Chasing Autumn Gold
by
Bobby Oney
Autumn, what a wonderful time of the year to be an angler!
The leaves begin to change their colors, temperatures start to drop giving you the crisp cool mornings. The carp start into their fall routines, feeding more vigorously to sustain that winter weight. It’s a great time of the year to be out chasing them gold scales, and that’s exactly what I did over a span of a few weeks in October. My journey had taken me to some wonderful places, fished with family and friends, had my share of highs and lows, and of course a carp or two…
My first leg of chasing gold had me on the shores of Lake Erie. Where it was a bit of social fishing with some friends. I arrived around nine in the morning on Friday, the weather was cool with a stiff breeze, partly cloudy and hopes were high for some good fishing. The spot we chose for this trip isn’t known for catching big ones but more for the numerous amounts of runs you will get in a short period of time. After the initial “how are you?” followed by getting the camp set up, I got some bait going in the water.
It didn’t take long for the bites to come, and the fish started hitting the mats. The day went on to be par for the course with two or three fish an hour between the four of us with the average size fish we thought would come from the location.
As the day quickly turned into night, the weather started to take a turn for the worse. Forecasted was rain and high winds from the north that would make fishing difficult. The rain finally arrived around midnight and so came with it the high winds. Having my fill of catching for the day, I decided to reel in the rods, get some good shut eye, and start again at first light.
The next morning, I awoke to some brutal fishing conditions. Rain, east northeast winds twenty miles per hour with gust in the upper thirties. The winds later that day would change to northeast which would make fishing pretty much in possible. With that, I knew we had a short window so I got the rods back out on the spot. Didn’t take long for the fish to start showing again. Between all four of us we stayed busy for most of the morning. Single, doubles, and sometimes triple runs happening making for a fun and exciting day of fishing.
I was fortunate enough to land a few nice fish including this really nice mirror.
Around noon the winds had shifted coming in from the north bringing big waves crashing into our fishing location. I can handle rain, snow and even the cold, but when the winds are blowing more than 40 miles per hour, my tolerance hits it’s limit and the weather starts to get to me.
Checking the weather conditions for the evening going into the night, winds were going to hold that direction until morning and with that, I decided to call it quits, pack up and head back home.
A few weeks later, I would make a four-day trip to the legendary Dale Hollow Lake in Tennessee. Keeping me company on this trip would be my wife, Eliza and our two husky mix Tut and Dee.
My hopes were high for this trip, but things didn’t go exactly how I imagined…
We arrived Thursday afternoon, the lake was lower than I have seen in the past, but I was optimistic for some good fishing. We got the camp site setup and the dogs situated then I immediately got bait out to a spot I’d found on a previous trip I made just a month earlier. This really made getting the rods out a lot easier.
The day and evening went without a peep but then around 10 pm I got my first ring of the alarm. Quickly I ran down to the rods, which was quite the hike in the dark at 30 yards away and very rocky conditions due to the low lake levels. Picking up the rod right away I knew, it was a channel catfish. Not the intended species but a sign of life. After dealing with the fish, I rebaited the rod, got it back out on the spot and got back into bed.
Later that night a strong storm had pushed into the area. High winds, rain, and lightning made for a very eventful night. I chose to go with a regular tent this trip with a rain flap top. During the storm, the rain flap strap had broken on one side and exposing the top of the tent to allow rain to come in. So here I am in the middle of pouring rain, wind’s blowing more than 30 miles per hour trying to hold that side down. I ended up having Eliza dig into the camping bag and get a couple extra tent pegs that I ended up tacking down that side with. I was soaking wet head to toe, but the tent wasn’t taking on water and so everything was ok. That would be the only excitement for the night. No fish were caught but we had a good laugh.
Friday morning came with a steady breeze coming off the lake, it was going to be a beautiful sunny day. Except for battling through an overwhelming number of turtles, there wasn’t much to report on the fishing side of things. Eliza and I spent most of the day talking, playing with the dogs, and just taking in the great outdoors.
Going into that night I formed a game plan to bait heavy with corn, ACS mandala gold boilies, and range cubes. My arm was tired from all the spombs I put out. Another quiet night with only one twitchy take around 3 am, which ended up being another channel cat.
Saturday would prove to be almost as frustrating. Nothing much was going on until around 2 that afternoon. I finally got what I knew was a carp take. The alarm one toned and the rod slumped over. I picked up the rod I was finally into my first carp. After a brief battle, the fish was in the net. It wasn’t the giant I hoped for but it was a fully scaled mirror which made things feel like it was on the up.
The next few hours after that made for some of the most frustrating fishing I have experienced in a while. I had five runs all which resulted in hook pulls almost immediately after the initial hook up. Went to cast one rod back out and the line snapped on the cast. Must have had a bad spot on the mono line. I decided to make a change to a simple blowback rig with fresh hooks. An hour before dark as I was standing by the rods looking out over the water, I received a take on the right-hand rod.
Quickly picking up the rod, I knew this fish was a good one. The fish kept peeling line off the drag. I tried tightening down to slow the charge. It did slow the fish down, but it started to go right. The fish was still battling hard, then all the sudden the line went solid, I immediately knew the fish had gotten into an unsuspecting snag that I could not see.
I set the rod back into the pod rest for about 15 minutes hoping the fish would swim back out of what it was snagged on. This tactic has worked in the past for fish that got hung up on something or have gone into a weed bed but not this time, the fish was nowhere to be seen.
I was able to retrieve my rig and there was about a ten-foot section of line that was frayed badly that I had to cut out. The good side of this was that I now knew there was something to the right that they can get hung up on. To say going into the night that I was completely down would be an understatement. I been on bad sessions before but for some reason this one just hurt a little more than the others. Going into that night expectations was low that anything would happen. Morning came and not even a single beep on the rods all night. With only few hours to fish before having to pack up and head back to Ohio, I made myself a hot chocolate and went and sat by the rods.
Sitting there watching over the rods for the last time of the trip I was desperately hoping for something to happen. Around seven thirty I got my wish. The middle rod bent right down, and the alarm started screaming. I scrambled over to the rod. I knew right away this was a good fish. Line was getting peeled off quickly, having slowed the fish it began to take the same route as the fish the evening before. My heart was pounding fast, knees shaking a bit. I lifted the rod high above my head hoping it would pass over the snag. After a few moments I was confident it was over the snag. The tug of war went on, every time the fish decided to take a power run, it made my heart pound a little faster. I caught myself saying “please, don’t fall off.” What felt like hours of battle, the fish finally slipped over the net, and I yelled out with joy…
The relief that I had was unmatched, it was a perfect scaled common. I let the fish take a moment to soak and relax in the weigh sling. While I got things setup for pictures. Eliza did all the photos for me allowing me to be in the moment.
After capturing the moment of the success, sitting there watching it swim back to the depths I was feeling accomplished.
The chase this fall was tough. There’s so many highs and lows that come with fishing but the more you just let yourself live in the moment, the more you learn to appreciate everything around you. Many adventures are frustrating and rewarding all at the same time.
I’m sure there will be many more escapades to come, until then tight lines.
Bobby Oney