Murphy Joins Forces

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I had the pleasure of fishing with a couple from Texas today. They had driven from home and were taking in the sights along their way. Next up was fishing in Canada for smallmouth bass and I planned on making this the best part of their trip! We met up at 7:30 and unfortunately I had to drive to another body of water due to « Gale force Winds ». This lake looked like an ocean!

A short trip to the other place had us in much better conditions and hopefully, fish as well. As I started to back the boat in though, the brakes seemed to be locking up and making a clunking sound that I didn’t like. After a couple of attempts of going forward and backing up to release them, something just snapped. One of the bolts that held the caliper in place just sheared off and the caliper fell out of place causing the whole thing to just drop. I was dead and not even the water! I slowly managed to move the rig forward and limped out of the way, in case someone else needed to launch.

I wasn’t sure what I was going to do but needed to get the wheel off to assess the situation. Fortunately I am overly prepared for problems and had a real jack to raise the trailer in the back of the truck. I had left it there from earlier in the season when I had two flats at the same time, from running over something in the middle of the road. Once the tire was removed, the caliper just fell off. Turns out that one of the bolts was completely gone and the other snapped when I heard the noise. David had worked on breaks for several years and was a great help with ideas. He figured the easiest way to deal with this situation would be to tie the entire thing to an axle and get it completely out of the way. It was at that moment that I remembered buying a couple of extra bolts a few years ago when I had my breaks done and searched the glove box in the truck to find them. I never throw anything away and spares parts are why I am always prepared! They were right where I knew they were and within 15 minutes, we were able to put the whole thing back together and go fishing!

The day may have started off poorly with the winds and trailer issues, but it was about to get a whole lot better. I raced to an area that I knew would be somewhat sheltered from this brutal wind and set both of them up with blades. I showed Noel how to work the bait on the spinning rod and immediately hooked up on an aggressive bass. I gave her the rod and watched her battle, her first Canadian smallie. She had caught one once before on Lake Mead, but not like this one! I eventually netted it and a few pics were shot of her personal best bronzeback. David was still looking for his and soon after slammed into a nice one on a baitcaster. He was more comfortable using this set up being from Texas and I had no problem either! It beat him up pretty good but eventually he brought his first ever smallie to net as well. We moved around the area covering water and they had several other hookups. Some of them made it to net and the others just got off, but the hits were all spectacular! Eventually the winds got too big for where we were and I was forced to relocate.

The next spot was definitely more comfortable with less winds. I had them throwing different baits in faster current with the aid of the Xi5 motor. Still loving the anchor mode! They managed to get a double and a quick shot was taken of their catch. I move around looking for better fish and eventually found what I was looking for. Both of them were now hooking into the quality I had hoped they would and both size & numbers were climbing. They even managed a few more double headers making it almost a competition! At one point, it was practically every cast and David was just crushing the bass. He caught so many fish that we stopped taking pics, until he finally landed the one that I was hoping for. This fish would prove to be his personal best and a great one at that! Noel also landed several really big ones that made for more Kodak moments! They both managed to land plenty of quality smallies throughout the afternoon and lose many others as well. Who knows exactly how many were hooked? All I know is that they both had an incredible time catching way more fish than they had ever done before.

They say that everything goes in threes and I’m beginning to believe it! When I tried to start the motor to leave, I found out that I didn’t have enough power to fire up the engine and had to jump it from one of the other batteries with cables. As I said before, » I’m always prepared »! I fired up the small motor and let it idle as they continued to fish, while the battery charged. After several more smallies, we finally called it a day. No problem firing up the main engine after a 15 minute charge!

Noel & David had just experienced the best fishing they ever had and travelled all the way from Texas to get it done. Despite all the other issues we experienced, I still managed to make this a very successful day on the water. Both of them had landed a bunch of great fighting smallies and most of them were real quality too. I think that if they ever decide to come fishing up in Canada again, I might just get another call from them. Their first experience was a great one and filled with plenty of memories as well as some fantastic pics. I’m just glad that with all the problems we encountered today, that it turned out like it did. Mother Nature must have joined forces with Murphy because they both tried to take us out! I guess they don’t win, all the time!