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Fishing Stories from Ned Kehde |
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Submitted by Ned Kehde - April 17, 2000 April Fool's Day didn't dawn according to Mike Cook's best-scripted plans. For much of Cook's workweek, as he toiled at his day job as mechanic with the Wichita Airport Authority, reveries of his Mar. 26 outing at Cheney Lake danced in his head. On that fine early spring day, the lake was in the midst of a three-foot rise. Many miles of willow trees that grow along Cheney's shorelines stood in one to three feet of water. And the water that coursed down the Ninnescah River was five degrees warmer than the water in the main body of the lake. That 55-degree water attracted scads of gizzard shad, carp and channel cats, and many of the partially submerged islands of willows and weeds in the upper third of the lake became alive with fish. Inside and outside of those islands, shad galore dimpled and popped the surface. Carp wallowed and frolicked amongst the weeds and tender willow shoots. And Cook's quarry -- channel cats by the hundreds -- noisily foraged in those weeds and trees. After fishing through the many stone-silent days of winter, Cook relished those sights and sounds of fish gamboling in the warm waters from a spring freshet. Not only was it a joy for Cook to witness, but the channel cats readily engulfed his deftly placed offering of a No. 4 treble hook encased with a plastic worm that was dipped and lathered in a redolent gob called JoJo's Pole Snatchers, which is a concoction made by Cat Tracker. It was Cook's first big catch of channel cats of the year, and throughout the week, he counted the hours until he could return on April 1. As those hours slowly ticked way, he thought about new ways and places to catch these cats of early spring. Alas, Mother Nature tossed one of her many monkey wrenches into the scene, which she is so apt to do in April. She began by creating a nippy breeze that angled from the northeast. Then a cool drizzle fell in fits and starts. The clouds, drizzle and wind kept the thermometer in the low 50s at midday, and the cool dampness penetrated several layers of clothing and rainwear, causing a chill and then a shiver to periodically run from Cook's nape to the base of his spine. And intermittently his weathered hands ached from exposure to the rawness of the day. As long as Cook can catch and release an array to two- to four-pound channel cats on an outing, he can tolerate the shivers and aches of a cold day. But on this April Fool's Day, the water temperature dropped to 51 degrees. In addition, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers had begun flushing 994 cubic feet a second out of Cheney's dam. Thus the dropping water level and temperature caused the fish to vacate the submerged willow islands in the upper reaches of the lake, and the cats that remained in some of the deeper haunts of that part of the lake turned sullen. For six hours Cook worked a variety of spots, and he enticed only one four-pounder to take the bait. At 4 p.m. Cook moved near the dam and began exploring the lake's contours with his sonar. In Mud Creek he found massive congregations of shad and other unidentifiable fishes in 8 to 17 feet of water. But Cook couldn't coax any of these fish to bite. At 6 p.m. Cook headed to a main-lake point that had been buffeted all day by the wind. But as he was motoring out of Mud Creek, a flock of cormorants was spotted roosting on some willow tree that hung over the shoreline. From such a roost, the cormorants drop lots of shad-laden fecal matter, which often attracts channel cats. So on a hunch, Cook began to ply the shallow water under the roost, and straightaway he caught channel cats, which proves once again that intuition and flexibility are the hallmark of a savvy angler. Editor's Note: You can learn more about Cook by clicking here. |
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