There are times when you look back on a session and realize that it was a Classic. Then there are times when you can tell that you are in the middle of something special while it is still happening. This last trip to Austin was one of the latter…
A few weeks ago, I had a vacation planned that included 5 days in Austin, but right after my Off Time started, some stuff happened that kept me in town…And away from Fish. After things cleared up, I planned another trip to Austin, but my AC broke and I had to put my Fun Time off again. Then, last week, Jason stopped by my restaurant and mentioned that he was going to be taking a vacation coming up, and I mentioned that I had a couple of days off during that time, so naturally, I suggested we hit Emma. After a few days of preparation, we were on our way down I-35.
When we first rolled into Austin, I took Jason on a tour of Lady Bird Lake (Formerly Town Lake) and showed him some popular swims and notable locations for future reference. After some crazy traffic nonsense, we got to Emma about 7:00 and I had lines in the water at 7:30. We chose campsites 4 and 5 because 3 was taken. 6 was still under construction so we figure we could occupy 4 and 5, and squat on 6 without a problem. We were all set for a good time, and we buckled down for the long haul.
When I first set up my rods, I realized I had brought a couple of my baitcasters down with regular rigs instead of Hair Rigs. I just threw some bread on those hooks just to have something in the water and continued about getting the rest of my gear unpacked and set up. After about 15 minutes in the water, one of the alarms started screaming and I ran to get the catching started! I tightened my drag a bit and was pretty disappointed when the fish just turned over and I pulled it in- I figured I had a little catfish and prepared myself mentally for hours and hours of Dancing with Mr. Whiskers…Dangit! But when I got the fish closer, I could tell it wasn’t a Cat, Carp, or Buff, but didn’t know what it was… Turned out it was a Largemouth Bass, and I knew it would be a new PB. My old PB was 4.5#, and this one tipped the scales at 7 pounds even!!
Jason and I settled back down and ended up with the Mr. Whiskers Dance Party that we thought was coming. Jason caught a 7# Blue Cat, and I caught a few Channels, and established a PB Blue Cat at about 3#. So I’ve been there just a few hours and I have 2 New PB’s!! I was pretty excited about that.
Jason and I froze our tails off that night- We were NOT prepared for the temperature to be THAT Cold that night. I ended up in my tent in my new sleeping bag, and Jason was in his van with the heater running. Jason got up a little earlier than I did, and lucky for me, he was able to wake me up when my alarm started screaming so I got up and started the Carping with a lovely 16#’er.
After the 9:00 Carp, things slowed WAY down during the day. I ran into town to get some stuff, and Jason stayed to man the rods. While I was gone, he pulled in a couple of small cats. I returned to camp at 3:00 and discovered that we had been joined by Keith Melrose(and family) and the Bates Brothers. It turned out that they had lucked into campsites 7 and 8, so they were right next to us. This is the point where I started looking at what a cool time we were looking to have- We now occupied 5 consecutive campsites on the water(4-8), and we were going to have 8 Carpers on the assault! We rebaited from 4-5 and waited for the fish.
