Fishing..in the rain or not

Some of us would be disappointed if they had a fishing trip all planned and had everything ready only to wake up at the appointed time and find it raining. Not just a little gentle rain, one of those light flashing, thunder rolling gully washers that are heavy enough to drown toads and small frogs. Here on Schooner Creek we had one of those this morning. I was up and getting ready at 4:07 am when my fishing buddy called and said have you looked outside? Well I'll have to admit that I had not, so I did and it was.....dark. It was very dark, which is normal for 4:07 in the morning. Just as I was about to pass on that information to my friend, the lightning flashed and the kitchen window I was looking through rattled with the resounding clash of thunder. It was just about that time that Doug, reminded me that he will fish in a gentle rain, he just draws the line at having his inner mechanisms vibrated by thunder and his hair styled by lightning. I whole hearting agreed and we decided to wait out the storm and give it time to pass. We will go later this afternoon.

Now this mornings storm does bring the topic of fishing in the rain to the fore front. I'm sure that all of us that make it a habit to get out as much as possible have been caught out in a "rain or two." We that fish will push the envelope of cloudy sky's because we know that cloud cover is great for fishing and sometimes a gentle rain will create a "bite: for fish. I've caught a lot of fish while being soaked to the bone. In warm weather being wet has its benefits. When its cold its miserable. Usually when it is raining or going to rain the barometer will be on the rise and that is a trigger for the fish. My position on gentle rain has always been the fish don't care if its raining they are wet all the time. I remember one trip into the back water country of Minnesota and Canada where it rained so hard that we had to take our canoes to the shore to dump out the water. During that rain I landed a 7 plus pound lake trout and several walleye. The rain had little effect on the fishing.

Common sense tells us that if it starts lightning to get off the water. lightning will strike the highest point and when your in a boat with an electric trolling motor on the front and a huge motor hanging on the back you are the highest point on the water. So, my advise is to get off the water when the light starts to flash. I do that, I'm real careful about lightning. However, ( there is always a however in life) when you find your self catching fish and they don't seem to mind the weather, your back in a cove with really high hills around, you might be temped to wait it out.

This past spring was one such time. I had my parents out one afternoon when it began to thunder. It was far off and you had to listen to hear it. After the third or fourth time it rolled my mother asked " Michael was that thunder ?" Now this is a good time to pass on that my Mom is a little bit of a worry wort. She was born and raised in the Missouri Ozarks, lived around the rolling hills of eastern Missouri until about 18 years ago when my Dad retired and they moved to southwest Florida. In southwest Florida the highest point is when you take the second step on a step ladder. Today my Mother has become a flat lander to the point that she shuts her eyes at road ditches. She is not the most relaxed person in a boat on top of things and will use any excuse to stay out of one. I love my Mom, I would never do anything that would hurt her or cause her any undo worry. She survived raising 4 boys and we pretty well put her to the test on more than one occasion. We all take good care of her and try to make her life in retirement and enjoyable one. So when she asked " Michael is that thunder?" I did what any good son and avid fisherman would do I told her " No, Mom there is a culvert on top the hill that trucks are running over, it only sounds like thunder, got another one, open the live well please." I looked past her to my Dad and got the " Good one son, lets catch more fish, but your on your own when she finds out look." The fishing was great we put several good sized goggle-eyes in the boat when the thunder really cut loose and my mother said, "That's no culvert. son."

We headed back to the boat ramp with the sky being a really pretty shade of purple with just a light shade of green through it. I got to the dock let her out and she made it up the hill to the pavilion just as it started to sprinkle. Dear old Dad had the car keys and it was his job to back the trailer into the water so I could put the boat on it. While waiting for him to jockey it into the proper position the rain came down harder and something struck me on the back of my hand hard enough to hurt. Then I got hit just behind my ear and it dawned on me that the little white balls hitting me was hail. For the next 5 minutes or so I got my self beat on pretty good by small hail balls some got to the size of marbles. There was a white out for a short time they were coming down so hard. Just before I lost sight of the car I noticed that my Dad was looking at me with that " I'm going to enjoy this look." There was not much for me to do, I just hunkered down and let it hail.

After the boat was put on the trailer and we were heading back to the house I glanced at my Mom and although she had not said much about my experience she did have a satisfied smile on her face. Makes me wonder if Mom's and mother nature talk.