Crane's alive - with Devil Gnats...
Crane's alive - with Devil Gnats...
Well I made it over before sunrise, perfect morning a light breeze and cloud cover. Put in and motored over to our favorite haunt - as the sun shine filtered in we could see a blanket covering the waters surface.... Billions of small insects. A size 20 hook would have looked like a ships anchor next to it, any way we dropped anchor and began our quest for a CraneBow. One has to love the second rod stamp, I know I sure do...
Nothing in our favorite spot so we moved to our second spot... BAM... a very respectful Brookie. Cast out our chosen fish attractant and had some breakfast, you know what happens at Crane when you are not watching your rod or bobber; Yep my Sons rod starts to jump in the rod holder and the line starts to peel off his reel... after a very nice fight he lands an even larger Brookie. I can remember when Brookies were a rare fish in Crane, we picked up one more Brookie and the hole went dead. We motored over to an area neither of us had tried before, thinking maybe this is where the CraneBows were lurking. Nothing, but the sun broke through and the sun felt so wonderful - that is until the Gnats from hell fell upon us. This must have been the very same critters that we saw floating on the surface at day break, but these were alive and tens of millions trying to fly into your mouth; uninvited. We pulled anchor and headed into the wind, ah yea peace... I remembered a special hat I bought just for these incidents, a NO-SEE-EM HAT; drug that baby out of my waterproof bag !!! What a great invention, I highly recommend one to every angler. My son left his at home, needless to say the rest of the day was peaceful to me and pure hell to him. Not another fish to be had, so we decided to try our first pick again... Andy picked up another nice Brookie right off , I cast to this appealing spot just knowing my fish was there. Nothing happening so we decide to scarf down a sandwich knowing full well that once we start to eat the action will pick up, again no luck. Finished my lunch and pulled my stuff in and re-baited, a perfect cast - sat down and the next thing I know there is this Huge Rainbow jumping two feet out of the water, then my rod bends in half. The game is on, three very nice runs - drag screaming rod pumping. A flash of silver and we can just make out the huge CraneBow taking another power run..... Be still my heart! One more small run and he was in the net.. A Native 23" CraneBow... The day could end now and it would be fine by me. We fished for the rest of the afternoon and not another bite, all in all a great day on the water with my Son. Brookies, CraneBows and Gnats.... by the Billion...
Wonder day on the water................
Chuck
