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Author:
PECo
Date:
May 12, 2012
Subject:
Batterson Park Pond 05/11
Message:
Yesterday afternoon, TurtleKiss (aka Kira) sent me a text message that she just had to go fishing at her absolute favoritest pond or she wouldn't survive the day, so I reluctantly agreed to meet her at Batterson Park Pond. :lol: When I arrived, she already had Dinghbat in the water. Since she was obviously extremely anxious to get on the water, I quickly got The Other Woman off of my trailer and we launched at about 6:30 pm. We could see four other boats with fishermen already out there. The sun was just starting to descend in the clear sky, the air temperature was still in the low 60s and there was just a little bit of wind that seemed to blow from every direction, but mostly from the west. The water was a little murky, but it was hard to see much with all of the ripples from the wind on it, anyway. The water temperature dropped with the sun; it went from around 60 degrees down to 57 degrees throughout the evening. As usual, Kira worked her way up the west shore in pursuit of largemouth bass, while I trolled a Bluegill Rapala Shad Rap SR-7 and a Yellow Perch Rapala Shad Rap SR-5. I tried to stay in the slowly lengthening shadows of the west shore. When I was almost halfway up to the beach, I got the first fish, which was just a little cannibalistic yellow perch: [img:65d8eeb964]http://img210.imageshack.us/img210/551/img2354x.jpg[/img:65d8eeb964] I stopped to throw a slightly weighted Texas rigged green pumpkin/red flake Zoom Baby Brush Hog in the shallow cove where the stormwater creek flows into the pond and the naked guy often "hangs out" on the shore. :lol: And, no, he wasn't there. . . this time. :roll: I didn't get any hits on the Baby Brush Hog and didn't see any largemouth bass bedding activity. Kira caught up to me in the cove and headed for the weedbeds a little further up the shore, while I resumed trolling. However, it wasn't long before I heard a commotion as a black Midnight Special spinnerbait got her a decent largemouth bass: [img:65d8eeb964]http://img207.imageshack.us/img207/7633/img2355cropped.jpg[/img:65d8eeb964] I soon left Kira behind as I trolled up to the riprap covered dam on the north end of the pond at a leisurely 1-1/2 miles per hour. I boated four more yellow perch on my way up there: [img:65d8eeb964]http://img534.imageshack.us/img534/2193/img2356g.jpg[/img:65d8eeb964] [img:65d8eeb964]http://img803.imageshack.us/img803/1315/img2357rr.jpg[/img:65d8eeb964] [img:65d8eeb964]http://img703.imageshack.us/img703/5796/img2358ad.jpg[/img:65d8eeb964] [img:65d8eeb964]http://img193.imageshack.us/img193/7394/img2359yd.jpg[/img:65d8eeb964] Yeap, the first five yellow perch actually alternated hitting each lure; Yellow Perch, Bluegill, Yellow Perch, Bluegill, Yellow Perch. :shock: Only a few minutes after the last one, the Yellow Perch got me a walleye: [img:65d8eeb964]http://img809.imageshack.us/img809/7176/img2360cropped.jpg[/img:65d8eeb964] [img:65d8eeb964]http://img7.imageshack.us/img7/9499/img2361cropped.jpg[/img:65d8eeb964] It was just a 16 incher, but Whoo Hoo! :D And,of course, I had to follow up the walleye with a rock bass: [img:65d8eeb964]http://img209.imageshack.us/img209/3413/img2362cropped.jpg[/img:65d8eeb964] But just a few minutes later, I got another walleye: [img:65d8eeb964]http://img254.imageshack.us/img254/5624/img2367cropped.jpg[/img:65d8eeb964] After a couple of yellow perch and a couple of rock bass, I snag hooked a cannibalistic sunny: [img:65d8eeb964]http://img687.imageshack.us/img687/4152/img2376cropped.jpg[/img:65d8eeb964] I caught a couple of more yellow perch as the sunlight began to fade and got a black crappie after dark: [img:65d8eeb964]http://img163.imageshack.us/img163/853/img2382cropped.jpg[/img:65d8eeb964] I must have been in a school, because I soon caught the lunker black crappie: [img:65d8eeb964]http://img818.imageshack.us/img818/1324/img2383cropped.jpg[/img:65d8eeb964] At the moment that I had hooked into the first walleye, I had been responding to a text message from JJay (aka Jason). As I continued to boat fish, I eventually convinced him to head down to Batterson for his first night kayak fishing outing. I knew that he was on his way over, so I met up with Kira in the darkness and we headed back to the ramp down the east shore. Along the way, I caught the first after dark walleye: [img:65d8eeb964]http://img209.imageshack.us/img209/4756/img2384cropped.jpg[/img:65d8eeb964] As