Tom(fishfafun) Lutz
Well-Known Member
- Joined
- Jan 31, 2001
- Messages
- 165
- Reaction score
- 0
I'm not making this up and I've never had anything like this happen to me during 40+ years of fishing....
I was fishing our club's Clear Lake event this Saturday and my non-boater and myself were working a large dock with dropshots and getting keeper fish occasionally (1-2 lbers)mixed in with a lot of non-keepers. We would go from one side of this large dock to the other just getting bit enough by good ones to keep us interested.
All of a sudden (about 10am) my backseater starts yelling "get outta here" (not at me, but at the water) and I look back and there's this otter trying to get in the back of the boat with him. This guy was quite persistant, barring his teeth at us and continuing to try to get in the boat. It took a whack on his head with a fishing pole to get him to leave. Kinda scary ya know...and just the beginning of the strangeness.
Anyway, we kept fishing that dock area (wind was howling everywhere else we could see on the lake and it was calmer there plus these decent fish were still biting). I had culled up with some 3+ lbers and my partner also culled up his small limit. We didn't see our little friend again but every time we'd go back to that side of the dock we'd joke about how nasty that dude was acting.
So, late in the afternoon, about half hour before weigh-in, we go back over there and I put my dropshot next to the dock and my line slowly starts to move off and I wait patiently (hey, we'd been fooled off and on all day by little fish doing that and just getting our worms ripped off when setting the hook). So when I finally set the hook and I get that nice solid thunk of a good fish I'm really up on my toes, this a good fish! Using light line on spinning gear, I get this fish to slow down and turn her to the boat (he's going absolutely crazy during the battle) but I finally get his head up next to the boat and I look down and there's this big brown thing hanging on the side of his head (what the heck?). Man, that nasty otter had ahold of the head of my best fish of the day and my backseater wasn't going to net that dude for nothin'. Now I know why that fish was going crazy out there. I guess that otter remembered about the sting up against his head from a fishing pole because he let go of my fish (thank you!) when he spotted us and then the fight was back on. That fish headed back to dock and I had to get her turned again before she broke off. But she did turn, that McCoys Mean Green held up and into the net she went....5.18 lbs, my biggset on a dropshot to date.
So, after getting drenched a couple of times from spearing waves on the run back to weigh-in, I managed to weigh-in 17.04 lbs, good enough for my third win of the year (but I didn't get big fish honors, it took one over six for that) and enough points to lock up Angler of the Year honors this year (my first).
Glad my non-boater was there for the whole thing cause I don't think anyone would believe a "fish tale" like that!
Tom
I was fishing our club's Clear Lake event this Saturday and my non-boater and myself were working a large dock with dropshots and getting keeper fish occasionally (1-2 lbers)mixed in with a lot of non-keepers. We would go from one side of this large dock to the other just getting bit enough by good ones to keep us interested.
All of a sudden (about 10am) my backseater starts yelling "get outta here" (not at me, but at the water) and I look back and there's this otter trying to get in the back of the boat with him. This guy was quite persistant, barring his teeth at us and continuing to try to get in the boat. It took a whack on his head with a fishing pole to get him to leave. Kinda scary ya know...and just the beginning of the strangeness.
Anyway, we kept fishing that dock area (wind was howling everywhere else we could see on the lake and it was calmer there plus these decent fish were still biting). I had culled up with some 3+ lbers and my partner also culled up his small limit. We didn't see our little friend again but every time we'd go back to that side of the dock we'd joke about how nasty that dude was acting.
So, late in the afternoon, about half hour before weigh-in, we go back over there and I put my dropshot next to the dock and my line slowly starts to move off and I wait patiently (hey, we'd been fooled off and on all day by little fish doing that and just getting our worms ripped off when setting the hook). So when I finally set the hook and I get that nice solid thunk of a good fish I'm really up on my toes, this a good fish! Using light line on spinning gear, I get this fish to slow down and turn her to the boat (he's going absolutely crazy during the battle) but I finally get his head up next to the boat and I look down and there's this big brown thing hanging on the side of his head (what the heck?). Man, that nasty otter had ahold of the head of my best fish of the day and my backseater wasn't going to net that dude for nothin'. Now I know why that fish was going crazy out there. I guess that otter remembered about the sting up against his head from a fishing pole because he let go of my fish (thank you!) when he spotted us and then the fight was back on. That fish headed back to dock and I had to get her turned again before she broke off. But she did turn, that McCoys Mean Green held up and into the net she went....5.18 lbs, my biggset on a dropshot to date.
So, after getting drenched a couple of times from spearing waves on the run back to weigh-in, I managed to weigh-in 17.04 lbs, good enough for my third win of the year (but I didn't get big fish honors, it took one over six for that) and enough points to lock up Angler of the Year honors this year (my first).
Glad my non-boater was there for the whole thing cause I don't think anyone would believe a "fish tale" like that!
Tom
