Is there really ever a bad day of fishing?

“That’s why they call it fishing . . . .”

You only hear that after a bad day of fishing. That begs the question, “Is there really a bad day of fishing?”

I pulled the next bluegill out of the cooler and set it on the fillet board. I don’t use an actual “board” anymore. At an outdoor show a decade or more ago someone sat demoing a new-fangled product for cleaning fish – two different sizes. We bumped into this fellow at the end of the show on the last day with the crowd thinning, trying to beat the heat on a 90-plus degree day. He ran through his spiel. I remained skeptical. He cut the price for both size “boards” to twenty bucks and I ended up carrying the things home. They work phenomenal. It stays slime free when cleaning and cleans up like a breeze.

Fishing the day after a large storm system passed through didn’t fill me with a lot of hope. But since any day fishing is better than a day at work the Lori Ann II got launched. The brisk cross wind at the landing created a cluster for boaters trying to land their boats. I waited at least 30 minutes to launch.

I headed to the spot that no one else seems to fish; the best kind of fishing spots. It provided wind protection today and that incidentally is exactly how I found that spot 20 years ago. Others think it’s too shallow, but the fish move into it and feed all summer long, especially on hot days.

A patch of thick cabbage weed started growing in front of the rushes five years ago, it filled in and expanded since. Either you fish it with slip bobbers or you fish it with surface poppers now.

Lori’s first cast drew action quickly and so did mine. I set the hook on a large bluegill. “Fish fry in the making,” I was thinking.

I went to set the hook on my second cast, and the line snapped at the reel. I managed to grab the long length of line and hand line in another nice gill. But not enough line remained on the spool to rig it.

I grabbed my panfish pole set up for jig fishing, and rigged it with a slip bobber set up. The first cast with it stopped short and a large rat’s nest of line came out of the reels. Most of these can be fixed. This however, was not the fixable kind. After I got the tangle out, just 50 feet of line remained on the spool. I checked the entire boat for a banana. I now rigged my goober rig panfish pole with a slip bobber set up. The action let off a bit in the time I spent rigging poles. I bought the reel on the goober rig pole 20 years ago. It needs replacing, but I forgot about that over the winter. The reels that just created the two malfunctions are two years old and never made me happy. Fishing equipment cost money and I guess I got what I paid for. If you want a newer used reel or two, I’ve got a couple I’m selling cheap – just say’n. I baited up, but Lori reeled in another nice spawned out female bluegill and I set my baited line in the water by the boat. I sit by the live well and often take her fish off her line. I’m pulling the hook out of her fish and see my pole jerk and almost go over the side. When I grabbed it, I set the hook on a 12 inch crappie that then wrapped the fishing line around the anchor rope like three times. The only way to land the fish meant pulling the anchor, and in doing so, the crappie got off a half second ahead of the net and lives to swim another day.

And you guessed it, I needed to rig the slip bobber set up again. After which I got in some fishing and caught several nice bluegill.

A front came through and the wind quit. So did the fishing. I planned to work a couple weed lines for northern that trip but decided to just land the boat. We ended up just beating the rain. I never did find the banana on the boat. I guess that’s why they call it fishing.

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Local Outdoorsman