I talked wif muh cuz today. He just can't get over losing his Dad. He was asking what we did when fishing and what was the most fun ya had fishing. Kinda hard to pick the one with most fun, but I told him about this one.
My Uncle's cousin called up and invited us down to crappie fishing at Lake Proctor. He had a nice little place right on the lake, The lake was very flooded from all the spring rains and the crappie were biting.
I brought my boat and my other Uncle was able to come out with us.My Uncle went with his cousin and my Uncle Bob went with me in our respective boats. He had several brush piles out right after Christmas from Christmas trees, so that's where we started.
I brought 3 rod n reel combos in case the crappie weren't biting and I could go for something else. He had said he had been catching 'barn doors', so my go to rig was a heavy crappie set up, not a super flexible tip. Everyone else had light rigs.
The first spot was pretty hot for a bit. Then out of the blue, I got a HARD hit and a run! I knew it was a hybrid Striper for sure. I barely got it in and had to change hooks. It seems the Stripers moved in. Damn shame the others had light rigs, so we had to move.
I knew a little about the lake, so I suggested an area to move. We moved into a flooded area that was just off one of the major underwater creek ran by. We positioned the boats end to end and close together.
Bob and I started catching big ol' barn doors.............ya had to use a net or rip their thin mouths and lose it. My Uncle Dub and his cuz were catching goose eggs!
Every time we'd catch one, you'd hear, "God dammit!" from one or both in the other boat. Keying on their fishing agony, I would say to my Uncle Bob, "Hey Unk! Please hand me one of those 'special lucky minnows'!" He'd smile and hand me one. I'd hook it, put it in the water,and turn my head and smile at the hapless in the other boat.
They finally got on the scoreboard with my Unk's cuz catching a pretty nice one......still smaller than anything we had caught there. Bob and I both said "Yeeehaaaaaw!" in unison!
Unk is still drawing a goose egg, so he needs some more ribbing!
I had him covered!
"Hey Bob! Hand me another minnow and make it a really lucky one!" Bob catching on said, 'Ok, here's the luckiest one I could catch! The very most lucky one is still in the bucket!" I chuckle and bait the hook. Unk is NOT getting off that lightly, though. I decided to up the ante!
"I think I'm gonna catch this one right here!" So pitched the minnow right at the back of their boat, right next to Unk.
Less than a minute later, I was drawing out a very nice barn door!
Uncle Bob and Cuz BUSTED out laughing! My Cheshire grin met Unk's glare! LOL! Twisting that kknife a little more, 'Hey Bob. Is there any more room in our basket?" Always up to get one on his brother, "This one will fit, but if we catch anymore, we're gonna have to use their basket!" Bob gets on a roll and after he hands me another minnow, he asks his brother, "Do you want one of these lucky minnows?" His glare was his answer!
Pop always said, "When ya have someone on the ropes, ya finish them off!"..............this was before Ali's 'rope-a-dope'! So I dropped a minnow behind Unk....."Oh, there's got to be a big one right there!" This time it took about 3 min.
"God Damn Bill! Stop it!" Everyone laughed.........Unk even chimed in with a chuckle after everyone else was laughing!
He's not down for the count yet! "God dammit Bob! Give your brother one of those lucky minnows!" Again the laughs came out.
I didn't let up until we left. I was just one of those times it didn't matter where I dropped a line. I kept pointing to left field and hitting a home run!!
On his deathbed, My Uncle talked about how he wished he could go back to Lake Proctor one more time and watch me and his brother catch all those 'damn fish'!
Me too Unk!