The Return to Oakum Creek

Last Friday, 15 November, was a rare gift. You see my work schedule has been rather “off” as of late. I was in a school for my new position and missed our semi-annual PFA weigh-in. Then, while the command was conducting said PFA, I was on a week-long watch to “help prevent sexual assault on base”. Luckily we did not find anyone doing “grown-up things” in the bushes so we are all safe. The key point here is that when everyone finished their PFA on 08 November they had the rest of the day off, thus resulting basically in a 96-hour special liberty that the watch team I was working with did not receive. The Lieutenant I was working with made it his priority to ensure we all received that time off as compensation. I found out late in the day on Thursday, 14 November, that I had the next day off. Sweet!

So with time off coming that I was not expecting I made plans for a short fishing trip “somewhere”. What better place to go than Oakum Creek? Especially since fellow blogger Charlie has recently been doing really well there. The reports have had the water a little lower due to a persistent north wind. This has concentrated the fish into the deeper holes making them (in theory) easier to find and possibly catch. When I got there after lunch, after sleeping in way longer than I wanted to, I found the water up a little bit. This caused a little concern, but not much since I could still see marks on the cypress knuckles showing that the water was still way down overall. Off I went after an easier-than-normal launch. I started focusing my attention to the bends trying to hit the outside of the bend where it is the deepest. The weather has been rather crazy lately with temperatures dipping below freezing for a couple of days only to have it back to almost shorts weather the next day. That meant that the fish were going to be all sorts of confused.

So focusing my attention on the bends wasn’t working all that well. Part of the issue was that the cypress trees have started dropping ALL of their leaves. This causes a thick layer of “junk” on the surface of the water. Nothing was getting through that junk without being fowled up so that it wouldn’t run right under the water. I kept heading up the creek looking for clean water. I finally found it after the dock by the field in the corner. I continued throwing to the outside of the bends to no avail. I was throwing everything I had tied on. Shallow running crank bait, Zoom craw Texas rigged, Rapala floating jerk bait, a spinner bait with two willow leaf blades, and a new contraption I thought to try – popping cork with a Texas rigged weightless worm. Nothing was working. What’s going on here? Was I headed for the dreaded skunk?!

Determined to catch at least one fish I pressed on. I made it all the way to the head of the creek. I had never been this far up the creek. Therefore, I did not know that there were as many as three duck blinds in a rather picturesque spot with LOTS of cypress knuckles and stumps everywhere! Once I made it all the way up to where the grasses were, and the water was REALLY shallow, I decided to start heading back. Now, somewhere along the way I decided to ditch the larger spinner bait for a smaller one. An 1/8^th ounce spinner bait with a white skirt. I’ve thrown these on a spinning rod before with great success, but only recently have I dared to throw them on a bait casting rod. Luckily I have one with quite a bit of whip in the tip that helps cast such a light lure with no problems. At any rate once I changed to that lure things started going in a positive direction. I was casting it up next to the cypress knuckles just like you would a worm or craw, letting it sink a bit, and then retrieving it with a SLOW roll retrieve. Bump. BUMP! Things were starting to look up. So on my way back I kept this idea up. It finally paid off on a random spot that did not look particularly interesting to be honest. I tossed it up there, let it sink, and started the retrieve and bump BUMP! I missed that one! I immediately tossed it back and repeated the process. This time at the first bump I set the hook and off that fish went! I AVOIDED THE SKUNK!!! A short time later I boated a small, but healthy looking, largemouth bass! I thanked him for his time and released him back to continue his day. Now some time between catching that little guy and what happened next I lost the Colorado blade off of that lure. So I changed to another 1/8^th ounce spinner bait with a blue/black skirt and a willow leaf blade. About 5 or so minutes later I tossed it to the other side of the creek in the similar fashion. Nothing….until right as I was pulling the lure out of the water….BAM! A Chain Pickerel NAILED it! After a short fight - those things can run like crazy - I got it to the boat, got the lure out of it’s face, and released it back to do whatever it is a Chain Pickerel does.

I attempted to repeat this pattern several more times as I headed back down the creek to no avail. The junk from the cypress trees had gotten worse since I passed to nothing seemed to work as it was intended. So I called it a day and headed in. All in all it was a good, but short, day on the creek. Hopefully the surface will clear up sooner rather than later and I can revisit this creek. I must figure this place out!