Pop Quiz


At 1:06pm, I answer the phone. �Hello.� �Hey buddy, I just wanted to let you know your group just called and said they are on their way, and will be there soon.� My head down under the console, I tell Jana that I hope they take their time because I can�t get my graph to power on. �Well, what�s wrong with your graph?� �It won�t turn on.� Laughing, Jana tells me she just loves me, which I�m almost certain is her way of saying I will continue to be happy and tolerate you, despite your being a little smart ... Beginning to sweat now, I tell Jana I am going to keep trying to fix this graph before they get here, and that I appreciate the phone call.

Tracing red and black wires up and down the console, I�m going through different options, and trying to find different ways to at least get the power on. If I can at least get the side imaging to power on, I should be able to get the job done by memory. This wire looks good, the connection is good here, all terminals are tight, everything is clean. At 1:10pm, my group arrives, and I recognize them immediately. Its a father and son duo out of Midland, who have brought two more with them for a total of four. Continuing to sweat, and very aware of how the situation must look to them, I muster my best smile, and explain the situation.

Wouldn�t you know it, one of the two newcomers who I�ve just met for the first time is an electrician. I�ve eaten enough crow in my life that I try not to let pride get in the way, and welcome any help I can get with trying to get this graph to at least power on. �Did you check the fuse?� I look at Ron, who is my new best friend, and embarrassingly admit that I had not. I pop open the fuse capsule, and wouldn�t you know it, the fuse was busted. �Well, that was easy. I�m going to run inside the gas station and grab a new one. Ya�ll need anything?�

Back under the console, I replace the fuse, put the wires back as they were originally found, hit the power switch, push the �on� button, wait...nothing. It only takes four letters to spell the word that went through my mind at that moment. Now what? Scrolling down the mental checklist, the options are not looking promising. Chris just left in a boat to run his afternoon trip, I can�t run the Lund with four people plus me, Chuck and Laurie are on a much deserved vacation, I can�t reschedule with somebody who just drove from Midland, and we�re running out of daylight as it is now almost 2:00pm. �All right ya�ll, let�s go fishing. We�ll do what we can with what we�ve got, and if it just plain doesn�t work out, we�ll settle up at the end.�

The Caney Creek bridge isn�t holding many fish right now, but it�s the closest major piece of structure in relation to the boat ramp, and it should at least turn out a few keepers while I�m trying to put together a game plan. Fate can put together quite a magnificent pop quiz, fortunately this one is multiple choice. The drought has exposed a few spots, not many, but a few. They should all at least hold a couple of fish. The boat docks are not on fire by any means, but we can probably get a few there too. This bridge is one of three, giving us two more chances to hit pay dirt if this one doesn�t pan out.

Then there are the brush piles. The fish are on brush better than anything else right now, and that�s exactly where I want to be. The obvious problem is that we don�t have GPS to find them, and we don�t have a side image to mark them. What we do have though is a front graph under the trolling motor, three and a half years of homework, and five willing fishermen ready for the test.

The Caney Creek bridge spits out four keepers in roughly forty-five minutes. While they are all nice sized fish, the rate at which we are catching them is not good enough. Not to mention the fact that three other boats have shown up to fish this bridge. This isn�t going to cut it. �Hey everybody, let�s reel up and head on down the road. I think we can do better somewhere else.� Now I just have to go find where �somewhere else� actually is.

I�ve narrowed my mental selection down to four of the biggest brush piles I can think of. The first is off a point. I haven�t fished it this fall, but knowing that the water has dropped six feet, and having a basic idea of how it lines up, I get in ten feet of water and start to zigzag with the trolling motor. I have two marker buoys in my hands, and am looking for any sign of structure I can find. I barely clip what looks to be a limb, and throw the marker upwind of the spot. We drop down, and tag two keepers immediately. That�ll work. This is a big pile, but for some reason, I can�t seem to find any more of the structure. Slowly drifting around, we find one more fish, and leave this pile with a total of seven crappie.

Continuing down the lake, I head to one of the largest piles that I know of on Cedar Creek. There are no real land marks to triangulate it�s position, but it does rest on a big hump, and I know for a fact that hump comes up to nine feet at the top. Starting a ways back in order to give us some room for error, I drop the trolling motor down, and this time idle around with the big engine, using the front graph to see what�s underneath us. I make one pass with no luck, move over twenty feet to the right, and come back the direction from which I came. I don�t mark much brush at first, but I do find the hump. Throwing the marker, I walk up to the trolling motor, and make a circle with the boat. Finding the brush, I mark it�s perimeters, and nestle the boat in what I believe to be the middle of the pile.

We drop down and are happily rewarded. One small fish get�s the party started, but the rest of the attendees are all plenty big for the grease. Ok, ok, starting to feel a little better about this whole thing. We�ve got roughly fifteen crappie, two hours into the trip. If we can just double that in the next two hours, we�ll have a good mess and some smiling faces. Fortunately, I have two crack-shot fishermen in the boat, who are both extremely proficient with a jig. The other two, one of which claims to have never fished a lake successfully, are holding their own very well. They all are making my job much easier, and have been nothing but patient and supportive this entire time.

