Drove up to Tugalo with one of my non-fishing yak buddies, Scott. The main emphasis was just to do some paddling and enjoy the water. Launched on the GA side about 11:00am. Once we were underway, I set a couple of rods out to troll while we were paddling around. Since the rods were behind me, I kinda forgot about them and was just paddling and talking to Scott. Maybe 30 minutes after we had launched, a guy in a boat yelled “hey, you have a fish on”. Sure enough, I turned around and my pole was bent nicely. Pulled in this little hybrid. It was the first hybrid I’ve ever caught, and the first fish I’ve caught trolling from the yak. Caught on a sinking lipped black and gold Rapala. Let him swim away unharmed; it was a nice lip-hook. Didn’t catch anything else. We paddled upstream and found some shade, ate lunch, and let the dogs play in the shallows. Paddled back downstream almost to the dam and pulled over at a campsite where some idiotic, lowlife, moronic, wastes-of-perfectly-good-oxygen had left a pile of trash. Empty beer cans, plastic bottles, etc. (Ever notice how it’s always cheap light beer that these waste-cases drink?) We decided to load all the trash into my tank well, then paddled on back to the ramp about 5:00pm.
p.s. Check out Forrest Gump’s sporty shades…a bit crooked, but they’re kinda cool I think.
If you’re lucky enough to be fishing, you’re lucky enough.