We were running late on Monday for a planned trip to the net pens on Rufus Woods.
My brother in law Tom Verschuren and I left the launch at just after 3, and of course this was going be one of the shortest days of the year. It took me less than 15 minutes to get to the net pens from Seatons Grove, which is a record for me. We pulled up just below the upper most pens and put the bow mount on anchor mode. There were fish rolling all around us and that was a good sign. We put out four rods baited with either nightcrawlers or Power Bait and waited to see what would happen. We didn’t have to wait long. Tom grabbed a rod that was bent over sharply, and we landed a triploid that was at least 5 or 6 pounds. Not long after he got another fish, and it was even bigger. It was getting darker by the minute and I was afraid we would run out of time, but another rod went off and I had a heck of a time getting this one to the net. I swept all our other lines, got tangled on the motor, but Tom managed to slip the net under it and hefted it into the boat. It had to have weighed 12 pounds! Now it was really getting dim, so we raced for the launch before it got too dark to see where we were going. What a great hour of fishing!