Another Fun Adventure Out on Lake Wallenpaupack with my Fishing Buddy!
A few weeks back we played hooky from work & family. It was a quick trip filled with high expectations as we realized this was most likely going to be our last 2019 fishing trip on the big Ole Pontoon – The Blue LaGoose.
Trevor and I got up to the lake on a Thursday a little later than expected and invested quite a bit of time doing setup work for our approach the next day. You see, we had intentions and specific goals that required all the rods to be setup for bait fishing.
After about an hour, we were rigged up and after a beer or two I think we attempted to sleep. 10:30pm bedtime seemed like an easy thing, but we were both pretty amped up. We joked about how cold it was going to be the next morning, then I remembered that I was also going to get wet throwing the cast net. Not a big deal when it’s 80 degrees outside but not ideal when it’s in the 40’s. This only added to my anxiety. We did as much as we could before going to bed for the evening and before I knew it, the alarms were firing off all across the house.
It was 3:00am and by the time we walked down to the boat and were ready to go it was 3:30am. Now, since we are still learning just about everything we can and attempting to store that knowledge for the foreseeable future we thought catching Alewife with all we had learned the last few times would be easy, wrong again.
Nothing off the dock seemed to work, so an executive decision was made to venture out into the lake in search of Alewife. Did I forget to mention that in the past three years I’ve never seen fog on the lake as heavy and thick as it was that morning. So bad by the way, I had to literally use instruments to guide me up the lake towards the dam which is where we were going to fish. You couldn’t see 2 feet in front of you and there were several times that I was driving the boat straight towards shore, I’m rarely disoriented about where I am, but this was a new experience for me. Without the SIMRAD system and the mapping technology we would have been stuck.
By now, it’s 4:20am and still no bait. I picked a spot off Epply Island and hoped we could find some bait. Luckily, after an hour of throwing the cast net we had enough to fish the morning. It’s now approaching 5:30am and the sun is attempting to breakthrough some of the fog, it’s still deep. As a captain (not real title) I get nervous about finding fish, catching bait, making sure people aboard the boat have fun. Now I’m worried about keeping the darn Alewife alive long enough to catch a fish. Easier said than done, I might be investing in a circular aeration live-well. I have a good one but they don’t like the shape at all.
We fished around the island a bit, drifting in the wind and I’m pretty sure the floor was a bit too flat for what we were attempting to accomplish. So, we drove up towards dam and drifted for two hours. Finally saw another boat, good thing too because if you were driving too fast or they were driving too fast we could have killed each other. By now, it’s approaching 9am and with little to show for our efforts I’m really nervous but still optimistic. We are starting to run low on Alewife as they are fading quickly. We have two rods off the back and are holding two off the side.
The sun begins to shine, fog and clouds low on the water are beginning to break up a bit. All of a sudden Trevor says “oh, wait” and as I turn to look his rod get’s hammered. It seemed as though his fish maybe hit and missed or nibbled a little bit before the real bite took place, that happened to us several times. Needless to say, we were hooked up and I’m yelling at Trevor to take his time. Keep the tension and he’s telling me that he thinks it’s a walleye. I look at his rod, the tense nature of his muscles and think immediately he’s crazy. As I’m processing, thinking maybe he’s got a big large mouth and just about to say such, the line screams & his drag is tuned….I’m like “it’s a striper” and he still isn’t believing it and I’m now hoping we get this fish to the top even if only to catch a glimpse if not board it.
I get the net, still yelling to slow down and keep the tension. Then, we see the weight pop up out of the water and that eerie gray body and those eyes! The eyes looking out and up when they get close to the boat gives you a jolt of energy throughout your body. As he gets the big boy striper near the boat, I dive the net into the water hoping to make a good catch.
The fish goes into the net! I’m thinking of a celebration dance I can do while processing how much a bigger net is going to cost me for 2020! The fish comes up out of the water in the net and we start celebrating with a bunch of weird noises that must sound completely strange to anyone in the area.
Honestly, I get so excited whenever we catch a striper that I don’t even know what I do…it’s complete joy. The phrase, “act like you’ve been there before” never really sinks in for me out on a fishing trip. I was the guy that handed the ball to the referee after a TD, skated to the bench after a goal without much hoopla but when we land a fish, I seem to throw caution to the wind and act like a complete fool.
True story. Doesn’t matter if I catch the fish or someone aboard my boat catches a fish. At the same time, I feel devastated when we lose one but who really cares about all that right now at this moment. Wally BITES is for fun, to help all of us enjoy in the values of lake life and our appreciation for fishing, the outdoors, etc. Hope you enjoy reading us, supporting us. Thank you, Ed.