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Fishing Stories from Ned Kehde |
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Submitted by Ned Kehde - Submitted March 18, 2001 Just when spring seemed to be an implausible prospect, Pok-Chi Lau of Lawrence got wind of one of its sure harbingers on the chilly morning in early March. As Lau headed for a rendezvous with Clyde Holscher of Topeka, he caught the first smell of it near the western border of Douglas County. Then in quick order, Lau saw and smelled the carcasses of three more dead skunks. According to Lau, four dead skunks littering a short stretch of a highway was an indisputable sign that spring was finally in the offing and a spell of bountiful shallow-water fishing was ready to unfold. After Lau joined Holscher, they headed south to Coffey County Lake. As they drove through Shawnee and Osage counties, they noticed that a thin coating of morning ice covered most ponds and lakes. Despite that ice and the early morning chill, the limbs of the willow and hedge trees exhibited the yellowing tint of the emerging spring, and more dead skunks littered the highway. The primary impetus of this late winter venture was to christen Holscher's new Ranger 217 guide boat. It was also Holscher's first outing of the year. The bizarre and bitterly cold winter had kept him off the water for three months. So he was eager to spend a balmy day afloat, catching a lot of fish. And what a splendid day it turned out to be. Even though the thermometer hovered at 28 degrees at 9 a.m., it eventually climbed to 46 degrees. Around noon, the sun penetrated the morning haze, and its rays mottled Holscher and Lau's cheeks with their first sunburns of the year. Throughout the day, a 5- to 9-mph wind angled from the northeast -- a perfect breeze for fishing Coffey in March. Pok-Chi Lau of Lawrence, Clyde Holscher of Topeka,shallow-water fishing, Ranger 217 guide boat, Coffey County Lake, white bass, wiper, walleye, smallmouth bassMoreover, the fishing was grand, and Holscher properly christened his boat by catching two fish on his first two casts. The most effective lure was a 1/4-ounce Worden's Rooster Tail with gold blade and chartreuse body employed on a medium-action spinning outfit and light line. However, a three-inch Bass Assassin on a 3/8-ounce jighead, 1/4-ounce chartreuse Super Spot, a chartreuse plastic shad on a 1/4-ounce jighead, and a clown-colored Smithwick Rogue allured a goodly number of fish, too. More than 40 of the fish came off one wind-blown point, where the water temperature registered 56 degrees. Lau and Holscher also caught fish on four other points and in two coves, where the water was as warm as 58 degrees and as cool as 49. Throughout the day, Holscher attempted to ascertain why the fish where gamboling about certain coverts and not others, but he had a difficult time detecting a rhyme or reason for their behavior. For example, the biggest wiper, a five-pounder, came out of 58-degree water in a cove, and the second biggest one, a four-pounder, came out of 49-degree water on a point. Eventually Holscher surmised that the fish were simply following schools of gizzard shad and occasionally forging upon them. By day's end, this duo had scuffled with 81 fish: 69 white bass, five wipers, four walleye and three smallmouth bass. After catching those fish and working out the kinks in his new boat, Holscher was ready to inaugurate his 2001 guiding season at Coffey and other lakes in northeastern Kansas. |
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