Anglers are always playing pranks on one another, particularly at the end of the day when they’re on a far-away fishing trip. Most pranks are innocent enough and just for a laugh or two, but sometimes it can go a little too far.

One trip, the regulars decided that the “newbie” needed to be initiated. While he was away, three hundred crickets were set loose in his motel room. Upon his return, he saw a bug or two crawling around, but thought little of it. However, once the lights were turned off and he fell asleep, it was a different story. Needless to say, the chirping and crawling all over his body drove him crazy. It wasn’t long before he called the front desk and made arrangements to change rooms. When he awoke the next morning, he yelled aloud when he found dozens of minnows swimming in the sink, tub and commode. Not wanting to flush them down the drain, he left them where they were and checked out of the motel.

Then there was a guy who bragged all the way to the coast about what great gas mileage he was getting from his new four- stroke outboard motor. He bragged so much that his fishing buddies became tired of hearing about it. To get even, they re-filled the gas tank each night. That “fueled the fire”, so to speak, and by the end of the week, the bragging became worse than ever. The next weekend, while fishing alone, he ran out of gas because he was tricked into thinking the fuel mileage was many times better than it actually was.

Another event happened once when flounder fishing was slow, so everyone split up to try different places on their own. Uncle Jimmy, being the shyster that he was, went to the fish market and purchased a five pounder. He put the fish on ice and brought it back to the rental house. Everyone else returned with no fish, so he collected the big fish pot, and never said a word about how he really got the fish. At the end of the week, a couple of the guys stopped at the fish market to buy a few pounds of shrimp to take home. The fish peddler recognized the logo on the shirts they were wearing and asked how they enjoyed the flounder that Jimmy had bought. You can only imagine the conversation the next time they saw their uncle.

See you out there!

Tips from Capt. Gus! Double the use of fishing line and save money too! Reverse the line by reeling it onto a similar empty spool or a spool on a different reel. The unused line from the bottom of the old spool will be on top of the new one.

Hot Spots of the Week: It’s not too late to get in on some of the best crappie fishing Lake Norman has seen in years. The fish are hitting jigs and minnows in shallow water. Bass are also shallow and hitting spinner, jerk and square lipped crank baits. Like crappies, the bass seem to be larger than in years past. White perch are hitting minnows fished in water from fifteen to twenty feet deep.

Upcoming Events: A free Kids Fishing Tournament, sponsored by Mountain View Baptist Church, Maiden, NC will be May 3^rd from 8 a.m.-12 p.m. at Jones Fish Camp, Highway 16, Maiden, NC. Call 704 634 3926 for more information.

“How to Navigate Lake Norman Day or Night” is a free safe boating class to be held at The Peninsula Yacht Club, 18501 Harbor Light Blvd, Cornelius, NC 28031 on May 14^th at 6:30 p.m. Becky Johnson and I will cover topics that include “Understanding LKN’s Channel Marker and Buoy System”, “How to Avoid Shallow Water”,” The Ten Most Dangerous Spots”, and “Interpreting Lake Maps”. For more information, call Ashley at 704 892 7575.

Norman’s water level is about 1.9’ below full pond and 3.0’ below full on Mountain Island Lake. The surface water temperature is in the sixties in water not affected by power generation on Lake Norman.