The other evening, I decided to pull up Google Earth and search an area that we fished near. I had seen people over there but wasn’t sure how to get into the area. GE and other maps gave us a rough idea so we made a plan and went for it.
This morning we arrived around 0730 and sorted our gear. I wanted to just explore but she talked me into taking a rod along. I’m glad she did! We located the trailhead, there are several, and commenced our hike. By using the “measure” feature on Google Earth, we had an approximate distance of 1.8 miles to reach our objective. We had no idea what lay in store for us but that’s how we like it. Keeps a sense of adventure about the outing.
It ended up being an old portion of a campground that the State couldn’t afford to maintain anymore and was completely overgrown. The “road” was more of a 4-wheeler track and had several mudholes as well as steep hills. Several sections of the trail were almost completely overgrown, but we kept going.
Finally we popped out on a sand point just above the lake and we noticed a concrete structure down further along the shoreline. It turned out to be an old boat ramp that had seen much better times. On a whim, we both started casting out to where we could see Shad jumping and something chasing them.
BAM!!! I hooked into something with shoulders! It peeled drag and bent my rod and the fight was on. It turned out to be a schoolie striper! I have never caught a striper from the shore, always from a boat, and was excited to say the least.
The action was pretty steady and a lot of fun. My rod was a more powerful rod than hers so we would switch off. She caught 9 plus a largemouth and together we caught 23 stripers and 3 large sand bass. We were both quite surprised that we were catching stripers but there was structure and baitfish so it made sense. Had we gotten there earlier in the morning we probably would’ve caught a lot more, but when the sun started beating down full force, the bite stopped.
I’m pretty sure Zip was still worn out from yesterday as he crawled into some brush in the shade and took a nap.
Once the bite quit, we decided to explore the area as well as the shoreline. We marked a few campsites on our map for future reference. As I’ve said many times, I enjoy exploring and seeing what’s over the next hill or around the next bend. I hope to continue doing it for as long as I can.
2024 has been a weird year for us. We haven’t been able to make any substantial plans like returning to the Cossatot River or even spending a full week anywhere. It has been very frustrating being tied to home. But we are managing to squeeze some outings in even if they’re only for 6-8 hours. We will continue to do our best. Catch you on the next one!
Velox Seeker 