Adios 2021 -- WELCOME 2022

by

Brid Caveney

Some years ago there was a guy from the North Texas area, who 'swim jumped' a chap who'd been doing a pyramid baiting scheme on one of the bigger waters up there.

After catching some rather splendid fish, he announced his success was down to 'Hard work and dedication'--

Of course, the truth soon got out - and few folks ever had time for the guy again - he'd blown it big style!

So, though there's always the possibility that any 'extended' baiting campaigns may backfire, and other anglers may innocently ‘stumble' across the baited area, as pretty much all the waters we fish are public - in essence, it's really the only way we're given even a sliver of hope of getting into bigger fish.

After consulting a couple of rocket scientists (poetic license!!), I came up with a bright concept -- why not just stay in the baited swim for extended periods of time and thus have 'stakes' on that little piece of real estate?

Sounds easy enough? Well - the fact that I live rather long distances (over 250 miles - minimum) from any of the waters I fancy would hold big fish, immediately raises logistical 'issues'-- from being able to afford taking 'extended' time away from work - to carrying enough provisions, for both the fish (most important!) and myself - and fitting in other mundane issues such as doctors appointments etc.

Having good friends in the areas of the waters has proven invaluable so far - with them helping with either bringing supplies to the waters, or being gracious enough to come and sit with my gear, whilst I've made runs to the stores.

So -- being self employed - and widowed, I've set things up to where I can dictate as and when I decide to take off for a few days - and keep a very close eye on the weather - looking for patterns that may induce the fish to feed.

The weather issue has however become increasingly frustrating, and I hate to admit it - Global warming is screwing with our beloved fishes biological 'clocks'. In an ideal World - there would be 4 very defined seasons, and you could plan accordingly for going fishing at any given time -- like "Hey it's the 5th of November - and the water temps will be down to 50 F, so I'd better not be using much oil/fats in my baits.” Well - dream on, because it seems like it's been quite a few years since we (here in Texas) had a month of the year that you could plan ahead for…

In essence, to be 'on your game' - you’d need access to the preverbal crystal ball - and be able to leave for a session at any given time - carry a years worth of baits (seasonal variations) and sufficient clothes to deal with weather ranging from (unseasonably) hot to freezing.

Easy I suppose - if you've got swims with enough room to park the big rig tractor and trailer it'd take to adequately cover all eventualities!!

Here's where the 6 P's come into play -- Prior Planning Prevents Pi** Poor Performance - and every once in a while, the educated guesses pay off.

Last year I had the good fortune (having survived Covid in 2020) to be out on the banks a lot, through all sorts of weather - ranging from 110 F to violent thunderstorms, overnight temp drops of 50 degrees, hard freezes, windstorms, being on the outer edge of a 'spawning' Tornado -- and more I fail to recall -- just that it was always a case of 'Better expect the unexpected'!!

Having dodged a big bullet with surviving the Rona virus, I decided life is far too short to be caught up in the 'keeping up with the Jones’ nonsense and I'd better just get out fishing as much as I possibly could. To back up my intentions, I started buying particles in bulk - as I like the fact they work in whatever circumstance -- whether the fish are feeding heavily - or spasmodically.

Here's where spending more time bank-side starts making sense, as you get to see so much going on, and only add more ammunition to ones’ Watercraft 'cache'.

I own a very efficient ride on kayak I have equipped with a Garmin Striker Plus 5CV sonar, which quickly helps me decide on where I need to put bait - and once I have a marker set, taking bait out is so easy.

Last year, I did quiet a few longer sessions of 5 to 7 days, and got to see certain feeding patterns evolve, which helped me to plan accordingly with quantities of freebies (chum) along with regularly introducing certain hook-baits.

Slowly but surely - I started catching quite regularly including this great looking 27 pounder…

During the night of a harsh frost, after a nice warm day -- I got the run at 5am, and it was rather eerie not being able to see where she was running, the mist was so heavy…

That early morning run in late November culminated with a new PB - thus breaking a 14 year wait - hehe!!

Having raced motorcycles for many years, I fully realize records are made to be broken -- as are fishing PB's, but of course - the bigger the fish, the harder it becomes to better it!!

