Snakes, Cramps and Cannibals...oh My

Scott and I decided to give our NOVA large mouth creek another shot as we’d had such good luck recently.  We put in at 0745 and noticed that the water was 6-8 inches higher than we’d encountered recently and stained from heavy rains. The fishing was slow from the start.  Holes we’d seen bass lurking in were barren. The aloof sunfish bent our poles occasionally, but the unionized bass were on strike.  It’s a slow day when you find yourself casting for sunfish and complementing casts rather than bruiser bass. 

The One Lunker of the Day

Three interesting/funny things did happen; as we were drift-fishing we were accosted by a 3-foot water snake.  Normally snakes stay to themselves but this villian crossed the creek 20-30 feet and came right at us.  We weren’t sure if he would strike or try to jump into the canoe.  I shooed him away with a paddle, but snake-fear is not rational fear and this aggressive fella got our attention.  Last trip I brought my snake-sword…I won’t forget it again.  10 minutes later we looked upstream to see another snake swim VERY quickly across the creek. Hate snakes.  Hate snakes.  Hate Snakes. In quick succession after the snakes Scott hooked a decent sized sunfish only to have a monster Bass strike, clean-off and eat the sunfish right off Scott’s line!  Amazing & ...pretty cool.  Lastly, always one to humor others at my own expense, I got a stomach/rib cramp while floating in the canoe trying to undue a snag.  It was debilitating and persistent, I stretched out prone in the back of the canoe arching my back and trying to relieve the pain/work the cramp out with my fingers, but it wouldn’t go away and I was lucky the canoe didn't tip. As miserable as I was, Scott was safe and sound on a sandbar laughing as one does when their buddy is in agony but in no real danger.  Fishing improved as we neared the mouth and we ended the day with a good haul. The lesson we learned is this creek is fished best when the water is low and the weather constant.