.. We did catch a fair amount of bass most on the "Ghost"… the water is clear.. Actually it's as clear as I have seen it all year. The air is crisp and when the sun goes down the chill starts to creep in… soon we feel the need for a jacket as we see the sun starting to set.. The water is slick now not a ripple anywhere…I can't express the beauty that just jumps out at you.. The leaves are turning every color in the rainbow …. the reflection from the water when the water is so calm is like a mirror. The only interruption is the bait hitting the water sending a wave of ripples across the top of the water.. We soon see that we must head back while we can still see enough to make it back through the stump fields..When we return we see a US forest truck go past our place … they don't stop but seem to be looking for something.. I see Dick coming down the road he is getting ready to go home for the week… I ask him…Hey Dick.. Can you see what the Forest service was looking for? He says.. I'm not sure.. They are sitting along side your new place down the road…we hop on the four-wheeler and head down to where they are.. We get off the wheeler and walk over the hill..We can see them.. They are on the Government side of the line.. They seem to be looking for something.. Dick shouts.. Are you looking for something? They look a little confused.. We are looking for the cave that suppose to be here.. We tell them that the cave is on my place and not on the Government.. They make their way back up to where we are.. When they catch their breath they tell us that a couple of pro. Cave spelunkers has contacted the US forest service and they wanted to explore the cave that was listed on their map.. They thought it was on government land.. We show them the mouth of the cave.. and we give them permission to explore the cave the next weekend.. The cave has a hole in the middle of it that goes down about 50 feet or so .. We are looking forward to finding out what's at the bottom of the hole.. We can invasion dead bodies, Indian relics.. Or who knows what.. They tell us they will be back out next Saturday with the cave spelunkers to explore… We head back to the camp where Dick gets back into his truck and heads out to go home.
Monday:Waking up to another pretty day.. We head out at 8am going about 6 miles to a place where we start fishing.. My second cast a muskie blows up on my buzzbait.. I feel his weight… he takes off… across the top of the water.. He hasn't broken the top but is just under the surface.. Then he shoots up in the air.. Shakes his head as his body hit the water.. My line flies back at me.. He's off!!!.. Man…that sucks…I figure it's early I'll get another chance.. We fish till we get hungry.. Then head for the bank and make lunch.. We have caught 4 or 5 bass at this point but only raising the one muskie all morning The balance of the day is just like the morning still catching a bass here and there Most of them are in the slot with a few of them even below the slot.. Like 10 to 12 inches. We head back to a place that is close to the camp where we plan on fishing till dark.. I'm throwing the Ghost in a chartreuse back white body.. After about 10 minutes of casting the light is getting very low.. I'm working the crankbait back very slow.. Wham!!! I get slammed.. I feel the reel strip some line.. I tell Aaron I think I have a muskie!.. He heads for the net.. Then I feel the fish coming up.. I know he's going to break the surface.. We see him…it's not a muskie.. It's a huge Bass!! By the time I get her to the net it's pretty dark.. We measure her she's 22 7/8" inches.. This fish is a good solid 5 lbs.. We get her back in the water and head on in for the night. We hear the weather report it sounds like we are going to have some weather on Tuesday.. In our mind we think this could be a good thing.. So far we have had really good weather and everyone knows that muskie hit better when the weather is bad right!! Well listen.. Never hope for bad weather.. Why.. Cause you might get it!!
Tuesday:Up and out at 8am the water looks great slick as glass and the air is so still that it's spooky.. We head to one of our favorite spots and start casting.. The bass are hitting.. All three of us are catching bass.. I'm changing up between the Ghost and the Ripper.. Scott is throwing a Ghost and a big muskie size AC Shiner and Aaron is throwing a ghost and a Buzzbait.. We can't believe that we haven't raised a muskie…the wind is starting to pick up. We are getting heavy gust of wind now that is just shoving us down the bank.. I take us to a cove where I think we will be a little protected from the wind.. This doesn't help. The leaves are coming down like rain.. I look up at the sky.. It has turned very dark and the clouds are moving across the sky with rapidly changing formations. The rain starts to fall.. Man.. It's a cold rain and it's getting harder all the time. We put up our top and huddle under it while it just pours the rain. We stay pretty much dry under the top.. The rain starts to let up so we go back to casting.. The rest of the day is a zip three hours of casting without a strike. As darkness sets in we are beat, cold and ready for some food. This is the only day that we are glad to get off the water. The weather has punished us.  . The campfire is a warm and a welcome site. We do get a weather report and it sound like Wednesday will be a better day this is good news our trolling batteries are dead so we will be running the generator most of the night getting ready for Wednesday.
