April Showers

Back in April I take a couple of hours to drive around Monroe Reservoir looking for float tube compatible access. I drive through rain, some heavy. Most of what I find are busy access points for the big boats that fit this big water. It's not what I'm looking for.

I do find an access point deep in the woods by a backwater. It's a channel out to the main lake. It could be fishable, but I can't really tell how wide it might get and how far it is to the main lake. It's raining again, so I save it for another day's exploration and head over to Yellowwood.

It has been wet everywhere else, but Yellowwood is bone dry when I get there--right up until I kick off the boat ramp. It turns out to be just a sprinkle.

I do the drill, combing the shorelines. I start on the eastern shoreline. There are fish to be found.

There are storms to the north and storms to the south, and thunder rumbles and rolls in the distance. I keep a weather eye out. After awhile I decide that the storms will miss the lake. I take a pee break and then tuck my rain jacket in my waders so I won't have to take it off next time.

I cross over and work my way back along the western shoreline. Bluegill are up and I go after them with a little muddler.

I've been watching the north and south, but now there's a flash of lightning and clap of thunder very close behind the wooded hills to the west. A storm rushes down the hill and lets go with everything it's got. It's a direct hit on the lake. I take "shelter" under a tree. I have my rain jacket on of course, but tucked in my waders it's useless. I get soaked under the unrelenting rain. Live and learn.

When the coast is clear I start up the shoreline again. A bass makes my day.

I kick slowly back to the take out watching the light show in the sky as another storm slides by to the north.

When I get home that storm is right over my house, and it's pouring down rain. I get wet one more time.