Beginner’s luck teaches fishing lessons

Editors Note: This is the second of a two-part series about Dry Creek’s family fishing trip. The first part got lost last week in cyberspace and may or may not be remembered or found.

Beginner’s Luck! No way. That’s just a saying for  someone not bound by years of tradition. The reason most first-time fishermen catch the “big one” is because they are not fishing a bait or lure in the traditional method, time or way.

The middle two weeks of September, my son brought his wife to see the area where he grew up and get some Kansas dirt in her blood. So the first week it rained every day and the second lots of sun but no great heat. She’s going back to California  where no one will ever believe Kansas is such a nice state.

In between the rain we sandwiched a trip to the: Alabaster Caverns, Great Salt Plains, Compere, the Salt Mine, Wildlife and Parks Museum and the Pratt County Historical Museum. Oh yes, of course, seven different fishing trips. Not bad for a 14-day vacation.

Joanna had watched our son fish in the ocean and at times held a pole but had never caught a fish, baited a hook or cast a line, the true “first-timer!” I started her out with a minnow and while others caught 2- and 3-pound bass she only managed to hook and land a 6-inch bass — always happens when you’re trying too hard to help someone.

When Alicia, one of our twins, had caught all the fish she wanted, which meant the biggest one so far, she turned over her plastic worm and rod to Joanna as the live minnow just wasn’t working.  This outfit was equipped with fire line that floats on the surface so I told Joanna to wiggle her rod until the line sank then reel up the slack.

A couple of minutes later she had a fish, then another and another and another until she’d taken two limits of bass while the other three fishermen had only caught one bass between them. Helping her, I noticed what she was doing “wrong” and started to walk over to set things right but stopped and thought — think about this? She’s caught 10 bass without moving a step while three other experienced fishermen had only caught one, why do you want to show her the right way to fish?

What Joanna was doing was just what I’d told her  to do, almost. She was casting out, about half the distance the others were casting, letting the worm settle to the bottom using no weight at all, then shaking her rod time but not reeling in the slack line. Her bait stayed in the water longer on each cast than the others and while the lure moved some it wasn’t much until a bass picked it up.

During our seven different days of fishing  which consisted of early morning, noon, late afternoon and evening we averaged 35 fish a trip with the majority being black bass, channel cats, crappie and bluegill. Biggest fish was a 32-inch channel cat that was over half as tall as my daughter-in-law, a 20-inch blass bass, 16-inch crappie and an 11-inch blue gill with Joanna catching the majority of the fish."

I think most of the time we’re fishing too fast, too high and reading way too many stories on how to catch fish. We need to get out more, slow down and always take an inexperienced fisher person with you to help discover new ways to fish.