Nick’s Day Off

Nick Young sure knows how to take a day off.

How many times have you taken a day off to go fishing, only to be met with weather conditions like we’re having Tuesday – torrential rains, lightning, thunder…?  Well, Nick has it figured out. He actually took off a day Tuesday from fishing to do a little work.

How’s that, you say?

Nick is a fishing guide on Lake D’Arbonne, site of this week’s Crappie Masters Louisiana State Championship. He fishes almost every day this time of year, so he welcomed the opportunity to catch up working on his boat and gear and running other errands.

“It worked out perfect for me,” he said. “I needed to catch up on some things and we’re going to fish the next four days, so I’m good.”

By the way, Nick and his Dad, Jock, just happen to be the defending champions of the D’Arbonne event. They both live in Farmerville. But Nick said being the defending champion doesn’t mean anything this year. Every fisherman starts off at zero, and even with tough conditions, a lot of anglers have been here before and know how to handle that now. Wednesday when they hit the water, this will also be the first time Nick and his dad have been able to fish together since a tournament in September. Between his dad’s work and Nick staying on the water with clients all the time, it just hasn’t worked out for them to get together.

“You know what I’m looking forward to?” Nick asks. “I’m just looking forward to getting to go fishing for four days. I’ve been on the water as much as anybody, but I haven’t been catching fish. I’m just running the boat and helping other people catch fish. I’ve been putting bunches of big crappie in the boat every day, but I haven’t been able to catch many myself. I actually get to fish less now than I ever have before. But I love it,” he says, referring to his guiding job. He also says there’s less pressure fishing a tournament than every day guiding. That’s because if he doesn’t catch anything in the tournament, he just wasted his money, not somebody else’s. He’s that kind of young man.

All this bad weather and the threat of muddy water, current and dropping water temperatures — all turnoffs to big crappie — is going to make it tough on the fishermen. Nick’s worst regret isn’t just about him not being able to catch as many fish as it is about a missed opportunity.

“If all this weather wouldn’t have happened, folks could have seen what the crappie fishing on Lake D’Arbonne is really like,” he says. “It’s been awesome this year so far, but we are looking at some terrible conditions this week. The water temperature will actually be lower Friday and Saturday than it is now. We’ve got a full moon and the big fish are raring to move shallow, but not when it’s like this. It’s a shame because it might have taken a 30 pound stringer to win the two day event. They still know D’Arbonne is a good crappie lake. But we could have shown it is a great crappie lake.”

Young now thinks that 24-25 pounds might win it. Will it be him and his father again?

“Everywhere I go people have been asking me if I think we’ll win it again this year,” he says. “I can’t say that because I might be on the best fish in the lake, then miss one or two and end up in fifth or 10th place. Luck has to be on your side, too. My goal is to fish clean, and by that I mean catch all the big fish I hook and it one fish at a time. The first thing I’ve got to do is catch the first fish that bites. Then the second fish. Then the third fish. My goal is to get to the weigh in with the seven biggest crappie I can catch each day. Then we’ll see what happens.”

PS – when he isn’t fishing a tournament or taking a day off to “work” you can book a trip with him by getting in touch on his Facebook page:

https://www.facebook.com/DArbonne-Lake-Guide-Service-1738224296498922/