Wednesday:We have one more person starting today. Christy had put in for Vacation and she made it in late Tuesday night. We will be splitting up into two boats today. We start off with Aaron and Christy fishing together then later in the day Aaron will get in my boat and Scott will fish with his sister. The day starts out with the sun burning off the mist. We still have some wind but the day is warm and the fishing is pretty good.. At lease the bass fishing is pretty good. I raise two muskie today, both fish slash at my Ripper but none of them connect with the bait. Christy nails a 33" incher today we are in different coves so she had already released the fish before I get a chance to see it or take a picture. She caught it on a 3" Ghost. As we think about how the fishing is going we realize that the fish are coming in spurts We fish for sometimes hours without a strike then out of the blue the fish turn on and we may catch 4 or 5 in short order.. We also notice that when the bass get active the muskie Will be in the lay downs and it might take 5 or 6 cast to get them to take a look at anything.. We fish all day on Wednesday only stopping for a lakeshore lunch.. It's a good day with some good bass coming to the boat along with Christy's Muskie we are feeling pretty good about the day..  As we head back up the river we see our buddies Larry and Michael Kitchen, We stop and visit. Larry has caught a few good bass and they have caught one muskie 35".. not bad.. Larry's fish came on a BearClaw Buzzer they tell us they have been to the Rock quarry. In the back of one of the small coves they said they caught 6 bass on the buzzer. We have been throwing the buzzer some but haven't had a hit on it today.. Go figure! We head on in as the day slides into darkness and the cool air takes over the day.. I feel really lucky to have kids that want to be with me.. Both Christy and Scott have left their other half at home just to be with the old man on this fishing trip.. Of course the fact they love to fish has a lot to do with it..
Thursday:We are up at the crack of dawn to start this day we have heard on the news that its going to be a sunny day so we hope to raise a muskie before the sun get to high in the sky. We start off this day with Scott in the boat with me we move up the lake slow waiting on Christy and Aaron.. Christy's little boat has a 35 hp motor and we want to make sure she gets to the cove she wants to start in.. Scott and I want to run to the weeds and work our way back to the cove where Christy is going to be fishing. We plan to have lunch at that time and see how we are all doing. Scott and I pull into the area where the weeds are, we seem to be alone, we start casting. We work the weeds hard changing baits and going over the area two or three times.. Not even a bass.. It's hard to believe there is nothing working these weeds.. I think that when the weeds start to die off it must change the ph and reduce the oxygen output.. Scott suggests that we come back after the sun is high.. Any way we move to a bank that has a lot of down trees running along side of an old road bed.. I am still throwing the Ripper and Scott is throwing a 675 AC Shiner and a new crank bait that is a 4"deep diving model of the Ghost.. We only had a few of these baits and we had painted them with fingernail polish Just to try them out.. I work the lay downs slow making short jerks with the Ripper about half way down the bank. I throw all the way to the bank working the bait down the side of a big pine tree that is at lease 15 foot long lying in the water pointing straight out. Just as I get to the end of the tree a muskie explodes on the bait.. He's On!! The fish runs right at me passing me as he goes under the boat.. I feel him coming up as he breaks on the other side of the boat.. I sock my rod deep into the water and hit the trolling motor swinging me around so I'm on the same side as the fish.. After some playing he make a pass at the boat and Scott dips him.. What fun!! He hits 37" not a monster but a good fish and I am a happy camper at this point.. We take a few pictures and put him back into water.   After re-tying we get back to casting.. It's a funny thing.. The game is active on the bank.. We see two deer walking right pass us along with that we catch three more bass down this same bank The sun is high in the sky at this point we figure the muskie fishing is over for the day We have about 20 foot of bank left before we get to the point. We can see Christy and Aaron coming out of the cove they have been fishing.. I throw another lay down this time I throw across the front of the tree working the bait slow.. I see the fish rushing from under the treetop.. He rolls up under the Ripper I see the water explode.. Nothing he missed the bait.. My bait is out of his wake. Scott throws the little crankbait right on top of him.. He fires on it.. He's got it!!.. The fight is on!! As he runs off the tree and heads toward deep water.. Scott yells…He's coming up~!