Sick Stick Madness

This has been both an incredibly frustrating and incredibly rewarding summer on Lake Austin.  One trip I’ll go out, find a big school of bass, and start putting a beating on ’em.  The very next day, I’ll go out only to find that the school had moved, and I’ll catch 1 or 2 keepers and that’s it.  That can be incredibly frustrating when the previous trip you put a dozen or more keepers in the boat. In last week’s TTZ Wednesday Nighter, I fished with John Ward (aka: austinjohn), and finished in the money in 3rd place after we had put some good fish in the boat on a spot that John had shown me.

I caught all of my fish on a T-rigged PowerTeam Lures Finicky Tickler (which has been my bait of choice for the last month and a half or so on Lake Austin), while John caught our kicker and his other fish on his infamous Gooseberry colored Senko also T-rigged.  After the tournament, on my way home, the light bulb came on.  John’s spot got me thinking about some other spots/areas very similar to it, and I just knew they’d be there.  I got my chance a few days later to head out yesterday after work to check out the spots that were on my mind.

I made it on the water yesterday at about 4:30 PM with Tom Howard to find the typical Lake Austin weekend zoo of wakeboarders, surfers, and tubers.  It was a pretty insane crowd, but I just had to check out those spots.  We made a short run to the first spot to find that we were fishing right across the lake from what must’ve been the designated party zone for the night.  There were 5 ski boats pulled up to a giant Lake Austin house with some serious Skrillex-type music just BLARING across the lake.  With wakeboarders, surfers, and tubers all going by about every 10 seconds, it was like trying to fish while riding a bull.

One of the light bulbs that had come on in my mind Wednesday night was that John seemed to be catching a little better sized fish on his t-rigged senko than I was catching on my t-rigged Finicky Tickler.  I reasoned it must’ve been because it was a little “meatier” bait than the Finicky Tickler.  So I decided to switch over to t-rigging the PowerTeam Lures Sick Stick (Green Pumpkin Light Blue Swirl) to see what would happen.  My first bite came on the 3rd cast, but after a swing and a miss, I came up with only a third of my Sick Stick left.  I put on a fresh one, and got back to casting.  Three casts later, I put the first fish in the boat, and from there on, it was pretty steady for the rest of the evening all the way up until my last few casts around 9 PM.

Tom was switching through rods trying to figure out what he was going to get the most bites on, but I never put down my rod with the Sick Stick.  Once I was up on Tom 9 keepers to 1, he decided to rig up another soft plastic stick bait, the Big Bite Cane Stick.  This helped him put a couple more keepers in the boat, and he seemed satisfied for a bit.  However, as we kept fishing, I suddenly stumbled upon a sweet spot where I went 8 casts in a row of either catching a fish, losing a fish, or getting a bite.  We were keeping some fish in the livewell for a photo session, and after those 8 casts, it was time to start culling.  I told Tom to get up to the front of the boat and fish that sweet spot while I messed around weighing fish to cull.  I spent close to 10 minutes messing around with the fish in the livewell while letting Tom fish upfront.  He repeatedly cast his Cane Stick to the sweet spot without a bite.  Finally, I was ready to fish again and I told Tom, “Now Tom, if I cast up there and catch one on the first cast here, you know it’s time for you to switch to the Sick Stick.”  Sure enough, I made the cast, and thunk, a 2lber was coming in the boat.  At which point, Tom gladly accepted a Sick Stick to rig up.  Needless to say, a few casts later, Tom was putting a fish in the boat.  🙂

When the night was over, we had put approximately 25-30 keeper-sized bass in the boat from 1.5-3lbs.  Nothing huge (although I broke off 2 fish that sure felt like donkeys!), but it was a ton of fun.  Now I’m ready for next week’s Wednesday nighter.