Memorable Catfish Opener

[troutdog]

This was the 2nd year in a row I have fished the catfish opener at the Vine and much like last year I was not dissapointed, if this is any indication of what is to come my freezer is going to be chock full of catfish fillets!

Got to the lake around 7pm or so and hung out on the cafe porch and chatted with all the usual Vine suspects....Jimmy, Kewly, David, TM and the rest of the "get fresh crew", while waiting for NoHoArt and Team Boracho to arrive. Shortly after finishing my gourmet Taco Bell burrito, the boyz arrived and we headed over to Woodys Cove to find an open camping spot. Got a great spot that allowed us to fish from shore, enjoy a campfire and have easy access to the vehicles if need be.

We didn't have much luck from shore, although the couple next to us landed a couple trout fishing pb. NoHo's wife Vicki hooked us up with some Armenian coffee that put hair on my head and we were all amped and ready to fish hard till 2am. Got a call from doctorhook who was fishing with Mr. Bendo and asked if we wanted to jump on board and get in on some of the kittys they had located. Capt Boracho and I took first shift with Mr. Bendo and the skunk was off fairly quickly thereafter.

The capt himself with a little stocker sized kitten


Mr. Bendo living up to his name


We had a blast out there, Boracho's nephew Tony...the face says it all!


Boracho with his "kitty killing" face on!


Thanks to Doctorhook, everyone in our group eventually got a chance to take a ride in the boat and get a good shot at the kittys as everyone landed a fish with the exception of NoHoArt who had never caught a catfish before (that would change before the weekend was up!)

Fisherman101, Dave and NoHo looked this miserable most of the night!


2am came quickly so we headed back to camp to enjoy the fire and tell ghost stories and the ones that got away, till 4am when we finally called it a night

Got up sometime Saturday morning and headed to the cafe for breakfast and some hot coffee. I love the Vine more than any other lake locally, but I can't ignore the fact that I was pretty miffed when a newer employee(I will leave nameless) told Tony, Capt Boracho and Fisherman101 they could not eat breakfast without purchasing a day pass. Apparently business is really kicking to turn away 3 hungry patrons? It was my understanding you could park out front, walk into the cafe and have a bite to eat regardless if you were fishing for the day or not....I have done that numerous times before heading into work so maybe this policy has changed or something? If so my apologies, but it is the first I have ever heard of this. Regardless I think it could have been handled differently and they could have been accomodated accordingly, its not like they were trying to sneak in and fish...they paid for camping/fishing the previous day and simply wanted to have a bite to eat before having to go home. Okay my rant is over, but three hungry guys walked out the door and headed to Dennys, while the Vine lost out on a minimum of $30 worth of business. "NOT COOL BRO"

NohoArt and his wife finally got moving so we met by the boat ramp to get on the water. Headed to the spot and saw Mitz "The Magic Man" doing his thing, he of course had a few but the bite had slowed since the previous day. We did not let this discourage us so we stuck it out and NoHo finally popped his catfish cherry...WTG NoHo!


I think Art was feeling the pressue of being watched!


We managed a couple fish after a few hours and decided to head in for the potluck/bbq we had planned....had a great turnout and enjoyed a couple kinds of chicken, ribs(thanks to Mav/CRVZ neighbors, thank you!), french bread, brats, hotdogs, pasta salad and chips.

Team BTK taking a break before heading back out on the water


Bing and Whitney talking shop by "Bing's Blue Bomber"


Bing, Daryl and Bruce "bare butt" Watson exchanging beauty tips


Our official chicken smapler PoxyBoggards


MAV double fisted


LiL Miss doing a little marshmellow roasting!


Bullets gettin his mellow on as well....


After a killer lunch we hit the water in the "Blue Bomber", NoHo and Vickki joined us after the SS NoHo had some technical difficulties...I'm sorry about the boat problems but having you guys aboard was awesome!


We eventually settled into an area adjacent to Woody's Cove and fished next to Poxy(pictured on the hookup) and Daryl, Bruce, MAV/CRVZ...I got a headache from laughing so much. GOOD TIMES GUYS!!! Thanks for sharing your spot with us Poxy/Daryl!


Mav havin fun with one of his toys....it even delivers candy if you can get Bing to share any with you


"we're gonna need a bigger boat"


We were all able to put a cat or two on board when the bite slowed to a crawl, so we went in search of greener pastures...thanks to TEAM BTK we found them!

Bing with a decent kitty


NoHoArt with one of the better fish of the night


Live well shot for TO


Art and his wife after a successful night on the water


A quick shot at the fish cleaning table before calling it a night


Special thanks for all that made it out to the potluck and contributed to the fun, as well a Bing for taking us out on his fish killin machine....next time we are crashing at the Vine to help with the mackerel jerkey cleaning session

Thanks for reading and I'll see you at the Vine!


TD