The Last Hike

[Ketchn]

Of the year for me down that trail for sure !
It was also my first hike down that trail for the year at the same moment in time .
It was one of those you only have 2 spots to get your jig wet situations and even though it was well known to me it is close to a death march up and down that trail , I told myself I think I can ......
Almost to the bottom I met up with a couple walking their dog down it . The lady looked a bit unsteady and was complaining she didn't have the right shoes on for such a hike .
As I approached undetected from uphill , I introduced myself with this statement .....
"mam , they don't make the right shoes for this hike " !
As I passed them the questions began, are there alot of fish in this lake ?
is it worth that kind of hike to go to that dock ?
and as they questioned my sanity on a hike down the death trail just to ketch a fish I sort of made it clear that is was my opinion it was about to be worth my hike !
Went so far as to say and bet I can ketch one before you get out of sight !
Well the fella watched intently and after a minute of a wet jig and no fish, he began to toss the banter at me .....
"the pressure is on fella , show us a fish" , I said seems they don't want to cooperate and began to question my own sanity .
At see you later , IT HAPPENED ! KABOOM like someone hit my rod tip with a hammer !
Auto hookset as I wasn't even looking in that direction or prepared for such a take .
the battle raged on and I was fairly sure it wasn't a crappie ....UNTIL it broke the surface and my eyes bought popped right out my head yawl ......
I was in that holy you know what it is a monster blackie , now I got a problem for sure , no net and no easy way to land it , can't beach it and even though I spooled fresh 6 lb on at the top of the trail for that just in case moment ....i was saying prayers to the upstairs to let me please hold it and get a photo or 27 .....
Well she laid down at the last minute for the very gentle lift and asked her to please hold VERY still on the way up and next thing you know ,she is in my hand !
At close to 18 inches and thick ,she was a real show stopper for a lake that STILL don't recognize black crappie as a species that live in it !
The fella took some photos for me and back in she went , she was much larger than my best "weighed" black crappie without any doubt , that fish went 2 lbs. 6 oz . on a tourney scale .
She was very heavy and looked to be in the 2.5 or a bit larger range to me , I have been known to guess weights fairly well on fish before they hit the scale and to be sure she was a beautiful healthy specimen .
Only managed 7 fish and the smallest was around 12 inches . let them all go on about what they were doing before I arrived ,,,,that would be gorging on the herd of shad in front of the dock...
later I will upload a video of the shad on my youtube channel , it made me so happy to see them flickering all over the surface , it was like being a kid in a candy store I tell ya .
I could even see the crappie flashes under the school from time to time .
Hit it until the shad went away and so did the bite , missed a few light bite fish and managed to ketch the heavy bite fish .
then began the part that really makes you sweat , back up the billy goat trail
KABOOM is the word yawl ....
p.s. rangers showed up as I was leaving , told them about my fish and they said right off black crappie are not recognized in this body of water as a present species ,told them not only one of them but 5 out of 7 fish were black crappie , they agreed in the end they were blakc crappie ,as they looked at the images and I explained to them for 5 years I have tried to get them to recognize them as species "present" in the lake . Even went so far as to keep one about 11 inches long and had it do a photo shoot with the rangers present for them to send to Austin to verify my findings 3 or 4 years ago .....
came back as yes it is a black crappie and still didn't change the information page on the lake ....

[DockShootinJack]

Those are some nice ones. Certainly worth the hike

[Ketchn]

Those are some nice ones. Certainly worth the hike

even though it is often a slam festival at that spot ,most of the folks that I take there do not return , just saying ......

[BobC]

I can see why you may only get a trail taker one time. Beautiful fish but what a trail. Wouldn’t be surprised if a snake or two or three might like to winter there!
Bob

[Ketchn]

I can see why you may only get a trail taker one time. Beautiful fish but what a trail. Wouldn’t be surprised if a snake or two or three might like to winter there!
Bob

that trail is a long one and looks like that the entire way , the good news is there are lots of huge road runners in that park and after years and years of travel on the trails in there , never seen a single snake ?
place should be crawling in them , likely getting et by the birds , they love reptiles for a snack

[SuperDave336]

What a slab Ketchn. Congrats on that beautiful monster. Shhhh..... no blacks in there..... just keep that little secret to yourself....lol.

[BuckeyeCrappie]

Great fish for sure. I would definitely make that hike for the opportunity to catch a Slab like that. Congratulations

[DockShootinJack]

even though it is often a slam festival at that spot ,most of the folks that I take there do not return , just saying ......

A long walk keeps a lot of people from a fishing spot

[P-row]

So Ketchn....thx for all the great pics an adventures! I have been wondering for a while now if you have a YouTube channel. Care to share?

[Chuck Adams]

Congratulations on catching that Donkey!!


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