Too small to troll

Well, I done seen it all now. Ya know those little tiny boat, floatie, pontoonie looking things? Those tiny little boats you can only put one dude in and a trolling motor? Well, I'm on the Ohio the other night near Brandenburg, just off the city ramp and in the dark. It's about 3 am and my eyes are getting blurry cause I got out of bed at 4am in the morning the day before, worked too hard, ate too much supper, and forgot to bring any coffee on this trip. Fishing was slow, and I admit I was nodding some. I hear this little trickling of water. I thought maybe some big duck was swimming passed the boat. I looked up and saw a red bow light, and then a white all round light that looks to be just 3 feet behind it. At first I thought it was a 20 footer on the far bank. Then I see the flash of a lighter, and the glow of a cigarette, and my sense of range thru blurred eyes decides its a darn small boat, maybe 5 foot long, passing me in real slow motion as I'm anchored head up stream, and its headed down stream on my port side. I sat there with a gapping mouth, as this little thing with a small guy in it creeps passed me by about 100 feet, kills his lights, I hear the plop of what sounds to be an anchor, and note it has stopped. I hear the whizzing sound of a bait caster and another small plop. Then one more. Then the all-round white light on the small craft comes on, and I can make out the outline of a guy sitting there. I'm thinking what kind of nut comes out here in one of those farm pond bluegill boats, when I hear a reel scream, see a figure thrashing about, hear the bait caster click over, and then the sounds of a reel feeding drag reluctantly to a fish that has no respect for boats that appear to be smaller than he is. This goes on for a while, with the little dingy thing wobbling and the figure on the boat swaying from side to side, in ever increasing sweeps from left to right. Next, splashing at the surface, some swearing about how there's no need for a catfish to bite a guys hand like that, a couple little giggles, then silence. Finally, I hear that ever present sound of a fish slapping a tail on something hollow, that once in a short while thrash, a slap, and a crunch and small rumble. I see the outline of the little craft move forward, a little rustle at the surface, and get the impression an anchor just came up. Ever so quietly, the tiny craft fades into the dark, its outline dissolves to darkness, a small white light turns to a pinpoint, and the very soft droan of an electric motor fades into a very calm night. And then it was gone. Total elapsed time from first sighting until it faded to darkness was inside an hour.

I swear I had not a thing to drink that my preacher would not have approved of. I am darn sure I was awake, cause I still got the scratches on my eyelids where rough hands tried to clear blurry cobwebs and confirm reality. I don't know where that little bobber sized boat came in from, and don't know where it went to. I was afraid to up anchor and go looking for it, for fear my 20 foot pontoon wake at idle might swamp it. I should have yellled at the guy and asked if gasoline prices caused his choice in craft. I guess I should have called 911 and reported a "future drowning". At any rate, I just pulled up my gear, and idled back to the ramp, trailered out, ran to the back of the lot, and went to sleep. I guess the guy got home okay, cause no sirens interrrupted the sleep that lasted till 9 am.

I've decide all future trips to that ramp will see the spot light come along, and a camera. My only fear is that if I see this "farm pond river rig" again, that the mere weight of a spotlight beam, or the blast of a camera flash might be enough to capsize it.

Has the price of gasoline driven some of us crazy? :eek:

Hurricane, you should have been a writer. That's a vivid story. Gas prices? I doubt that was the issue. Some people just don't realize the danger I guess.

one of the best stories i've read in a while. at first i was thinking you saw a UFO (unidentified fishing object), but definitely like UFPRR much better.

that man could probably outfish us all.
:)

I have seen a guy fishing from a jet ski, its still fishing I guess. I guess maybe some one thouight the same thing about me about 10 yrs ago, fishing in the gulf from a 12 ft porte a bote, but when the waves started to get 3 ft high, it was shore time for me.There are foolish fishermen, and old fishermen, but few foolish old fishermen!

I took a trip to Cedar Creek recently and had seen something unusual as well. As I passed one of the ramps and noticed a red and orange ballon in the water in some trees. I thought someone lost their inner tube from the beach they swim at. Nope....it was a guy fishing from an inner tube. Good thing it was a bright color.

Great and very strange story. I've only been on the Ohio once, on a calm day. I can't imagine somebody dumb enough to take a tiny boat such as what you saw out there. At night, even!

I went fishing a few weeks ago at the KY River and saw a guy in a 16 foot tracker, 3 attractive young women and a black lamb wearing a diaper. And it was broad daylight and I hadn't touched a drop.

:p

Great story Hurricane!

Some of things you run into out there never ceases to amaze me. About a year ago...I was at Salt River near the Ohio, I'm not sure what time it was but it was before noon. All I was doing was changing a boat trailer out, we had bought a new boat trailer and all we were there for was to float the jon-boat off the old trailer and load it onto the newer trailer. Well....about the time I'm ready to launch/load there's these two good ol' boys come drifting in on a 12' foot jon-boat with what looked to be maybe a 5hp or 10hp motor. These two fella's, big ol' bean fed boys, had been out all night they told me and they had the fish to prove it...they probably had about 12 really REALLY nice cats! So I wasn't in a hurry and wanted to see their fish, etc...one fella runs up the hill to get the tow vehicle and when he comes back down the "tow vehicle" ended up being a Ford Taurus or some small car similar to a Taurus. He gets backs down there, I guess he backed down so the trunk would be closer to the waters edge, he then proceeds to pop the trunk and in goes the small outboard and some of the other fishing paraphenalia, nets, rods, seat cushions, small cooler, etc...They laid the cats out on the ramp and If I had to guess I'd say they probably had about 100 pounds worth of fish laying there (less than that after cleaning). They then proceeded to lift their 12' jonboat on top of the Ford Taurus, securing it with rope wrapped around the interior of the car through the windows that were rolled down. And then they each grabbed both ends of the stringer, and with a one-two-three heaving motion they tossed the fish up and into the jonboat and away they went.

As I say...two bean fed good ol' boys that without question tipped the scales at over 250 lbs each, plus one hundred pounds of catfish, all in a small/shallow 12' jonboat that had been out on the mighty Ohio all night long. They told me they were probably crazy but they didn't care because if there were fish to be caught then by golly they was gonna catch'm.

Was that a black lamb, or a black lab wearing the diaper?? Not that it really matters. Ive been fishin for 30 yrs and aint seen nothin like that!

Thanks for a good light-hearted laugh guys. I watched two guys going down Rockcastle River in a boat made from two 1936 Chev car hoods, and they said they were looking for "Little Rock."

I saw a girl carrying around a black lamb with a diaper on it at the diesel drag races at Beech Bend in Bowling Green this year.

I have a 9' outcast pontoon that I've had on a lot of rough water, classII+ that I wouldn't take anything other than a closed kayak on. You can't flip this boat unless you really tried.