Learning the ropes - and getting burned by them...

Wheeler Lake - Mouth of the Elk and near Lucy's Branch

Time: Morning Run
Air Temperature: 75 - 81F during trip
Water Temperature: 
Lake Level: 555.64

Weather Conditions: Nice, clear. Winds calm.

After spending about 2 years talking about it, I finally hooked up with Kevin to show him how I run big water trotlines.

YOUTUBE VIDEOS OF THE TRIP HERE:

I set out lines on Thursday afternoon and launched from Cowford and intended to run all the way down to the Elk river.  It is about a 30 minute boat ride, but I wanted to enjoy my time on the water and the weather was great.  I had two lines boxed and anchors placed in the front of the boat.

WARNING - GRAPHIC INJURY DESCRIPTION!!

I'm writing this after the fact, but I had the worst fishing related injury/close call that I've ever had while heading to put out these lines.  Shortly after I launched from Cowford, I had gotten the boat up on plane running about 30 MPH when one of my anchor lines and marker floats came unwound.  The pool noodle float flew up into the air like a kite on a string.  I was somewhat annoyed and never slowed down, but instead attempted to grab the line with my left hand and reel the line back in.  Suddenly, the float hit the water behind my motor wake as I grabbed the line and it was pulled underwater.  The line became tight and started smoking through my closed hand.  I felt the pain immediately, but couldn't get my hand off the line quick enough.  I managed to pry my hand open just in time as the float ran out of line and pulled a 25+ lb steel I-beam anchor out of the front of my boat as sailed it right by my face until it crashed into the water.  It all happed in just a split second, but it seemed to drag out forever.  I slowed the throttle and realized I just had an extremely close call.  The pool noodle marker float was in shreds behind the boat and the trotline anchor was gone for good.  

I realized I hurt my hand pretty badly.  I I took a look at it, it was bad.  I has sustained severe rope burns on all five fingers and the palm of my hand.   The line had burned away about 1/4" of flesh from my fingers and had cauterized them.  It never bled a drop even given the severity.  I was trying to figure out if I needed to go to the ER or exactly how bad it was.  I was close to my neighborhood boat dock, so I decided it was best to pull in and walk to the house to check out the damage a little closer.

There really wasn't any think left to sew up and all a Dr. would could do is numb it, pack it, and wrap it.  I decided I could do as much.  I sprayed it down with Dermoplast, packed it with triple antibiotic ointment, wrapped it in gauze and tape, and put on a thick latex glove.  That would have to do.

The pain was steady, but manageable.  My hard-headed, stubborn ass decided that putting out the lines wasn't too bad and I had help the next day to pull them in, so I carried another anchor and float down to the dock and hit the water to fish.  Gotta be tough to be dumb...

The culprit that made me cuss and left me with some new scars...

NOW BACK TO THE FISHING!!

I decided to put one line out on the west side of Lucy's Branch and the other in my favorite spot on the south shore across from the mouth of the Elk.  This is the first time I put lines out since installing the programmable trolling motor and MAN, what a difference it makes in ease of deployment!!

I baited alternating hooks with cut bait and my Kool-aide and garlic soaked chicken gizzards.  We returned at daylight to pull lines and it was a hit!!  I won't spend a ton of time writing detail about the pull, but please check out the YouTube videos of the day above.  

On the first line, we caught 41 cats which I believe is my best haul ever on a single line.  This was the line across from the Elk.  We caught 20-something on the second line, which is more typical.

We ended up catching 60-something and kept 58, I believe.  We had both livewells absolutely running over with catfish.  Kevin came to the house and we cleaned fish for hours over a few cold ones.  I believe we ended up with 50-something lbs of dressed fillets.  What a haul!!

Drinking the Kool-Aid

Wheeler Lake - Elk River

Evening of July 31 - Morning of August 1
Air Temperature: 72 - 80 degrees during trip
Water Temperature: 91 Degrees.  HOT!!
Lake Level: 555.6
Weather Conditions: Rain drizzle and overcast.  Wind N-NW 6 mphs.