often seems to be the case, I followed up the walleye with a rock bass before we met Jason at the ramp at 9:30 pm. After he launched in his Trophy 126, I trolled back up the west shore and back to the dam, while he and Kira went in pursuit of largemouth bass. I didn't get any action until I got back to the dam, when what I knew was a largemouth bass hit the Bluegill: [img:65d8eeb964]http://img37.imageshack.us/img37/7613/img2388cropped.jpg[/img:65d8eeb964] It was a feisty 15 incher. Whoo hoo! :D I sent a text message to Kira and Jason to let them know that I had found a largemouth bass and, almost immediately after, I was into another that I could tell was a little bigger: [img:65d8eeb964]http://img233.imageshack.us/img233/2554/img2390cropped.jpg[/img:65d8eeb964] Whoo hoo! :D Looking back, I can see that I was intensely focused on catching walleye and not largemouth bass, because I didn't even bother to weigh either of the largemouth bass. :shock: Incidentally, in the dark, you can tell almost immediately when you've hooked into a largemouth bass instead of a walleye, because largemouth bass swim up and shake as they fight the hook, while walleye swim down and just pull. My focus paid off, because I boated another walleye with the Bluegill within 10 minutes: [img:65d8eeb964]http://img856.imageshack.us/img856/6519/img2392cropped.jpg[/img:65d8eeb964] After I threw the Bluegill back into the water behind my boat, a fish hit it before I could even reel the slack out of the line. It was a litle white perch: [img:65d8eeb964]http://img140.imageshack.us/img140/8159/img2394cropped.jpg[/img:65d8eeb964] About 10 minutes after I reset both lures, I got a big hit on the Bluegill that felt like I had snagged a rock on the bottom. But the rock moved! :shock: I knew that I [i:65d8eeb964][b:65d8eeb964]finally[/b:65d8eeb964][/i:65d8eeb964] had a keeper walleye on the line as I horsed it as gently as I could up to the surface. When I got it near the boat, I fumbled through my boat for my grippers, throwing tackle all over the place and totally disregarding my other line that was still in the water. The walleye actually turned The Other Woman around. :shock: I spent what seemed like an eternity trying to get the jaws of my grippers into the walleye's mouth, but finally got it: [img:65d8eeb964]http://img155.imageshack.us/img155/4708/img2395cropped.jpg[/img:65d8eeb964] [img:65d8eeb964]http://img804.imageshack.us/img804/4325/img2397cropped.jpg[/img:65d8eeb964] It was a 23 inch long keeper! I felt like Captain Ahab probably would have felt if he had caught Moby Dick. Whoo Hoo! :o After I got it on a stringer, Kira and Jason pulled up out of the darkness and I got to show it off. By this time, the wind had risen out of the southwest and the air temperature had fallen to the low 50s or maybe even the high 40s. It was [i:65d8eeb964][b:65d8eeb964]cccold[/b:65d8eeb964][/i:65d8eeb964]. I caught a rock bass, of course, before boating another walleye, which was almost anticlimactic after the last one: [img:65d8eeb964]http://img685.imageshack.us/img685/5161/img2400cropped.jpg[/img:65d8eeb964] Jason and Kira had trouble fighting the wind, and soon headed back to the beach to get alee of it. I caught only another rock bass before trolling back toward them. We decided to head back to the ramp just before midnight, after I had already started to lose the feeling in my frozen feet. Along the way, I boated one last white perch: [img:65d8eeb964]http://img3.imageshack.us/img3/7498/img2401cropped.jpg[/img:65d8eeb964] We got off of the water just before 12:30 am. Although I felt like going out to celebrate my new Personal Best and first keeper walleye of the year, I had to head home to get it on ice. Mr. Wah Li will be joining us for dinner, tonight! :D [img:65d8eeb964]http://img36.imageshack.us/img36/4279/2012051123inchwalleyecr.jpg[/img:65d8eeb964]

Author:
JustinSolak
Date:
May 12, 2012
Message:
Congrats on the keeper! Finally got it! Well deserved, my friend. You definitely put in the time. I gotta say, the pictures toward the end. The one with the walleye and white perch. You look absolutely "high on life" :lol:

Author:
PECo
Date:
May 12, 2012
Message:
Thanks, Justin. 28 fish of seven different species in six hours is a pretty good day out on the water. Unless. . . does that last white perch look an awful lot like a golden shiner to anyone else? It's really hard to see in the dark! :wink:

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