By A Whisker...

I thought for sure I was getting a skunk for the day. There was no activity at the GOMH and a wind from the wrong direction, and no Rock Dock to fish from. Still, I put my time in and fished all afternoon. I started out by checking for suckers; there weren't any. Then I headed to the GOMH as the sun was out, and it was warm but windy out of the NE, which actually is a good direction for the Southside of the GOMH. CO Kuske stopped by again. He said crappies were being caught at Pierz as if today. I fished for about an hour then headed to Rock. After seeing the futility of fishing Rock in that NE wind, I sat in the truck and listened to the radio, hoping the dock installers would show up. While I was sitting there, a guy who I think I might have met before came down in an ATV to go fishing. He gave me some interesting info, and he did not catch anything. After that guy left, I went back out to try again and while I was fishing, a boat came down to launch, so I got in the truck to move out of the way. I parked in the lot, and one of the guys with the boat motioned for me to roll down the window, and he lets me know my back left tire is just about flat. The tire wasn't totally flat, so I made the decision to limp the truck about 3 miles to Bear Traxx hardware and gas. I made it with no problems and got the tire filled back up; I could hear the leak, so I immediately drove 5 miles South to J&D's, a full-service station. In 30 minutes, Jeff had the tire patched, and I was back on the road. Our place is less than a mile South of J & D's, so I headed home to check on the dogs and get them their supper. Once that business was done, I headed back to Rock. Nobody was there, so I pulled up to the ramp and started fishing. The wind was just a bit better, but it had clouded up pretty good. I think I missed one bite but I am not totally sure. I finally bugged out at 6:30PM. I was surprised when I arrived at the GOMH that nobody was there, not a particularly good sign. As I was taking my stuff down to the SW side, Grumpy Old Man Willard showed up. He gave me a hard time about how he would catch as many fish as me by just sitting in his truck. Right around 7:30PM, Willard left, and I started seeing a couple of signs that some baitfish were around with predators chasing them. I made several casts to the area but didn't have any bites. It was getting pretty dark, and I was reeling in by some cattail stalks when I thought I got hung up, but the snag started moving quickly to my left. Sure enough, I had a bullhead. I lifted him out of the water, and before I could grab him, my line snapped, but he was well over the shore, so I picked him up. As you can see in the picture, it was a male pike that was milting. I didn't get skunked; the GOMH comes through again.