My ignorance cost me

[ChrisCarter]

The Base Lake had gone up well 6" since I last saw it Saturday night. Since I had a great Memorial Day with day, I was worn out and took a power nap Monday evening, only to wake up at 1am full of energy. What better excuse to go out in the middle of the night for some night fishing at the Base Lake, so I headed out there with container of chicken liver and bag of minnows for a morning crappie bite. Started fishing at 3am in one spot and didn't get anything. Moved over to the peninsula and I nabbed into my first channel catfish from the Base Lake.

19" Channel Catfish



After him, I saw a few gar swimming around and I head home to get some breakfast.

I headed back out again around 630pm to the same spot where I caught the catfish, and I found crappie to be there. Slowly working the jig with a minnow attached was the presentation. Nabbed 4 small crappie before I hooked into my first decent one, then a few more small ones before I hooked into my second keeper. Then the high clouds from the storms south of Omaha blocked out the sun and the bite dropped off. I went back to the slip bobber presentation, but I only got a 2 bites from that and it wasn't as active as it was when the sun was out. Finally the sun was low enough that it shined back on the lake and I was quickly catching small crappie again. Then I hooked into what should have been my 3rd keeper crappie. I knew the line was frayed, but I kept putting it off because I wanted my bait in the water for as long as possible with the sun out. My ignorance cost me as I saw the crappie swim up to the minnow and inhale it. I brought him up the bank, bent over to pick him up and through his thrashing around, he broke the 2lb test line with the lure still in his mouth. But he didn't dart off, he sat there. My stupid self saw an opportunity to jump into the water and grab him. I did so, and as soon as I touched him, he darted off. Yea, I was upset, but no one to blame but myself.



Still amazed the males still have their tuxedos on. After the sun was gone, the crappie were gone and the bass moved in. I swear I caught the same 4" bass 5 times in a row.

[TriggerJigger]

LOL, good story! Nice pics too. Remids us all to keep that line intact.