08-18-2018, 05:19 AM
You have heard of “up a creek without a paddle”, but what is worse is “In a boil without a rod”.
Here is the story – I am primarily a fisherman, and my wife is primarily a power toy girl (particularly fond of our 3 person family wave runner). I sold the fishing boat last year to pay some bills hoping that would give me an excuse to upgrade on the next purchase.
For the sake of some family fun, we took the wave runner to Willard tonight. We hit the water a 5 pm. Kids go out for an hour. Wife goes out for an hour. My turn last but the water is fairly calm (boring for a wave runner).
I decide, why not just buzz around and look for some boils? Strangely the wind starts coming in from the north. I start buzzing along the north dike about 50 yards out at 40 mph looking for boils in the smooth water along the dike. Don’t worry, no fishermen were ticked-off during my adventure. In fact there weren’t any in the area. I believe most have given up on the evenings. Well, I cruised from Eagle Beach down to the light pole. Nada. A few birds diving but no boils. On the way back the wind picked up even more.
Cruised over to the North Marina; waves now 1 foot high. Continued South passed Pelican beach; the waves now 2 ft high. Over to Freeway bay; waves now 3 ft high with much white capping. Might as well go a little further, waves are fun for wave-runners . As I am nearing the South-East corner of Freeway bay I notice there are splashes that are not really white caps. I killed the engine and bobbed in the waves. I then found myself surrounded by a boil the diameter of about 30 yards. They were popping in the tops of the waves. Pop here, pop there, smack smack everywhere. I drifted in the middle of them for 10 minutes and then started an extremely wild and very fun ride back to Eagle beach. If you weren’t right there, you would not have noticed them from the white caps. It was amazing how they pushed the shad up into the wave tops and then pounced on them. It seems obvious that one should follow the wind and waves to the opposite side of the lake where the bait fish get stacked up. By the way, that myth about no boils happening when the water is choppy is now verified to be a myth.
I am not sure what a boat could have done in that area as an electric motor would not be able to do much stabilization in those waves. I guess I should never go out on a wave runner without a rod!
[signature]
Here is the story – I am primarily a fisherman, and my wife is primarily a power toy girl (particularly fond of our 3 person family wave runner). I sold the fishing boat last year to pay some bills hoping that would give me an excuse to upgrade on the next purchase.
For the sake of some family fun, we took the wave runner to Willard tonight. We hit the water a 5 pm. Kids go out for an hour. Wife goes out for an hour. My turn last but the water is fairly calm (boring for a wave runner).
I decide, why not just buzz around and look for some boils? Strangely the wind starts coming in from the north. I start buzzing along the north dike about 50 yards out at 40 mph looking for boils in the smooth water along the dike. Don’t worry, no fishermen were ticked-off during my adventure. In fact there weren’t any in the area. I believe most have given up on the evenings. Well, I cruised from Eagle Beach down to the light pole. Nada. A few birds diving but no boils. On the way back the wind picked up even more.
Cruised over to the North Marina; waves now 1 foot high. Continued South passed Pelican beach; the waves now 2 ft high. Over to Freeway bay; waves now 3 ft high with much white capping. Might as well go a little further, waves are fun for wave-runners . As I am nearing the South-East corner of Freeway bay I notice there are splashes that are not really white caps. I killed the engine and bobbed in the waves. I then found myself surrounded by a boil the diameter of about 30 yards. They were popping in the tops of the waves. Pop here, pop there, smack smack everywhere. I drifted in the middle of them for 10 minutes and then started an extremely wild and very fun ride back to Eagle beach. If you weren’t right there, you would not have noticed them from the white caps. It was amazing how they pushed the shad up into the wave tops and then pounced on them. It seems obvious that one should follow the wind and waves to the opposite side of the lake where the bait fish get stacked up. By the way, that myth about no boils happening when the water is choppy is now verified to be a myth.
I am not sure what a boat could have done in that area as an electric motor would not be able to do much stabilization in those waves. I guess I should never go out on a wave runner without a rod!
[signature]