It is time to do our annual fish fry fishing trip and there is no better way to stock a freezer than with trotlines.  I recruited Doug and Douglass to help me out for a couple days in hopes of filling my freezer and theirs.

We put out 100 hooks per person in and around the Elk River.  We put one 50 hook like just north of the HWY 72 bridge and one 50 hook line in deep channel water out in the body of the lake around 45 feet deep.  These two were to be experimental.  The one in the Elk was baited with 40% live bluegill and put in a spot that might attract flatheads.  The deep water line was to see what was lurking in the deep and if a thermocline has any impact on summer fishing.  We place a 100 hook like out from the island towards the channel and another 100 hook like on the Courtland side below the bluffs.

For bait, we had plenty of freezer shad and for giggles, I decided to play along with the trend of chicken and, yes, Kool-Aid.  We soaked two pounds of chicken gizzards overnight in Kool-Aid and garlic powder.  We baited every other hook shad then chicken. 

When we deployed lines on Saturday evening, the recreational traffic was insane.  We had to be very careful due to all the boat traffic.  We ran into a couple snags putting lines out due to traffic and being out of practice, but got all of them out shortly after dark.  Now to let them soak...

We got up early Sunday morning as was immediately met with rain showers.  The weather forecast was calling for scattered early showers, but as time went on, the rain set in and was going to stay.  We delayed an hour, but eventually had to go out there.

We ran the 50 hook like in the Elk first during a break in the weather.  I believe we caught 6 off of this line, but it was shallow and we had some casualties due to the stagnant, hot water.  Soon after, we headed to the other deep water 50 hook like and Douglas pulled this one as well.  We did better in deep water.  All fish were alive, but no monsters like we were hoping for.  However, it was nice to see that no lack of oxygen in the deep existed and this line actually did better than the shallow line likely due to cooler temperatures at depth.  

We headed over to the bluffs and Doug pulled this line.  It was a solid line.  We had weighted the center of the line and caught fish all throughout.  At this point, we were very impressed on the performance of the chicken and Kook-Aid.  We had been keeping all fish between 2-6 lbs and had threw back a few on each end of the range.  

Finally, we headed back towards the island to pull in the last long line.  I pulled this one in.  As soon as the anchor was up, I could feel good fish.  We caught stead fish, but with about 40 hooks left, I could feel something nice.  I made comments along the way, " yes, I still feel it".  10 hooks later, " yes, its still there".  " It's big.",  "This is a nice fish, guys."  After about hooks of feeling tugging, we finally came to the last 2-3 hooks and finally surfaced our big fish.

As she surfaced, she was fighting hard.  I had to let line spool back out like a drag.  Finally we tried to net the fish, but even my big net wouldn't due.  We got it up against the boat and I reached into its mouth and hauled her in.

She's BIG!  51 lbs and some change and we had my larges trotline fish ever in the boat.  This fish is my 2nd largest fish ever and a boat record.  We took photos and released her back to the depths unharmed.

It was a fantastic day.  We caught a total of 50 fish which equates to one every 6 hooks on the average.  Learned that deep water in the summer is still a good bet and chicken and Kool-Aid is a real bait option.  

We cleaned 32 fish and dressed 17.5 lbs of clean fillets.  Were all set for or fish frys!

Trotlines and Fun Times

Location: Wheeler Lake - Cowford to Courtland - Alabama

Time: Morning
Air Temperature: 63 - 79 degrees during trip
Water Temperature: 74 degrees
Lake Level: 555.85' - 51,566 cfps - Perfect conditions
Weather Conditions: A little choppy & overcast, clearing as day goes.  S-SE winds 4-10 mph.

Doug and Douglas joined me on Friday afternoon to bait and prepare lines.  They had never run full scale lines, so I knew they would have a blast.  These are the lines they helped me hand build over the spring.  

We ran 100 hooks per person, which is allowed by law.  We started by running down towards Courtland and dropping a 100 hook line below the bluffs and across the mouth of a little inlet.  This one was baited 100% chicken gizzards and was in about 24 FOW.  We put the next one N-S between the island and shore in Mallard Creek.  We baited this one with live bait and it was a 50 hook line placed in 9 FOW.  We put the third line (100 hooks) on the flats behind my house and baited it with cut bait and gizzards.  We put the final 50 hook line behind the big island by Cowford landing in 6 FOW and baited it with miscellaneous gizzards, cut bait, and whatever we had left over.  

