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doc said no fishing for six weeks after surgery.... 1 week later. One arm bandit ish

Some fish I’ve gotten recently on the wake carp

Ended up with 5 fish last night with the biggest going 5-0 on the new to me pats phat sunny and Revelation custom rods 805

Night bite was on fire last night. Caught a few on Topwater and Wakes, Including a good one on the 86 Baits Billed Street Carp, but most came sub surface

A 4-3 and 3-4 was all I could manage tonight, lost one that could’ve been the 6er I have been looking for

Got a 4-15 largie and 4-1 smallie on back to back casts with the ufo juvi gill wake

A crazy night of fishing, got a 5-7, 5-4, 5-1, 4-6, and four 3s! All on the lowbrow rat

Fat bottom girls definetly like a midnight snack

Myself and northeast_trev went out tonight and got a few good ones! Slammer is putting in some work for me. Rat game was on like usual.

I was out night fishing a couple of nights ago and decided to row my pontoon around my friend, who was working a stretch of bank from his float tube. Being of the mindset that if you're moving at a trolling speed, you might as well be trolling, I threw the 9" Slammer out about 50 yards and pulled it along in about 8 feet of water. Once I was a decent distance past my friend (we consider two swimbait rod cast-lengths away a decent distance), I stopped rowing and started reeling in the Slammer. I had only gotten a couple of cranks in when it got hit by a fair sized fish. Nothing huge, but it fought well and then surprised me when I got it into the beam of the headlamp - it wasn't a bass but a channel catfish! Here's the frisky little catfish right before it was released, unharmed. As I worked to unhook the rather frisky fish, it gave a mighty twist and slipped out of my grasp, bounced off the left pontoon, and back into the water. I brought it up again, grabbed it, and took a quick picture before letting it go. A few minutes later, I went to grab the possum rod that rests along the left pontoon and noticed that it was harder than usual getting it out of the rod holder. After working the possum for 5 minutes (no strikes), I went to put the rod back, and it was even harder to get it into position. Then I noticed that the pontoon was deformed. To be specific, it looked deflated. Now I know that there's normally some deflation due to cooler nighttime temperatures, especially when you fill your pontoon up during the day, but this was extreme - compared to the other 'toon, the left was looking sickly. I started to get concerned. I threw a few more casts with the Slammer and checked the 'toon again - yes, it was even more deflated. I was about 1/3 of a mile from the ramp and decided that it was time for action, rapid action. I stowed the other rod, grabbed the oars, and started rowing for the ramp where the trucks were. As I passed my friend (he later claimed I was throwing a wake in a no-wake zone), I told him that something was up with my 'toon and I needed to pump it back up. The left 'toon got even more flaccid. I rowed faster…judging my remaining distance and the now-ominous leftward list. As a precaution I angled in towards the shoreline - the straightest distance between two points might be a line, but the safest distance between two points might not be! I could tell you about how the left 'toon got lower and lower, and how I started getting more drag from the slowly submerging left frame, but I won't. I could tell you about how I leaned more to the right, hoping to counterbalance the 'toon, but I won't. I will tell you that with steady rowing, I did make it back to shore, even if a disinterested observer might have likened the rowing to the frantic struggles of a water strider trying to avoid getting swept into the rapids. On shore, I grabbed the pump, reinflated the left pontoon, and grabbed a quick bite and drink (it was midnight, after all, time for a snack). Then I got ready to launch, and saw that the left pontoon was, again, halfway deflated. Dang it all to heck! I was done for the night. I loaded my 'toon, drove around the lake to where my friends were still on the water, hollered at them that I was done, and went back to the ramp to wait. I wanted to fish from shore but the lake in question has bluff banks with a good 10 - 20' drop. Not what I wanted to negotiate in the dark. That night, over a cold beer, we tried to figure out what was wrong - nothing we saw seemed to be the culprit. No loose valve, no obvious puncture, nothing. Of course, it was 1 AM and we'd been fishing since 3 PM, so perhaps we weren't seeing well. The next morning (morning defined as 4 AM ) I pumped up the 'toon again (we were going to hit the water one more time) and then heard a slight hiss. I grabbed my headlamp and looked for it. On the left pontoon was a globule of slime that we'd somehow missed. I brushed the slime away, and under the slime was a ragged stab in the tough outer shell of the 'toon. Ah ha! I unzipped the outer shell and sure enough, there was a matching puncture in the inner shell. And both marks were right where the catfish had bounced off the pontoon! Buggers! I'd almost been sunk by a fish! Here's a picture of the damaged pontoon. Well, I now had a problem I thought I could solve. I got the patch kit out, and discovered I had no adhesive. One of my friends had adhesive, but it was the slow-cure variety, not ready for use for 24 hours, and I needed a fix right now. Out came the duct tape, and I had a working patch. Not great - I ended up carrying the pump on the pontoon while I fished that morning, and added air every 15 minutes or so, but at least I was fishing, instead of prowling the bluff banks throwing rocks at my friends! Take home message: Don't let a channel catfish bounce of your pontoon, or float tube, or legs! The fish couldn't have fallen more than a few inches but it hit and/or twisted with enough force to drive one of its spines through the heavy fabric outer shell and the inner shell of the pontoon!