Fishing Report 4/30/07 (Dad at GOMH)

Got to the GOMH at about 7:20 and was dropped off by Dad so he could check on the Platte Lake house. When I arrived, two guys were sitting on the SW side with an empty chair; it turns out there were two ladies with the guys taking a potty break. The SE area of the GOMH was well covered by a boat. I elected to go down and take what was left of the SW side by the empty chair. I put on a minnow and got a bite immediately, which I promptly missed. When the hook popped free, I nearly whacked one of the other guys, and my bobber came whizzing in. I lost my split shot in that process, so now my bobber would lay on its side. My tackle box with the split shot was with Dad in the car.

I put on another minnow and quickly caught a silver bullhead, giving it to the two guys. At this point, I elected to stop using minnows and conserve them for Dad because he would be coming down after he checked the house; there weren't many minnows left. While fishing with just the Glo Cubby Mini-Mite, I caught a few oranges and one silver. The guys to my left were bringing in a silver every few minutes, and the SE side boat was catching them too.

Dad arrived, and I got a split shot so my bobber would stand up. We both fished the SW side. He started getting silvers on the crappie minnows, and I got oranges on the un-tipped jig. Shortly after Dad arrived, the two ladies came back, thus crowding the SW side. I decided to go over and fish what was available on the SE side. On the SE side, I caught one orange bullhead, gave up after about 15 minutes, and returned to the SW side. As I was returning, a guy fishing the NE side brought in a 5lb dogfish.

On the SW side with Dad, I started tipping my jig with minnows again and immediately began catching silvers. Dad was mainly missing bites. The guy in the boat on the SE side landed a dogfish. The two guys and two ladies were steadily bringing in fish, and with Dad and my help, they reached their 40-fish limit, so they left. It was getting dark by this point, and I only caught and released a couple more fish. Dad missed a few. When it got sufficiently dark, Dad and I decided to leave. We had two live minnows left.

Fishing Report 4/29/07 (GOMH)

Got to the GOMH a little before 8 PM and was pleasantly surprised to find only Willard and one other guy fishing the SW side. Willard had one nice silver bullhead in the pail. I had a grand total of 2 live minnows and a bunch of dead ones to fish with my glow Cubby. I immediately caught fish on the two live minnows. I then started using the dead minnows and got fish on those as well. Someone left and gave their minnows to me, so I had live minnows again. I missed a couple before finally notching a couple more. I caught 7 keepers and 1 dink; I gave the keepers to Willard. As it got darker, the bite died off. I couldn't get my headlamp to light up, so I called it a night.

Goings on at GOMH

For those who don't know, GOMH is short for the "Grumpy Old Man Hole," which is the bridge and channel area where Platte and Sullivan lake connect.

4/4- The Second GOM sighting, GOM#3

I went to the GOMH, and darn it if I didn't get a hit on my second cast or at least what I thought was a bite on the White panther. After a few more casts, I decided to see what a jig and a minnow would do.

About that time, a van pulled up with "Lewis," aka GOM#3. He got out and caught me up on some GOM things. Lee Ander, aka GOM#2, got gangrene from stepping on a nail last July and had his right leg cut off just below the knee. That kept him cooped up for the summer, but he made it out ice fishing almost every day. Willard, aka GOM#1, did lots of the ice fishing with GOM#2. Lewis informed me that he and Willard are brothers, which I did not know. I didn't see much of Lewis at the GOMH last year. Also, Willard just had foot surgery himself and went into town shopping against the doctor's orders because he wasn't feeling any pain in his foot. Lewis was glad to hear I haven't had any heart trouble recently.

Sometime during our conversation, the guy on the NW corner of the GOMH started a grass fire. It started getting smokey, so Lewis and I left.

4/5 The First Bullheads of the season
I arrived at the GOMH at about 6:15PM and started fishing with a green flu flu and a minnow. Lo and behold, I hooked into one of those famous GOMH "jumpin bullheads" that I would say went 15". Nice, pretty, looking fish. A few casts later, I had another bullhead coming in.

Around this time, a Pick Up truck pulled up and started watching me. Not knowing who it was, I didn't bait up and hoped they would leave. Someone lady was walking along the road and started talking to the guy in the truck whose voice I thought I recognized as Lee Ander's; Sure enough, that's who it was. Soon after Lee Ander stopped, a younger guy in a car also stopped. I had to go to Bible Study, so I picked up my stuff and headed to the truck. I asked Lee Ander how he was doing, and he gave me the whole story about his leg. He also told me about his winter fishing success on Platte and Sullivan. Just as I told Lee Ander I was heading to Bible Study, up drives Willard with an offer to give me a shoe. He was talking about the shoe brace they gave him after his surgery. Naturally, Willard had to tell me all about that ordeal and how much pain he had been in. The surgery was a big success, and his recovery was speedy. Willard said he hadn't even needed to take one of the pain pills his Dr. prescribed. After about another 15-minute delay, I was off to Garrison Alliance.

Looks like I'll be hearing a lot from the GOM this spring. One can only hope they will be as entertaining as ever. Actually, it's really only Willard who is fun; he almost never stops talking.