After the Splash

By Chris Erwin

If you are a regular reader of this column, you know I took an unwanted dip in Cave Run Lake last week. While I drown my phone, hit in the water wearing enough clothes to turn me into a human anchor. And picking up a few new nick names from my fellow writers; I decided it wasn’t going to stop me from getting on the water and catching fish.

On Sunday after the KOPA conference, I headed back to what my family calls Littlebear Fish Camp. I would be staying here the rest of the week, and I had a few things planned. To begin with my old friend Larry Kitchen would be coming on Monday and staying until Tuesday.

Then on Wednesday and Thursday I would be fishing with my Daughter Christy Thomas, on Friday, Saturday and Sunday. I would be fishing with my son Scott Erwin.
The weather forecast was up and down some good weather and two cold fronts one at the beginning of the week and one at the end of the week. Knowing this it was obvious the fishing wasn’t going to be stable, and it was going to take work to staying on top of what would catch fish.

I picked up Larry at the Poping Rock Ramp Monday morning, after storing away some gear we went up the river to try our luck. It didn’t take long to realize it was going to be a challenge; the wind was blowing our boat around like a toy boat in a wind storm.

We both believed the fish (Bass) were going to be on the channel trees, and we felt the Muskie was going to be on flats and points in shallow water near deep water. Why we felt this way was because of the dropping water, and the knowledge that these fish would start focusing on shad instead of crawfish and other bait near the bank. As it turns out, we were half right; the Muskie was exactly where we thought they would be. However, the bass were scattered some feeding around fallen trees near the bank, and some were out on the tree lines in deep water where we had caught them in years past during this time of the year.

Over the week, I would catch fish with everyone I got to fish with, and they all caught fish as well. When it comes to bass, we just count fish; it’s sort of a competition the fish are the winners; we just count how many we each catch, taking pictures of fish over 16 inches (to have something to show you), and we release them as we catch them.

The Muskie if we are lucky enough to catch any, they get measured, photograph and released. For the sake of space and going over all the people I had in the boat, I just want to highlight a couple of fish to give you an idea how we were catching them.

Over the course of the week totaling all the bass, we managed to catch about 97 bass, only eight would be over 16 inches, the top of the Cave Run Lake Slot. The balance would be between 10-16 most of which were in the slot 13-16. In the Muskie department, we caught nine, five of which were juvenile fish in the 19-25-inch class the other four were 44, 43, 43, and 38 inches. The bass were caught on spinnerbaits, crankbaits, and soft plastic bait called a beaver.

The bass during the cold fronts moved down in the water column, and we caught them on the Beaver. On the sunny days, we caught them on the spinnerbaits and crankbaits. All but two of the Muskie was caught on Crankbaits (small crankbaits on eight-inch steel leaders) fishing around laydown trees.

I was fishing with Kitchen when I caught the 44 incher, and if it wasn’t for Larry, the first one would have never made it to the net. I was using a bass crankbait no leader when I hook this fish. It ran straight at me and under the boat, I just held on to my 17lb line and let the fish plow… then I felt it coming up, and I know it was going to break the water, Larry was standing on the rod-locker waiting to see it. When it exploded right in front of him… he let out a war-hoop. What-a-fish he yelled! Then he said, “What did you hook it on”? I responded, that little crankbait no leader. He looked up at me… we ain’t getting that fish in, he said, with this grin from ear to ear. Then the fish broke the water again right next to the boat; Kitchen quickly slid the net under her, and she drove down into it, whew… I felt a rush of relief; it took both of us to lift her in.