Similarly, I've also had to answer my fair share of emails, texts and phone calls from fishing friends and acquaintances the last several years, while serving as tournament director for the Dewey Mullins Memorial Bass Tourney Series. Their nearly universal question of the day: "Is there a tournament this weekend?"
If my answer was "yes," they knew they had to make a choice. Do I wait 'til later in the day to go--after the tournament folks have weighed in and departed? Do I try someplace else? Do I wait another week? Or do I just say "to heck with it" and go forward with my plans and take my chances on finding a place to park? "Not exactly any good choices"--I think we all can agree.
As I was researching the Internet a few days ago, "though" (a word that very well may live in infamy, as a result of the current presidential impeachment proceedings), I discovered another option that, in at least a few cases, may be viable. It came from a New Hampshire fella, who described himself as "the amateur angler."
Seems this fella, his brother, and nephew had gone to Stumpfield Marsh, a part of the Henniker Flood Control area in Henniker, NH, to do some bass fishing. All three were excited about the trip until they arrived at the boat launch and found that a bass-fishing tournament already was in progress.
"After a brief discussion," said the amateur angler, "we decided that the bass fishing today wasn't going to be so good, because most of the lake already was being hammered by bass fishermen. The simple solution for us was just to switch gears, and instead of fishing for bass, we decided to fish for crappie."
That decision proved to be even better than they ever could have envisioned. Said the amateur angler, "While we could see bass fishermen shooting off cast after cast, without bringing anything into their boats, we were landing fish after fish after more fish. The crappie were extremely active, and we didn't really venture too far from the boat launch, either. We launched at 8 a.m. and immediately started catching this scrappy little fish, and we didn't stop catching them until we got off the water at 6 p.m.
"When we reached the cove, we stopped for lunch, and then we spent the next three hours there, catching more crappie. They were so abundant that, during one 15-minute period, my brother and I never made a single cast. All we had to do was drop 5 feet of line over the side of the boat, and within seconds, we had a crappie on the line."
They weren't using anything fancy, either. As the amateur angler explained, "We had ultralight rod-and-reel combos, with 4-lb. test line and 'old faithful' lures, consisting of only 1.5- and 2-inch white twirl-tail grubs on 1/16th- and 1/8th-ounce jig heads."
To borrow the amateur angler's words, "I hope you, too, have the opportunity to go crappie fishing and have as much luck catching this wonderful little fish as we did. Just remember: Good company + good fishing = great memories." I think we all can agree with that final analysis.
Reminds me of a nice fall day several years ago, when I was working my way along the shoreline in the shallow back stretch of a creek, catching one bass after another, including a nice one right near a stand where some deer hunters were perched. The one gent subsequently said, "Sure wish I was with you, instead of being up here." I offered him a ride, but upon seeing the look his buddy was giving him, I decided to just kept moving along. Have no desire to be in the middle of a dispute between a couple of guys holding guns in their hands.
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