WHAT FULL MOON?

[TubeDude]

[cool]After another week full of stress, distractions and fishing deprivation, we decided we needed a "brain broom"...a fishing "fix". We had planned to try to get out Thursday afternoon, but the wind was blowing, as it has been far too often this year. So, we did the "fishing dance" for Saturday morning and hoped the weather gods would like our rendition.

Everything started out great. Only hit one red light out of a possible eight on the way out of town. Got to the entry gate at Saguaro Lake at 5:30, and it was already open (didn't open until about 6 AM last week). Drove down to the lake and there was only one other vehicle in any of the parking areas. No boats working inside the "NO BOATS" buoy line, as is customary. Only a light ofshore breeze.

Air temp was 65 degrees when we got there...and just hitting 100 when we left at 1 PM. Water temp was 71 at launch, and 75 at departure. This was to be our first trip without waders this year, so we were pleased to find the water over 70...as we had anticipated.

Fishingwise, it could not have been much better. We were concerned that the full moon might have shut down the fishing, as we have experienced on other trips. And, in spite of seeing lots of shad on the surface, there were no predators working them. We assumed they had probably fed all night, and would probably not be receptive to our offerings.

In truth, most of the fish we ended up keeping did have at least one or two recently ingested shad in them, but they munched our little jigs for dessert very well. Maybe they were just picking their teeth, but we did not ever have much of a lull in the action from the time we started casting until we sweated our way back to the vehicle in the hot afternoon sun. In fact, we were catching some of our biggest fish of the day when we bagged it. We were hot, tired, hungry and wored out.

Tube babe scored a 5.8 pound channel cat within the first few minutes of hitting the water. We thought it was going to be "Kitty bar the door". I caught about a 4# channel a few minutes later. It later got out of my fish basket because I left the spring latch open to make it easier to deposit the willing yellow bass. During a moment when I was moving backward with a little speed, my basket was pulled out into a more horizontal position, and that cunning catfish rocketed out of there like a Polaris missile.

TubeBabe was a witness, but she probably won't back me up on it. As she says..."Without the fish, you can't prove nothin'" If that's the way she wants to play it, I'll just wait for payback time. She's got her share of "gotaway" stories too.

Pesky boating traffic was lighter than usual. The Hawaiian racing canoes that usually terrorize us on Saturdays did not put in an appearance, but there were some novice canoe paddlers that insisted on showing us their skills up close as they noisily beat the sides of their craft with the paddles. That was about the only time we experienced much of a dropoff in the action. One minute our sonar screens were full of fish, and then they disappeared as the noisy canoes moved through.

There were other water craft too. The guy in the first pic hung around us all day, hoping to catch some of the fish we were catching. The only thing I saw him catch was a couple of bow wakes over the back of his lopsided vinyl craft. He must have been sitting in water, because everytime he leaned backward, the rear edge dipped into the water. He paddled around with a single paddle, and would have been in big trouble if the usual winds had come up.



The next pic is of a real "Party Barge". Like many of the big boats on the lake, they felt that if TubeBabe and I found an area to our liking, that it would be perfect for them to come in and anchor up. Like countless thoughtless big boat operators before them, they cruised right up to where we were fishing and tossed anchor right on top of our fishing hump. The good news is that the fish were more scattered on this trip and we found some more willing fishies in short order.



Not all of the recreational boaters were obnoxious and offensive. One craft had two friendly boaters who contributed to the scenery. TubeBabe said it was okay to shoot a picture..."to add to my file of watercraft photos"...but that I could not help them apply sunscreen. I doubt that they would have appreciated having shad oil rubbed on their bodies anyway. (Hey, PoloKid, as you can see, they have stocked the lake for your trip in June.)



Back to fishing...before I get into trouble. The next pic shows TubeBabe holding an average sized yellow bass. They are small cousins of the larger stripers and white bass. They are prolific, schooling fish and provide a lot of fun on light tackle. They are also great eating.



TubeBabe caught somewhere between 75 and a hundred fish, including the 5.8 pound cat that is underneath the mass of yellows she kept in basket. We only kept a few of the larger fish for filleting, but still ended up with a bunch for the filleting board.



The last pic shows how I have mounted my fish basket on a forward D Ring. You will not see my 4# catfish in the basket, because it spied the open lid and jumped out to freedom. I can only imagine the "people story" he is telling to all the other catfish...about the one he got away from.

By the way, I was lifting the basket up with a fin to get this shot. It normally rides well down in the water and away from the front edge of the Fat Cat. The yellow float acts as a bumper to keep the basket from coming into contact with the air chamber. And, notice how the two metal carrying handles fit down inside the collar to help prop the upper end open, well above the water line.


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