I toy with the idea of writing something interesting, but my brain is frying with other things.
Will the temp to hire job I’ve been working actually turn into a hire, possibly ending a few years of financial drought.
Will the Rheumatoid Arthritis that came out of nowhere and viciously attacked my wife’s joints a few months ago do even more damage soon. Will the chemo treatments she’s on actually make her lose more hair than she has and will she be able to walk or use her hands in another year if the treatments fail.
Will we heavily arm and back whoever the hell that is in Syria only to have them denounce us and try to kill us all down the road.
Will the fault line that runs under Illinois finally split and bring the Gulf of Mexico all the way to Peoria.
And what about the next Iron Chef?
Hard to concentrate with all that running around in my head.
On top of that, even with all the greening going on and all the flowers and birds and critters, I’m totally uninspired to take pictures of my surroundings while out fishing.
But I did get out on three days and a few hours of fishing.
Started out in a creek on Wednesday after work. Peering down from the bridge at still deep water, I was encouraged by some landmarks that told me I can get in and walk around a bit.
Couldn’t have been more wrong. Took a half hour to go 50 feet. Most of my time was spent on my toes with water closely approaching nipple level. I did catch eight smallies in that 50 feet, but walking with your arms already over your head makes it difficult to set a hook, so I missed the hookset on at least twice that. I do have one lame photo of a fish, but hardly worth putting up. Besides, I was too busy trying not to go under the water to think about pictures. The creek bed should have been coming up, but it was going down instead. Going back the way I came was out of the question against the current and it took me almost a half hour to figure out how to get the hell out of the creek.
Speaking of lame photos, there’s more. I knew the fishing I would do this day and any other day I chose to go out would be good too. Since my surroundings weren’t inspiring, I considered taking a picture of every fish caught and posting them. This day would have been eight.
The next day out the fishing lasted for the duration of a cheap cigar, about 20 minutes and resulted in nine more fish. There were no botched hooksets. That would have been 17 lame photos of fish up here so far. I’ve decided to put up just one. I blew this way up in Photoshop. I can see myself in the eyeball.
Speaking of creeks that aren’t doing what they’re supposed to do, this creek has changed with the floods we’ve had. The width of the creek used to go all the way to the trees you see on the right. That gravel bar is now almost two feet above the water. The channel that can now knock you on your ass was usually around ankle deep.
Further downstream, besides being decorated with new trees, the creek is a good 30 feet wider. Will be interesting as the water comes down and I get to do more exploring just what I’ll find. I already know another creek has similar issues. It’s not the new depths that bother me, it’s what’s down in the depths.
This would be Sunday, definitely a good day of fishing that resulted in the thumb pictured above. I initially thought I was out for 2.5 hours, but it winds up it was barely two. This resulted in 42 fish. Two green sunfish, two largemouth and the rest were smallies.
It would have been fun to put up 59 lame pictures of fish, but I’ll save you the scrolling and just put up a few. But take a look at the backgrounds. For years I’ve been taking lame pictures of fish where I try to show the type of water I catch them out of. This day it was every imaginable type of water, including some of the fastest roiling water where I thought for sure nothing would be living. This was found out by accident as I dragged a lure through the rush of water.
This is the most piss poor shot I’ve ever taken of an 18 inch smallie.
And for those that must know such things… A Cabela’s 1/16th ounce plain head jig with a 1/0 hook. Three inch Producto Spring Grubs, in pearl.
I thought of switching to something else, but really, how stupid would that have been.
All fish were on the bottom whether in 1 or 4 feet of water. A few came up off the bottom as I reeled in the lure, I could see them come up.
If you don’t know how to get a 1/16 ounce jig on the bottom in fast moving, three foot deep water, you’re on your own. I don’t show anyone how to do that. I only cast downstream, so casting upstream is not the answer and doing that definitely won’t catch you that many fish.
I give it the rest of May and then we enter the summer doldrums where all fish have lockjaw and only dynamite in well placed eddies will get you anything.
So go out and get it while you can.
Jim McClellan
5 May 2013I hope things start looking up for you soon, Ken. In the meantime, fishing is good for what ails you if for no other reason than it lets your mind relax for a bit. As always, I enjoy your writing and your pictures.
Ken G
6 May 2013Fishing keeps me sane Jim. I have no clue what I would do if I didn’t have that to unwind.
Probably drink too much and sit around watching hockey.
Howard Levett
5 May 2013Ken, I feel your pain. No, this isn’t a smartass joke. I’ve got some serious issues that I haven’t felt comfortable talking about. I’ll be keeping my fingers crossed and a prayer in my head that things level out there. In the meantime keep informing and entertaining us. We love it.
Ken G
6 May 2013For the most part I keep it all tucked away in the back of my head Howard, but the last year has been a tough one and I’ve noticed that now and then I let it all get in the way a bit. Wada ya gonna do. That happens.
I don’t like the fact that I feel so uninspired to take pictures of my surroundings. It is nice where I live.
Stability first. I’ll worry about that inspiration stuff later.
walt
6 May 2013Ken,
Sorry to hear that you’re feeling the anxious doldrums, but hang in there. I find that when the world is hangin’ too heavy on my shoulders I’ve just got to write, get out there, do what’s gotta be done. Pretty lame advice, but I’ve been there, and will be there again. As all will be at one point or another. Those handsome smallmouth are good medicine.
Ken G
6 May 2013There’s a boulder on a creek out in nowhere that’s waiting for my ass to plop down on it Walt. It’s been underwater a bit too much this spring, but it’s where I go to just sit. Even if nothing all that interesting comes from the sitting, it’s much needed.
No such thing as lame advice, just lame excuses for not taking an hour or two to go fishing. Fishing is much better than taking meds for high blood pressure.
Matt
12 May 2013They certainly are biting.
I’ve been on the Big Rock creek lately and have had some great days.
Ken G
12 May 2013I’ve been getting virtually nothing on BRC Matt. Had a good day when it was flooded, but not much before or since. My timing must be off. Have yet to see a carp or sucker in there and usually by now they’re in there by the hundreds.
Matt
14 May 2013I fish the Plano area and wade downstream. I got out on BRC again this evening. I landed a half dozen smallmouth, two of which were very nicely sized.
It’s funny you mention the suckers, as I got farther downstream I kept coming across more and more of them. By the time I was about 3/4 mile up from the Fox, they were everywhere. I’ve never seen fish stacked up like that, very cool.
Ken G
14 May 2013When I was there on Friday I didn’t see a single one Matt. They stack up like that every year and this year is the latest I’ve seen that happen. They’ve been in Blackberry Creek for almost a month. Odd how two creeks not that far from each other behave so differently. The smallies in BC has been nothing short of amazing so far. If you go there and catch less than 20, you’re having a bad outing. And that should only take about an hour.