A Swift Kick in the Butt, and a Massive Crappie

After completely forgetting I was supposed to get up early to fish with Kirk (sorry about that) and hiking around the Mettacomit ridge all afternoon I finally got out on the lake in my kayak. The action started right away with perch and smallmouth....

But an unlikely event could have turned the day into a great one. I was hanging out with my fly sitting on the bottom, looking for the pattern I really wanted. The rod bent double and brought me quickly to my senses. I briefly saw what must have been a mid twenty pound range carp. It had found my beadhead shrimp muddler and decided it must be food. What ensued was the crazies battle I have ever been in with a fish. In a kayak even a big bass pulls you. This carp had completele control. I was dragged behind like a tiny dog. Then the unthinkable. I saw the dock. The instant the concern for this obstacle materialized in my head the fish went for it, weaving through a few sets of bars. Then it ran hard, and my kayak slammed against the side of the dock. Desperately I tried to feed the rod through. Realizing this was not going to happen I tried to horse the fish through. It didn't like that at all and pulled my rod under the dock again. This put my tackle in danger, so I attempted to push away from the dock while at the same time tugging the fish towards me. It did one powerful dig in the wrong direction and the second connecting knot in the leader caught up on a joint of the dock and everything went slack. I sat quietly for a minute. It is sometimes important to have your ass handed to you by a big fish. If it never happens then what's the point? It just drives me on for my next chance...

I continued with my afternoon, and once again began catching smallmouth. I love them so much... they're just so beautiful, and powerful at the same time!

Then I got my reward for sticking it out. I was fishing a rock pile with the Woolly Bugger and I hooked into a rarity for this lake. A crappie. Only the second I have caught in six years of fishing it regularly, and dang! He's probably the biggest in the pond! Huge slab of a crappie!

I caught a few more fish but as far as catching goes, that crappie was tough to beat. I don't think the photos quite do it justice. It's a behemoth.

One thing you can be sure of is that I will be back on the water in the morning to redeem myself with Cyprinus carpio.