We were on the water by 7:00 AM on Saturday morning and started with the line at Cowford.  We pick up 5 fish off this line and it was a pretty normal run.  We did pick up one that weighed in at around 20 lbs and took a picture and turned it loose.  

The next line we ran was the one in Mallard Creek.  Our intent was to target flatheads on this line with live bait in shallow water.  We knew we wouldn't catch a lot on this line, but was hoping for something big.  We ended up catching 2-3 channels but nothing giant.  It still was a good run.

The 3rd line we pulled was the one in the flats behind my house.  This one did really well and caught one flathead and mix of channels and blues.  I believe we pulled in around 6-8 fish off this long line.

The final line we pulled was the one towards Courtland below the bluffs.  This one was HOT!.  We caught fish nearly every hook for the first 5-6 hooks and picked up fish throughout the entire length of the line.  Both end of the line were very heavy with fish and kept us hopping for a few minutes.  This line pulled in 20-22 nice fish and was an absolute blast.  It was an awesome way to end the day! 

In total, we ended up with 38 catfish caught.  We had turned the biggest fish loose immediately and then took to deep water for a photo op and to cull what we had kept.  We caught more fish than we needed, so we took photos and turned loose the smallest and largest of what we had.  We kept around 16 fish for the freezer.  Overall, it seemed gizzards did the best, followed by cut bait.  Deep water did the best and fish consistently were on hooks nearest the weights across all lines.  As a learning point, I will probably sink all lines in the middle from now on when running deeper than about 12-14 FOW.

We had an awesome time and I believe Doug and Douglas got a good feel for trotlining.  I think we are all ready to do it again! Our lines were all 100% hand made and I'm proud of everyone that helped us build these this spring as they proved they can produce.  

Big Bertha

Location: Browns Ferry - Wheeler Lake - Alabama

Time: 6:00 AM - 7:30 AM
Air Temperature: 51 Degrees
Water Temperature: 

Lake Level: 555.75' Strong current - 156,692 cfps

Weather Conditions: Light winds from NW - 6 mph.  Storm rolling in.  Moderate rain.

Yesterday I tried to fish Browns Ferry, but the wind was just too bad.  I instead putted around in the bay by my house for a little while with minnows under a bobber.  I caught one nice channel cat and one bluegill, but only stayed about an hour and a half.  I turned the catfish loose, but kept the bluegill for potential bait. I went home and reworked my transducer on my depth finder.  I've had trouble holding bottom at any decent speed, but I think I have it fixed now.  I also put a new drag that I made in the boat.

As the day cleared up, I decided to try to put out a 50 hook trotline.  I had a bluegill, some frozen shad, shrimp, and a handful of small bluegill I caught early in the week in a minnow trap.  I headed down past Browns Ferry at 6 PM and dropped the line behind the island where the power line comes across in about 12 FOW. 

I got up this morning and it was already starting to rain.  I knew a storm front was coming in, but the weather forecast it to start a little later than it did.  My goal was to get the line ran and in the boat as quick as I could before weather got really bad. 

I made it out no problems and began pulling the line.  I could see one fish splashing about 6-7 hooks down.  Otherwise, it didn't feel like there was much on the line.  As I got close, I saw the fish was pretty big... but I didn't realize how big!

I pulled this fat lady in and practiced CPR (Catch, Photograph, Release).  She was a hawg! It weighted 40 lbs!  That easily puts this fish in my top 5 of all time and possibly the top 2 or 3.  I pulled in one more channel cat down the line and found an empty hook were I had lost one.  Not a day full of lots of fish, but Bertha made the trip totally worth it!

Big Bertha!! 40 lbs.

Hitting the water to put out the lines.  My community boat ramp.

50 Hook line boxed and baited.  Ready to roll.

A new line drag I built.

Did some work on my transducer earlier today - Holding bottom now at 35 mph FULL SPEED!!