Decided to skip the DNR Open and help Chip pre-fish for the SBCC next weekend …
Didn’t matter much because we’ve spent the last three weeks trying to find the fish on Murray and I can’t find them to save my life soooooooooooooooooo why not fish Clark’s Hill …
This is only the 2nd time I’ve ever fished Clark’s Hill - it was the 1st time for Liz and the 1st time we’ve ever put our boat into the water there …
We had a three boat convoy with Chip and Corey, Zach and Chase, and Liz an I going down to Clark’s Hill …
Let the adventures begin … About 3 miles from the Herring Hut Chip pulls off the road with his truck running out of H2O and overheating - turns out the water pump was shot … Not to be deterred, Chip dumps in 5 gallons of H2O and we press on …
We get to the Herring Hut and are greeted with a line of boats all waiting on the tiny herring they had to offer … While the Herring looked phenomenal they were very small … Like 2 - 3 inches small … They did have a tank right by the door loaded with really nice big Herring, but word has it that those are reserved for the local guides and … well … you get the point …
No matter, we loaded up with 4dz Herring and Chip already had a tote tank full of Shad in various sizes so we pressed on the the ramp …
We all split up the Shad and put in lower Lake and we all spread out covering different parts of the lake to prefish for the SBCC TX (which is why locations and releases will be kept … well … very generalized) …
Liz and I hit the first cove and went to the back of the cove to pull out and immediately started marking fish … Not anything crazy huge but there sure was a lot of them … It wasn’t long before we boated our first couple of fish 12 & 14 … inches … Yep, never have I ever caught such tiny Striper … and they just kept on coming but they weren’t getting any bigger …
We’re teasing Chip and Corey with mixed messages of 12’s & 14’s being caught when Chip informs me that Corey had just pulled
Nicely done, Rick. In spite of the mechanical failures, I’m sure it still made your day. Also nice to know that a 1/0 hook will do the job. Glad you released the fish and that it seemed to have recovered. The only one in the world that cares about that trophy on the wall is you, and a replica is all I need to bring back pleasant memories. Now if I can just break the double digit barrier.
Great fish, Rick- that’s a lifetime catch right there. Awesome write up as usual. Sorry to hear about the rear end. How many miles did it have on it? Root cause of the failure?
Great fish, Rick- that’s a lifetime catch right there. Awesome write up as usual. Sorry to hear about the rear end. How many miles did it have on it? Root cause of the failure?
182,000ish … Root Cause … riding it too hard
I tow everything with that truck and I’ve known it was coming for awhile … All I have been told so far was that I heated it up so bad I caused stress fractures in the differential housing … I’m guessing that somewhere along the way I blew all the gear fluid out of it, but I won’t know until they get fully into it … which coincidentally costs me a lot of money in hourly rates sooooooooooooo I want them to spend more time fixing it and less time researching it … LOL
Great report shame about the truck .That FISH must have taken a little of the sting out of breakdown. Class act letting that trophy live .Our last 3times out we released a 20lber a 15 and a 9 'Gives us a nice warm and fuzzy feeling.Congrats on an awesome outing and catch.
TOM GITTO
Team Shad Up and Fish member
20ft Sea Hunt cc Red T Top
Outstanding catch Lawcrusher!! Like an old timer once said to me about small bait, “an elephant will eat a peanut. Won’t he?” Sorry about the truck. Hope there is an economical solution for you.
Nice one, Rick!!! Definitely a fish to remember. I’ve been waiting for you to post it too. Tim showed me the pic you sent him on Sunday. It makes me want to take a trip to the “Hill”. Sorry to hear about the troubles ya’ll had.
Bob Van Gundy
Marine Designs,Inc.
Custom Aluminum Fabrication
803-727-4069
Wow what a fish! I have got to get up there and fish. It is hard for me to get up there with all I have going on.(Wife, three kids, and work) but it looks like the family is gonna have to pack up and work will have to be put aside here in the near future for a weekend of fishing where the true monsters roam! Hope yall catch a few more of those this weekend for the tourny. Good Luck!
Key West 1720 Sportsman
FISH: An animal that grows the fastest between the time it’s caught and the time you tell your friends about it!
Outstanding catch Lawcrusher!! Like an old timer once said to me about small bait, “an elephant will eat a peanut. Won’t he?”</font id=“red”> Sorry about the truck. Hope there is an economical solution for you.
Xpress HB-22
175 Yammy Jammer
Never heard that one before, but I LIKE it! Those old timers have the best lines…
Lawcrusher, a rear end is easy to swap out. Get another one from a junk yard. Just take the tires off, unbolt it and slid it out. Slide the new/used one in, bolt it up and your back to towing! Afternoon job! Oh, very nice fish! Now you have to get the truck fixed fast, cause you now have a new favorite lake, to tow too:wink:
Lawcrusher, a rear end is easy to swap out. Get another one from a junk yard. Just take the tires off, unbolt it and slid it out. Slide the new/used one in, bolt it up and your back to towing! Afternoon job! Oh, very nice fish! Now you have to get the truck fixed fast, cause you now have a new favorite lake, to tow too:wink:
Swapping out is the easy part. Just did one last yr. Its the finding one that is tough. Lawcrusher has an avalanche. Pretty much the as any chevy truck. I looked for almost 2 months before I found a reasonably priced one. For some reason used rear ends for 01-03’ chevy trucks are hard to come by unless you want to pay big $$$$ for them. I ended up finding on in Maine for 600$ shipped to my door. Everyone else was around 1k-1500…but if I had paid the big price I could have gotten it within a couple days. Guess its just a bad truck yr to have a rear end go out.
“All fisherman lie. And if they say otherwise, then they’re lying”
Yeah, like Chip said these rear ends are hard to find in decent condition … I called around to several places (including the one in Maine) and what they had was either super high mileage (147K+ for $850 delivered) or high priced ($1,800 for 37K+ if I picked up) … SO I guess paying $1,550ish (not including tax) for a used one with 58K INSTALLED isn’t so bad … it’s just … wow … sticker shock … I replaced the rear end in my '80 Chevy K5 Blazer 4x4 for $150 so I wasn’t quite prepared to hear $1,500 BASE … Fortunately we have reserve funds so I won’t have to cut into the vacation fund otherwise my family would string me up alongside the road if they couldn’t go to the Keys next month … LOL
Maybe they are so hard to find is because there is a design flaw or something, that makes them go out? Might explain the shortage? I had no idea, there would be trouble finding one for a Chevy![:0]
[:0]