Frog Darter

Fishing Big O This Weekend

It's hard to describe how excited I am about fishing Lake Okeechobee this weekend.

My friend Stuart and I are headed down there Sunday. We'll fish with a guide Monday and out of Stuart's boat Tuesday. We're staying at Roland Martin's Marina and Resort in Clewiston. And we're close to the world famous Tiki Bar. All of which adds up to a helluva trip!

Fishing reports indicate that the fish are on a post-spawn feeding frenzy at certain parts of the day and that most of the good fishing is taking place in the rim canal. Fishermen are taking big bass on top water plugs, shaky head worms and jerkbaits/crankbaits. Shiners (or "mean fishing", as my friend calls it) seem to be doing well, too.

This is one of those sho-nuff fishing trips that aims to be a great adventure regardless of the catch. However, bringing in a tremendous Florida bass would make it an even bigger trip.

So hopefully The Big O describes the lake and not the number of fish we caught. Stay tuned.

Running Low

I was able to slip out of work Monday and head out to my local fishing spot. I was out early because I had a doctor's appointment that ended up having to be rescheduled due to an emergency at the doctor's office itself. They were behind two hours and wouldn't have seen me until 5p for a 3p appointment. So I rescheduled, headed home, grabbed my fishing stuff and my family, and headed out to the spot.

When we arrived, though, both batteries that I have for the trolling motor were practically dead. I must be doing something wrong or either I have the wrong kind of or bad batteries. No amount of charging will charge them fully and when they are somewhat charged they don't seem to last for very long. I think they are starting batteries and, from what I understand, what I need is deep cycle batteries. So I'm going to fix that problem soon enough. I get tired of getting all psyched up about going fishing then getting out there and not being able to. So it was dusk before I was able to think about going out.

But this time about 30 minutes of charging gave me enough juice to power the boat to the other side of lake to where I've been catching them lately. Unfortunately, not much was biting this time. Of course, I caught two jacks right off the bat. And I had a couple of soft hits on a crankbait from what seemed like bass. But things were slow.

We've had weird weather this week (snow on Saturday, high of 70 something on Sunday). We can't seem to get several days in a row of very warm weather to get the water warmed up and help with the coming spawn.

So while I wait for the weather to keep warming up, I have a few maintenance things to do. I need new batteries, obviously. And I need to reline a couple of reels. But that's just busy work to keep my mind off heading to the water.

The light was running low, the batteries were running low and now my patience is running low. Sounds like everything needs a good recharge.

Get Back, Jack

Sometimes playing to a tie score in sports is called "kissing your sister." You get to kiss, but, um, it's just your sister. So it doesn't really count.

That's how I feel about catching a jack. What we call a jack, some people call a pickerel or grass pike or mud pike or chainsides. No matter what you call it, though, it's ugly. I mean U-G-L-Y. Prehistoric looking, if you ask me. He's got a long nose, an upturned mouth, hundreds of tiny teeth, the dorsal fin is set way back, and he's long and skinny. And VERY aggressive.

The place where I fish regularly is plum full of jacks. They'll hit almost any lure I throw out there: spinnerbaits, crankbaits, worms, topwater. I've even caught a couple on frogs.

Standard procedure for me when I catch a bass is to size him up, take a photo if he's worthy and release him back to fight another day. Not jacks. There are so many in this little lake where I fish that they've become a nuisance. So when we catch them, we either slit their throats right then and there (if they're injured badly enough, which they invariably are after we have to retrieve our hooks from deep inside their throats) or we keep them in the cooler until we get back to the house. As big a nuisance as they are, though, they do fight pretty good. And on a slow day when the bass don't seem very interested, they feel good on the other end of the rod. You get to catch a fighting fish, but it's just a jack.

Which is why it's like kissing your sister. But with a few more teeth.