A session over Xmas proved very frustrating, with the weather being fickle - hot one day, and the next bitterly cold with the wind sweeping down from the North for 24 hours. The water temps were odd - with the surface rapidly cooling, whereas the bottom temps stayed over 60 F and the fish just weren't happy.

My good friend, Austin Anderson joined me on Xmas day - and we kept plugging away for another 2 days - seeing fish crash - but they stayed well clear of our baits.

So -- we hatched a plan, to move onto another water and change our horizons.

A quick 300 mile drive home, a shower - a night in my bed at home, more bait cooked - and straight back out on Wed Dec 29th.

Austin had been on the lake with his bass boat on the Tuesday, and dropped some bait in the swim - so it was already 'primed'.

The weather was crazily hot for the time of year. and as we'd already had a few cold fronts pass through - that had adversely affected the fishing - we were cautiously optimistic. As darkness fell that night, the fish started crashing in the swim like crazy - and we were thinking we were going to clean up -- there were some bloody big fish out there!!

Next morning - all we had to talk about was my getting a 'close release' from a Sniper (White Amur) and the same with a catfish.

It was a little like Deja Vu from the water we'd just left - so we adjourned to the war room (the EZ UP!!) and hatched a slightly different plot.

An hour later (around midday) the new plan was put into action - and within a couple of hours, Austin was into some fish -- whilst I twiddled my thumbs!! He was fishing directly to the left of me - and we figured the fish were arriving to the swim from his left side - and finding his baits first -- gahhhh!

After he caught a nice low teen mirror, it inspired me to completely change all my gear/baits/presentations - and by the next morning (New Years Eve) before first light, I too winkled out a rather nice mirror.

For a water where mirror's are rather rare - us catching two within 12 hours of each other, was definitely very cool.

Austin continued hammering a good few fish out - but as none of them were very big - It didn't much bother me -- I was 'saving myself’ for a biggun -- or at least just thinking that helped distract me from his alarms constantly screaming!!

That evening, there was an incredible fireworks display a mile or so up the lake from us. It was really like something you might see on TV, in a major City -- it was spectacular, and went on for a long long time. Excitement over -- things were rather quiet in our swim -- maybe the fish weren't quite as appreciative as us - hehe! And it remained quiet into the night -- until I was forced to exit my warm bivvy to deal with a catfish on one of my rods - and I found out why it was quiet --- Austin had pulled in all but one rod!!

At 7.30am on New Years Day, I was just about to get up and get some breakfast going - when Austin stumbled up to my bivvy door, struggling to hold his weigh sling, excitedly yammering about having caught a huge fish. Knowing there are some giant Amur in this water,

I wasn't convinced it wasn't a prank -- until he opened the sling up…

and I saw that incredible fish -- oh my, my my!!!

I was out of the bivvy like a shot, helping get scales zeroed - and then the crunch came - time to weigh her…

The 60lb Reuben's spun around, and were bouncing around the 42lb mark, as we wildly whooped and danced around like madmen -- YESSSSSS a 40+ common -- and as she settled down, an exact weight of 42lbs 6oz was duly recorded.

The merriment continued for quite some time as Austin sacked her, to get ready for some pictures - and it's probably a good job there was nobody else nearby, or they may have called the authorities - thinking there were a couple of crazy folks needing treatment!!

Austin had broke his PB by 5lbs 6oz - and after my taking several pics, she was duly returned to the water and swam away quite nonchalantly - like nothing much had happened!! What an incredible fish she is!

After a hearty breakfast, we were discussing plans when I got a 'one toner' and after a really dogged/lengthy fight, I had yet another (even bigger than the first) mirror in the net.

Welcome 2022 indeed!!!

Those 3 mirrors - plus Austin's new PB were perhaps more than either of us expected and though we had a few more fish over the next day - it really did feel like it was just about over.

He decided he'd stay on for an extra day and as we said our goodbyes - I reminded him that it would not have all happened without all the hard work and dedication we put into the session - how true that is!!

Thanks for taking the time to read my ramblings here again.

Wishing you all much success in 2022…

Brid