Tiny's Tantalizing Text

Good evening (or whatever time of day you are reading this). I was just sitting over at Dad's desk killing time until closing time when I realized I hadn't posted my weekly thoughts yet.

Over the weekend was the 25th Annual Carp Contest held at Blackhawk Lake in Lake View, Iowa. My buddy and I have fished in it the past 2 years, so we tried our luck again. The first year, I caught 2 carp, and my buddy got shut out, though he landed one for our third partner. Last year, he caught one or two, and I got shut out. What happened this year you ask? We both got shut out. Our third partner got one carp before we got there on Saturday, and a catfish, then a bullhead while we were there. On Sunday, this other guy caught a bass...an inch and a half long. We also got rained out after about 3 hours on Sunday. If we'd gotten the whole day in, I'm sure we would have caught something.

I also had the misfortune of breaking a reel on Sunday morning. I had casted out with my doughball and was going to turn the crank to tighten the line when it slipped over and wouldn't reel in. Well, I just thought the screw was loose, so I borrowed a screwdriver and tightened it, then it wouldn't move at all. Took it apart and found the crank handle was broken where it goes on the shaft, so I borrowed the crank handle from my other rod & reel (got it out of the water first so I wouldn't get a fish on with no way of bringing it in). The reel still wouldn't move the line in, so I took the cap off the reel and manually wrapped the line around the spool until I got it all in. Five feet from shore, I got snagged and had to break the line, but I didn't lose my hook since my buddy found it wrapped in his line when he did a bait check.

I should have known it was going to be a bad weekend for fishing. Didn't feel like making my bait until Friday night, Saturday when I was bringing lunch home for Dad and I, my buddy's fire department got called out for a garage fire, so that bought me a little extra time to get my stuff loaded. I left town 5 minutes later than my original plan, knowing that his department hadn't returned to the station yet...they called in when I got 2 miles out of town. Well, anybody who has spent time with a fire department knows that the work ain't over yet, just because the trucks are back at the station. There's usually hose to re-rack, tanks to fill, etc. Well, they finally got done, I took him home so he could change and grab his gear, and we finally got on the water (from shore, not on a boat) at 3:00.

Which brings me to our fishing spot. I had a low branch overhead and a downed tree in the water to my left. I'm also a lefty. I pretty much had to throw sidearm to get under the branch, but had to release late to keep it out of the downed tree. I'm much more accurate overhead. Needless to say, I spend most of Saturday unsnagging from trees and tying on hooks.

Wow, what an entry over a fishing outing. Good thing I can't remember anything else that happened since my last entry.