Fishing with the crazies

About 5 o’clock Tuesday afternoon, Central Whatever Time we go by now, Mr. C.A. Cornish sat on the tailgate of his 1958 gold and white Chevy pickup truck somewhere in Heaven and just shook his head.

My former neighbor, who kept me a lot when I was a kid and taught me a lot about hunting, fishing and mosquito bites, used to harass me a lot when I was in my early 20’s about “going fishing with the crazies”.  It was either too cold, too windy or too something for him to go. But I went. He simply said I was crazy. A lot.

A big old D’Arbonne chinquapin

Well, Tuesday, I went fishing with the crazies again, even though now I’m older than Mr. Cornish was then. I had to go. The crappie were biting. White perch, to Mr. Cornish. Forget the 15 mph southerly wind. Forget that when I first started fishing and turned my boat into the wind, a wave came over the front of the boat. My feet will dry. Eventually. Forget that it was almost impossible to wrangle a shiner under a cypress tree to try and catch a fish. But remember this. I was not alone.

Above the whistle of the wind in my ears and the squish of my wet feet, I heard another boat coming across the lake. then another. Then another. I knew I wasn’t going to win the crazy award when I saw another fishermen bouncing over the waves in a 14-foot stick steer aluminum boat. He made it safely across.

Before the evening was over, I had put 18 fish in the boat. Unbelievable. A note here…it did calm down about an hour before dark, which made fishing more bearable., but not any better.

The point in this is simple: The fish really got cranked up on D’Arbonne over the Easter weekend. We caught crappie, chinquapin bream and some catfish. Others did, too. It was a busy time on the lake, despite some unseasonably cool mornings. And now that they’ve really started to bite — here comes a 2-3 inch rain and another cold spell.

Don’t despair. You can still go. Just be careful. And just be ready for Mr. Cornish to shake his head at you, too.

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Here are a couple other fishing shots from the calmer days of this weekend:

My son-in-law Andy Davis with two of the biggest weekend crappie

Lake neighbor Lucie Hunt with two nice Easter weekend crappie.

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Remember the big King of Kings crappie and bass tournament coming up April 2 on Lake D’Arbonne. Get your entry now and a chance to win your part of $2,000 in cash. See yesterday’s writeup for more details.