8-3-04 - Pirate Invasion? Nope, Tall Ships have returned to Kenosha Harbor.

Hey, they make for some nice pictures.

By the weekend the south wall will be stacked with ships and people. You can forget Kenosha Harbor as a fishin' destination until they've left.

The water was absurdly clear...I've never seen it like THIS before.

8-03-04 - One thing is on my mind...when is fall going to come this year?!

Waters Fished: Lake Michigan (Kenosha Harbor)
Fish Caught: 0
Outing Date: 8-03-04
Weather: Winds out of the east, quick switch to hard from the west, then the thunderstorms rolled in
Air Temp: 70's
Water Temp: didn't take it
Water Level: normal
Water Color: Visibility 15 feet or more - clearest I've seen the harbor.
Fish Species: Brown Trout
Pattern Fished: Krocodiles
Pattern Color: focused on white, pearls, chartreuse etc.
Fishing Quality: good for some

I've been looking through my reports and well, this time last year not too much was going on...it seems that there's always a certain "down time" quality associated with August (and the "dog days of summer"). Having a less than ideal weekend has left me eager to make up for it this week; with limited time and not many opportunities I opted for the after-work trip to Kenosha Harbor despite ominous weather forecasts.

I admit I drove like a maniac to get there and put in as much fishin' time as possible before the storms came (granted, weather.com only gave rain a 30% chance...hmm). But when I got there, expecting to find good parking, I was surprised by a ton of activity for a Tuesday evening....what the heck is that in the harbor?

Ah, the "Tall Ships" have arrived. Last year they were plugging the "Tall Ships" all over the radio...this year I hadn't heard a thing about them. I guess this is an Annual Event?!

Well, I parked on the street (and possible, while parked there, it looks like the Bitchin' Camaro added a bit of blue warpaint to it's exterior). Recently I had talked with Dave about line for spinning rods; I'd used Yozuri initially on Jacek's suggestion, but lately it had been twisting and breaking off. Dave suggested maybe I try this SpiderWire...it's Teflon impregnated braid or something. Well, using it means you have to put a swivel on the end and affix a leader...I couldn't find any leader, and with rain eminent, I tied on some of that old Yozuri and headed down to find a spot on the water. Didn't take anything else...I figured I wasn't going to need it.

So I cast and cast, fish were rolling everywhere this evening. The ships had forced everyone off the south wall so space was tighter than it might have otherwise been.

I cast away until around 8:00. I watched two fish hooked simultaneously. I cast...line was going out but then there was this, um, crunch sound? I really don't know how else to describe it, but upon the "crunch" my rod jerked forward a bit and then everything stopped. I could still see my spoon traveling through the sky but there wasn't that familiar buzz of the Spiderwire going through my guides. My line was limp...the spoon crashed into the water and disappeared. @#$@#$ I cast the spoon off!

I started retrieving my limp line only to realize I couldn't reel it in; the "crunch" was a tangle of Spiderwire getting caught on a guide. Man, I'm really starting to HATE this line - first it cuts a good 20-30 yards off my casts and now this? Not to mention that because I'm having to use a leader, I have to have the leader OUT of the guides when casting (which makes it less like spoon casting and more like BAIT casting).

Well the two simultaneous fish were now landed and I was without a spoon...not only had the SPIDERWIRE failed me by getting caught up in the guides, but the YOZURI had failed as well, because that's what the spoon was tied to and that's where the line broke. So I had a DOUBLE LINE FAILURE in ONE CAST. Seems like all my spinning gear friends are going back to P-Line and I think I'm headed that way too.

Back to the car, and on the way I observed that one of the browns was taken on a white tube jig...well they were sayin' yellow but what I saw looked white to me. After re-arming with the spool of Yozuri (can't find my Pline Flourocarbon ANYWHERE!) and grabbing the spoons I ran back to rerig and fish some more.

I again had the pleasure of witnessing another brown landed...the guy was nice enough to tell me he was using a white & green Kroc. I had currently tied up a Pearl Kroc, I figured what could I lose and switched over.

As the rain approached activity on the surface only grew more constant....it got to a blistering pace of a fish out of the water somewhere at all times. I was casting and retrieving...trying all sorts, deep, slow, fast, shallow, big jigs, short jigs, twitches, ovals, you name it. While twitching a spoon at moderate depth I got a hit...and it was gone.

9:00 the rain came in...at first just a drizzle and most folks stuck it out. However, drizzle turned to downpour and the last of the fishermen left in unison. I'm not interested in becoming a MP Fritter...the browns can wait.

  MP