Well my first 24 hour Fish-A-Thon is in the books. The fish did NOT want to cooperate with us. Every where Dan and I fished we marked a LOT of fish but none wanted to bite.
We started at 6 PM out of Prescott, WI. We started right off with hand-lining to pull cranks through the channel. We did that for an hour and a half with nothing to show for our efforts. So we figured we would pull up and head up the Croix to some of our normal haunts that produce a lot of fish. We fished hard and threw everything we had at those dang fish with nothing wanting anything we had to offer. Finally at 11:30 at night we had a fish on!!
Here's Dan's big trophy.
Lucky for us, pretty much everything you catch has a point association to it with this marathon so we got to count Sheepheads to our total. Only took five hours but we got 250 pts as it was under 12" (Over 12" are worth 500).
About this time it had been raining for a couple of hours and let up a little. I took off my rain gear, took off my wet shirt and put on a sweat shirt. Then put on my winter Arctic Armour for warmth and better water proofing than the Fenwick set I have. Rain started to come down again so I zipped it up around my face to keep the rain off. With a little sniffing I found a foul smell. Seems the lovely cat we have decided to take a whiz on my jacket at some point, AWESOME!! I chose a little water on my face than to smell that lovely fragrance for much longer.
I pulled up the seat at the bow of Dan's boat and stretched with rod in hand. We went under the bridge for some shelter but managed nothing still. I dozed off a little and Dan cruised the channel. About 2 AM we headed back up the Croix and tied to a dock on the river. We both stretched out a little and took turns with a little shut eye here and there. Well, waterproof gear is great but soon learned it's not totally water proof if you are sitting on soaked carpet for a long period of time. My drawers were soaked under it.
OK, so morning finally broke on us with still just having the sheephead to show for our 11 hours of fishing. Pretty pathetic but wasn't for lack of trying. We started up right away on trying to get more fish in the boat. Again, marking more fish than we've seen in these spots since spring. Nothing and I mean NOTHING wanted your lines. Not even junk fish. To be on the river for about 13 hours and not even have bass and sheepies hitting your line is very weird. You usually can't keep them off your line. Finally at 7:30 Dan hit the board again......
We lindy rigged, jigged, pulled cranks, hand-lined our tails off for the next three hours. Pretty much did everything we could do short of putting on a snorkel and going after with a spear gun. At 10 we decided enough was enough. We were heading up the river to pool 2. Now pool 2 is catch and release only, but who's to care, that's what this marathon. If we could get on the fish there like you usually do, we could stand a chance of racking up some nice points. Dan's wife got us some coffee to warm us up and we went in for a bathroom break before hitting it again.
Remember when I told you there was the nice aroma of cat whiz on my suite??? Well, apparently when your butt soaks through the suit and all the way through your clothes, the whiz smell gets stronger. Not only that, as I found out first hand, but it attaches itself to your body!!!! I went to the bathroom and was going to take off my bibs when the smell really hit me. I reached back and touched my pants and yep, that's where the smell was coming from!! Lucky me. Now, fishing is bad and I smell like I was on the bad end of a cat fight. Rock and Roll!!!!!!!!
So we hit pool 2 hard and fast. Trying different baits and switching things up. I FINALLY get my first fish after 18 LONG hours of fishing.
Nice little 12" bass.
I'd like to say fishing picked up, but it didn't. Was better than we had all night but still slim pickins. Finally 12:50 in the afternoon Dan came through with a nice 17 3/4" Sauger.
Yes!! We knew those were walleyes/sauger we were stalking the last two hours, now we had our proof. The rain, the cruddy fishing, the cat whiz on my body, all worth it!! We were sitting on eyes and going to have some fun.
Oh wait, forgot to mention that was the only one that hit our line the rest of the day!?!?! We had a couple on and near the boat, but got off the hook. We did manage more sheepies though.
Long time to spend on the water but the cause is worth it. The company was great and Dan and I shared some good conversation and laughs. Wish the fishing was better but you run into those days. We ended the day with 4849 pts for the time on the water. Not sure how that ranks us for the marathon.
PS. Got home and took a shower, washed three loads of clothes (wife did actually) and I'm am cat whiz free as of now!!
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Topic: 2010 Fish-A-Thon (Read 1436 times)
