Post by lwink on Feb 10, 2009 14:39:34 GMT -5
For the 5th time over the past two weeks I went out to Town Lake in downtown Austin today, but unlike any other time I actually caught fish -- either I got real lucky or I'm starting to figure that place out a little bit -- hopefully the latter.
Anyways, yesterday I went to Academy and ended up coming home with a few new baits, including a new white Booyah spinnerbait. Now you have to understand that I have mostly $1 and under spinnerbaits, so a Booyah is as good as a new Lucky Craft crank to me. That being said, no fish up to about 8 this morning, and just before then I was casting in some tight quarters and hung a branch with my line, and of course I tried to flip it out and things got all wrapped up and I leave my new bait hanging over the water about 20 yards from shore in a low tree. I was pretty mad and about ready to leave, good thing I didn't cause the next cast is when I started catching fish (with a 65 cent version of the same spinnerbait). Later on I had a few landed and a kayak fisherman paddled by, we talked a bit and I mentioned my spinnerbait, thinking he would either pick it up so it wouldn't be wasted or better yet throw it back to me. He said he saw it hanging there, that he might pick it up on his way back through, but apparently decided not to as he left before I did and the bait was still hanging out there when I was walking back to the car. It was a good day, I landed around 8 fish, a couple nicer ones, mostly around 14-15" though and lost a few more at my feet, but that spinnerbait really bothered me so I decided I would assess the situation to see if I could get it. I wear my waders while fishing from the bank, but most of town lake has a pretty steep dropoff right next to shore, however where my bait was there was a huge old tree completely submerged (probably 3 feet across -- big big tree), and I thought I might be able to make it out to this log dry then climb on top, walk down it for a while, then reach out and get my bait -- maybe. I thought it through for a while and plotted my course, then grabbed an 8 ft bamboo stick for a cane and started going -- I had about 6" left on my chest waders and was only about 6 or 8 feet from hitting the log, and I reasoned there was a $5 bill hanging in that tree -- if someone dared me to go to the end of the log for $5 I'd sure be out there. It definitely was still getting deeper, so I ended up hopping up on a rock, then taking a big stride to a smaller log on the bottom (at this point I'm still in chest deep water and I'd be wet if I actually hit bottom) and got my hands of the big log. From here I just grabbed the log, got my sleeves wet up to the elbow, and did a kind of push up leg swing so I was no on my hands and knees in about 18" of water on top of this tree. Now for the fun part -- the 20 foot balance beam as the log gets narrower (and more slippery is seems). As I get out about as far as I want to I put my 8' bamboo rod towards the bottom, and it never touches -- now I get a little nervous, as I don't want to be in water over my head in waders, especially with my cell phone and wallet in my pockets. Anyways, I was able to hook the branch my bait was on with another stick I had for that purpose, slowly bring it in, and the things was just straddling this tiny twig about 1" long off of a small limb about 1/4" diameter, no line tangled in the tree holding it there or anything, I was amazed that I actually was able to bring the branch in without it plopping into the water, and if it did I'm sure a bass would have grabbed it on the way down just to add insult to injury. Anyways, threw the bait in my wader pocket and started my slow, nerve racking descent back down the log (now I know how deep it is and that the log runs at an angle up while the bottom runs at an angle down, and when I get so where I can see the bottom I just jump off the log towards shore and ended up dry minus the watch and shirt sleeves.
Final note on this, I don't know if any of you have ever been on town lake, but there is a ridiculously busy trail that runs right along it -- hopefully nobody was there to witness the whole thing, although I know I heard some comments from kids with there parents about some man out in the middle of the water... at least I caught some fish.
Anyways, yesterday I went to Academy and ended up coming home with a few new baits, including a new white Booyah spinnerbait. Now you have to understand that I have mostly $1 and under spinnerbaits, so a Booyah is as good as a new Lucky Craft crank to me. That being said, no fish up to about 8 this morning, and just before then I was casting in some tight quarters and hung a branch with my line, and of course I tried to flip it out and things got all wrapped up and I leave my new bait hanging over the water about 20 yards from shore in a low tree. I was pretty mad and about ready to leave, good thing I didn't cause the next cast is when I started catching fish (with a 65 cent version of the same spinnerbait). Later on I had a few landed and a kayak fisherman paddled by, we talked a bit and I mentioned my spinnerbait, thinking he would either pick it up so it wouldn't be wasted or better yet throw it back to me. He said he saw it hanging there, that he might pick it up on his way back through, but apparently decided not to as he left before I did and the bait was still hanging out there when I was walking back to the car. It was a good day, I landed around 8 fish, a couple nicer ones, mostly around 14-15" though and lost a few more at my feet, but that spinnerbait really bothered me so I decided I would assess the situation to see if I could get it. I wear my waders while fishing from the bank, but most of town lake has a pretty steep dropoff right next to shore, however where my bait was there was a huge old tree completely submerged (probably 3 feet across -- big big tree), and I thought I might be able to make it out to this log dry then climb on top, walk down it for a while, then reach out and get my bait -- maybe. I thought it through for a while and plotted my course, then grabbed an 8 ft bamboo stick for a cane and started going -- I had about 6" left on my chest waders and was only about 6 or 8 feet from hitting the log, and I reasoned there was a $5 bill hanging in that tree -- if someone dared me to go to the end of the log for $5 I'd sure be out there. It definitely was still getting deeper, so I ended up hopping up on a rock, then taking a big stride to a smaller log on the bottom (at this point I'm still in chest deep water and I'd be wet if I actually hit bottom) and got my hands of the big log. From here I just grabbed the log, got my sleeves wet up to the elbow, and did a kind of push up leg swing so I was no on my hands and knees in about 18" of water on top of this tree. Now for the fun part -- the 20 foot balance beam as the log gets narrower (and more slippery is seems). As I get out about as far as I want to I put my 8' bamboo rod towards the bottom, and it never touches -- now I get a little nervous, as I don't want to be in water over my head in waders, especially with my cell phone and wallet in my pockets. Anyways, I was able to hook the branch my bait was on with another stick I had for that purpose, slowly bring it in, and the things was just straddling this tiny twig about 1" long off of a small limb about 1/4" diameter, no line tangled in the tree holding it there or anything, I was amazed that I actually was able to bring the branch in without it plopping into the water, and if it did I'm sure a bass would have grabbed it on the way down just to add insult to injury. Anyways, threw the bait in my wader pocket and started my slow, nerve racking descent back down the log (now I know how deep it is and that the log runs at an angle up while the bottom runs at an angle down, and when I get so where I can see the bottom I just jump off the log towards shore and ended up dry minus the watch and shirt sleeves.
Final note on this, I don't know if any of you have ever been on town lake, but there is a ridiculously busy trail that runs right along it -- hopefully nobody was there to witness the whole thing, although I know I heard some comments from kids with there parents about some man out in the middle of the water... at least I caught some fish.