We pick through what�s left of the aggressive fish, and are finally forced to move on. Right at this moment, the winds shift from a gentle west wind to what is now a steady north wind. In my mind I think that this little front that seems to be passing through is either going to really twist the knife in a little deeper, or we�re going to see the fishing get that much better. Regardless, we are moving towards our next spot, in hopes of more crappie.

This pile is a bruiser. Sitting in almost twenty feet of water, it stands roughly fifteen feet high, by fifteen yards long. Although it hasn�t been very productive lately, I don�t have a lot of choices. Again starting back away from where I believe the pile to be, I line the boat up in twenty foot of water, and start to ease my way along the bank. Watching the graph on the bow, I luck out on this pile, and find it almost immediately. Throwing the marker and circling around, we drop our baits down to see who is home. A couple of minutes go by, nothing. Two of us are jigging, and three of us are using minnows. Another minute goes by, and some rain starts to fall, when Ron gives the always welcome �Fish on!�

Netting what looks to be our best fish of the day so far, this fourteen inch black crappie must�ve got the others excited, because everyone is getting bit. I�m dropping a small frog-like bait that is now getting bit before it ever hits the brush. The minnow fishermen are keeping the bait-well hinges from locking up, and my other jig fisher seems to be holding his own. All three methods of fishing have pulled a combined fourteen keepers off this hole. I�ll take that any day of the week, quiz or no quiz.

The little bit of rain that was coming down has stopped. It�s now a little after 5:00pm, giving us roughly an hour left to do what we came to do. We have nearly thirty keepers, and I have relaxed to the state where I can start having fun again. The next pile I go to should be holding fish. It�s a little shallow for my liking, but it is the afternoon, and those fish have had all day to stack up. Let�s see what happens.

This time a jig pitched over the pile is the first to strike. I�m not even in the water yet, and we�ve already got a fish hitting the deck. �If that fish hit that quick, he�s not the only one down there.� And he most certainly wasn�t. In the last hour of daylight, we pull thirteen keepers off of a brushpile that just happened to be easy to find, and fortunately held a solid number of big fish. The customer�s are happy, I�m borderline ecstatic, and we have in our possession forty-two hard earned crappie.

The Lord�s sense of humor, and my own perception of life�s situations, doesn�t always match up. I do not have the ability to see into the future, as I was not the One who wrote the perfect plan for this earth and all of mankind. Consequently, I am prone to get frustrated by a situation, and react in the manner of the normal feeble minded human being. What He provide for me in this �pop quiz� if you will, was a chance to test my abilities, and to use instinct and what I�ve been taught by my mentors to go out and perform under a less than ideal situation. I think I�m going to look back on this trip in the future, and see it as one of my more proud moments as a fishing guide. I don�t know how strict the Teacher is on grading these kinds of exams, but given that we came home with forty-two keepers, and had fun at the same time, I like to think that we got an A.

A+. Not a bad thing to revisit our pre imaging electronics fishing skills once in a while. Maybe better in a less stressful circumstance though. Congrats on a great job of salvaging the trip for your clients and a great story.

What a story!!!! You must have writers [censored] though!!!! Nice fish, and the weather is beautiful today!!!!

All I can say is you Goterdun! Good job Lane and great story.

AWESOME!! Lane its never a question of if your electronics will fail, but when, . I always carry a garmin rino 120 handheld gps, in my boat or others boats, so at the very least, I can slowly but surely always find the pile. It is good insurance, and reduces the pucker factor if a graph want to sleep in on ya, .

If your front graph is working lower the trolling motor and look at the front graph while you navigate towards the pile using your handheld, and when I see it on your front graph, pass it then drop a bouy,
Or kill the big motor, jump up front and find ot on the trolling motor if the wind isnt too bad,.

Nicely done, Lane!!

Fantastic report! really enjoyed reading this.

"A day in the life of a guide"

A 'not so normal' day.

WTG Lane. Good job.

Great story.

I don't get it????

What was the problem?



You powered up, that's all that was needed.

Grin.

One of the days we are going to get together and do a little hunting and fishing. I can't even dream about the stories that you will make up, that is if we survive the trip. You sir, are a man of many words.

Great Guiding + Great intuition + Great Clients = a successful trip and a Great review. I believe you passed the test my friend. Way to stay with it Lane and control that natural instinct to throw in the hat.

great job all the way around

"I believe you passed the test my friend. Way to stay with it Lane and control that natural instinct to throw in the hat."

Agree with shut-up-and-fish, having been with you on a windy day, you found us fish too. Trying all the tricks ya know sometimes works better that the electronics.

A+++ WTG Laner! Awesome job buddy! I had last talked to Lane 2 hrs into trip when he had 15 fish and my phone went dead. So needless to say when i pulled back to the ramp and he wasnt back yet i knew he was still working his tail off to get those guys on fish. So as soon as i got to truck i plugged in phone, i called to check on him. When he answered he told me he had between 40-50 crappie and was headed in, i about fell down. All i can say is AWESOME job Laner. VERY IMPRESSIVE!

Great job. Way to keep plugging along under less than ideal circumstances!

That's why you are a good guide!!!!!!!