~! I want to go for the camera..But I don't.. I get the net.. Scott gets a little testy when I want to take action shots…LOL The fish breaks the water and we see the bait is hanging on the outside of his mouth.. I tell Scott lead him back this way and I'll dip him.. We are afraid he is going to rip out As he brings the fish around I dip him.. He's in the boat.. Whew!! What a day!!  We put a tape on him.. He's 38" one inch longer than mine.. I'm sure I'm going hear about this at the campfire tonight.. Smile.. We get the fish unhooked and take a few pictures and return him to the water.. I just can't say enough about the Triple grip hooks… they saved this fish.. In the mean time Christy and Aaron has seen us fighting this fish and they have motored up along side. Christy tells me that Aaron caught a 26" muskie in the head of the cove they were in.. We all head for the bank and have lunch We have all caught at leased one muskie now. We just relive the catches over and over as we eat lunch. I tell Christy she needs to get a digital camera before next year so she can take a few shots when they catch fish. I say this as Christy is looking at the viewer on my camera so she can see the fish Scott and I caught earlier.. As we get back to casting its soon comes clear that the fish have turn off as fast as they turned on.. We don't get another strike the rest of the day. We work our way back towards the camp as the darkness starts to take us over..
Friday:After a long discussion Thursday night we decide to not hit the water early today instead we plan a big breakfast. We know that all the rest of the family will be coming in today and we want to be in camp when they get here. They make it in about 9am. After we all eat I hook the camera to the TV and show them all the bigger fish that we took pictures of..Linda asks me if we have caught any crappie. She would like to have a fish fry on Saturday night.. I tell her no, we haven't been fishing for crappie but we can give it a try today.. I dig out some Beatle spin type baits that I had made up from some wire forms I had bought and some 1/8th oz jigs that I had tied with some of the short hair that was left over from making the inline bucktails. I gave everyone four or five of them and we set out to catch some crappie.. Scott and I throw the lay downs and channel trees. At the end of the day we had about ten crappie not that good but it ended up being enough. They were 7 of us fishing for them. By the Way here is Aaron beatle spin bass 21" When everyone reported in we had 28 crappie. They were about 15 of us to feed. It turned out to be plenty. The big discussion around the camp fire that night wasn't about fishing, It was about the Cavers or Spelunkers, what ever you want to call them, they were suppose to show up Saturday morning to explore the cave. I guess it was about 10am when they did show up. We checked on their progress a few times to find out that the hole in the bottom of the cave was 53 feet deep. After they left we went down in the mouth of the cave to take a few pictures so you could see what we are talking about..        Saturday evening Scott and I go back out and try our hand a catching another muskie After casting most of the evening and only catching two bass we are about to give up When Scott hooks another muskie.  He puts on a heck of a show but he's a little guy 26" we get him back in the water and we head in for the day..
Sunday:This is pack up day we don't fish the morning we just have a big breakfast and pack up to go home. It's been a good week we all caught a lease one muskie plus the big bass also gave us a few thrills.. As they bring the van around to the Poplin Rock ramp to pull me out of the water I cast the area right around the ramp. I'm throwing the AC shiner that Scott had been throwing. The bait is slowing swimming it's way back to me when I get a strike.. The fish blows out of the water …hehehe it's a little muskie maybe 20" he's a mean little devil.. I'm by myself so I just whip out the camera and take a shot while I'm holding him up by the AC shiner. After putting him back I head on over to the ramp where they are waiting for me.. A fitting end to a great fall trip.. Till next time Good Fishing Chris Erwin KentuckyAngling.Com |