This is the part where we started catching more fish, so I’ll give you my numbers, and just what I
know about the other guys’ catches…
At around 6:15 I got a run and landed a 35# Buff! This was my biggest Buff ever, and by 11#! I was stoked, and there were a couple of groups walking by. A ladies Softball Team and a father & son stopped to marvel at the beast. It was the biggest fish I had ever seen on the bank, and easily made the trip worth it. I now had 3 new PB’s on this trip and things were looking great. We caught a smattering of small Carp- Jason was pulling them in like Worm-Fiending Bluegill, then I caught a small(+/- 18#) Buff and then the party started…
By this time, Donnie and Kevin had shown up and were setting up while Jason continued to reel in fish. Keith and the Bates brothers were still without any fish, but they were getting a few small runs that we felt would materialize later. After they got set up, Donnie and Kevin cruised around checking our stuff out and we were all BS’ing about previous trips and theories on what the Emma fish do, but one thing that stuck out was when Kevin mentioned that the Solunar Calendar was pointing out that the hot time would be from 3-5am. As a non-believer in the Solunar stuff, I was thinking to myself, “Are the Easter Bunny and Santa Claus going to swim down and put the fish on our lines?” I had no idea what we were in store for…
Jason’s problem of having small Carp on his line got bigger; and by “bigger”, I mean that he was now into the 25# range with his Carp. I caught a 34# Buff as part of a Brace with Jason and a high-teen Carp, and a few small(low-mid teen) Carp of my own. Then around 1:00 Jason decided he was too tired to continue, so he retreated to the heated comfort of his van. The problem was that he had not reeled his lines in, so the next 2 hours were spent waking him up to come back down to catch his fish. But at about 2:30 or so, he called it quits and reeled his lines in. That was cool with me and Donnie because we both started casting into his swim ;-)
Kevin again warned us about the Solunar predictions, and I again paid it little mind…until 3:00 rolled around…
Many of us have experienced Emma when she was giving up fish, but that danged ol’ Solunar period from 3-5 was that craziest I’ve ever seen! It all started with Kevin’s 39# Buff, then Donnie’s mid-twenties Carp, then my 22#10oz Buff, then more mid-twenties Carp from them, then my 30.5# Grass Carp(Another new PB- FOURTH of the trip!), then I looked at my pod and realized that all 3 rods were out of the water.
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I reset one with Method about 30 yards out, then I casted the second rod out about 75 yards with naked maize, then I started to walk back to get the third rod ready. The Method line(in the water for about 5 minutes) started screaming, so I ran back and grabbed it(Fish On!). Donnie came over to net the fish, but my other line started screaming(by now also 5 minutes in the water). I told Donnie to grab it, but he thought it was the fish that I was playing. I said, “No! It’s a different fish!” He grabbed it, made 2 cranks of the reel, then the fish TOOK OFF! That rod was a 7.5’ MH Baitcast rod with an Abu Garcia 6500C3 on it. It was lined with 25# Big Game Solar line, and set with a really tight drag. This fish ran for about 20 seconds as if the freespool baitclicker was still on! Donnie and I looked at each other while the line was peeling out, and we knew we had a special fish. Donnie played the fish for a few more minutes as I netted my mid-teen Carp, then HIS alarm started screaming! I told him I was OK, and that he should go get his rod. He hesitated, but handed me my rod and ran down to catch his fish. I could feel the power of this beast and knew that there was something special at the end of the line. It finally surfaced and what struck me about the size was the DISTANCE between her snout and dorsal fin… “It’s HUGE!!” I screamed. Donnie fought, caught, and released his 25# Carp, and came to help me with the net. We had a hard time lifting the fish up onto the bank, but when we did, we could tell she was easily over 40. A trip to the scale gave us the number… 45 POUNDS!! My Biggest fish ever, and another PB!! I was out of my skin!! We went to wake Jason up to come see, but we were not successful. We took the pictures of the 45 and the 14 Common that was part of the brace, then released them off back into Lake Austin.
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The fun did not stop there…
Once again, I found myself with all 3 rods out of the water. I rebaited, switched from Rum to Gatorade, and settled into my chair…for just a moment… The whole thing replayed itself again!! Kevin caught a 38.5# Buff, Donnie had more mid-twenty Commons, and I had a brace of another mid-teen Carp and a 27.5# Grasser! At 4:30 the action slowed down, and at 5:00 it was over. The last thing I remembered seeing was Donnie sitting on his cot playing what ended up being a 25# Carp. Kevin was asleep, Jason’s van was still running, and I was content to close my eyes.
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It was definitely the best session ever. I came away with new PB’s in 4 Species, caught the 3 biggest fish I’d ever had, got to hang out with some cool folks, and still made it to work on time on Saturday.
The Emma Magic is still alive!
Chad
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