Ever have "one of those days" ...

... well, I seem to have them "all the time"

Decided to go to Green on Tues ...
Up at 0430 & loaded up and on the road by 0630 ...
Realized I had forgotten my elec fillet knife (a recurring event, but that's another story)
Stopped for gas & a guy mentions to me that my motor toter is hanging down ... I'm like "WHAAAT" ???
So I check it and sure enough it had somehow come off the rear roller and the C shaped end of the toter was GONE and had apparently been ripped off by the road ...
I removed the toter remains and threw them in the truck (I had parts from the previous one to make this one whole again)
I drive on down to the lake, trying to avoid hitting any major bumps or potholes so I don't bounce the motor too much (I can't let the motor all the way down/vertical because it would drag the ground, even on a level road)
I get to the lake & launch (following 5 other boats that were in a hurry to launch) and noticed that most all of them had rods with bobbers attached and/or visible minnow buckets ... and all the boats I could see were all right against the bank, so I spend the first 3hrs of the day casting the banks of some known spawning areas. I'm rewarded with ONE fish.
Decide that's not panning out so I head upriver and start Pushing jigs. I end up with 5 more keeper fish. I only had out 2 rods, so I didn't think I did all that bad, considering there were 8-10 other boats trolling or Spider Rigging in the same stretch of water.
Loaded the boat on the trailer after an unsuccessful attempt to fish an area close to the marina. Wind had picked up considerably by then and my battery was getting low on charge. So low, in fact, that my Hook 7 just shut off when I bumped the trolling motor speed up to max (to fight the wind). I thought I had blown it up, somehow, and was figuring on having to purchase another & mount it in time for this coming weekend. But, after I got loaded on the trailer and packing things up to leave for home, I tried to turn the Hook 7 back on ... and it worked. Whew, at least that was OK.

Anyway ... Iced the fish down & headed home. Got back just at dark (830PM) and found a spot to park the boat & my truck (roofers are working on my apt complex & half the parking spots around my building are blocked off).

And here's what I got for all my troubles :


Water temps ... 65-70deg
Water clarity ... almost normal if not slightly clearer than normal
Casting a Slabanator Mini Rod ... one male (8fow)
Pushing a Slider & a Slabalicious (boot tail jig) ... five females (6-7fow)
Female's eggs are "almost" ready to be dropped

Had 4 fillets for supper tonight as a reward for surviving yet another "adventure"