Fishing in the Dark

My dad admitted my plan was crazy. But I honestly couldn’t resist. What’s an 8 hour round trip when there’s a 4 hour Catfish Derby to enjoy? So Johnny, my wife, the dogs and I headed north on Saturday afternoon to fish all night. We turned around and drove back Sunday morning.

Best. Decision. Ever.

The sunset over Badger Lake set the scene. We had a few beers, ate some fried catfish and swapped stories and strategies. The inaugural Bullhead Derby of Lost Lake Woods Club was about to begin. The rules were simple. Start fishing at 9 pm. Get back to the site of the fish fry by 1 am. The team with the most bullhead wins the greatest prize to any angler….bragging rights. Oh and maybe some more free food.

Cold beer in hand John salutes the lake out of respect. That was the first of many cold beers on this trip.

We started off over 15 fow sticking nightcrawlers to the bottom with 1/8 oz-1/2 oz egg sinkers on 6-8 inch mono leaders. We had our first fish in the boat within a half-hour. A fat nasty bullhead.

These fish were holding in grassy flats. As the darkness progressed they traveled out of the deeper water to cruise between 3-8 fow. We tried some cutbait but nightcrawlers were the preferred food.

We tried a few spots on the lake with similar depth and vegetation. A slight breeze kept the mosquitoes at bay and added just enough constant pressure to keep the lines tight to read strikes. If the lines were too tight the fish would feel the weight of line and drop the bait before we could set the hook.

We did pretty good landing 6 decent bullheads. We never made it back to the dock by 1 am for the weigh-in so we missed our opportunity at bragging rights. But the empty beer cooler was proof enough that we had ourselves a “big old time” chasing catfish.

Damn they’re ugly.