The initial plan was to get off work at 10pm on Wednesday, catch a few hours of Z’s then roll out of bed at 4am and leave by 5am to fish Lincoln Beach. That WAS the plan but it all went horribly wrong.
After getting off work 4 hours late (2am [crazy]) I decided 2 hours of sleep wasn’t worth crawling into bed for. I loaded up the car with my gear and hit the road. I rolled onto the the south jetty of Lincoln at about 3:30am.
**The water was a little rough from the previous day’s storms, and it was VERY VERY COLD (the beach and the water)!!! 
I loaded up with some carp meat on circle hooks the tossed my bait. When I was at Sprotsmans the other day I found some little bells that attach to the end of poles. I bought a few and decided to attach them. I threw on a coat, wrapped up in a blanket, and tried to keep warm and check my eyelids for holes. **
Because the water was so cold, I didn’t have high hopes. I was also a little worried since I didn’t bring my auger and if it got much colder I was likely to need it. After about 15-20 minutes I was startled to hear a distinct jingling sound. I stood up, saw line was being stripped and began to reel. In came the first customer of a day a 20" channel cat. I was really torn on whether or not to keep it. It was rather large in the belly area, and I was concerned about keeping a “pregnant” channel cat. My growling tummy won out and into the basket it went.
Two more quick hits by mudcats and the action died down a little. I was excited to see the circle hooks prevented the mudders from “gutting” my hooks and they were promptly released.
**A little later I noticed line being stripped off one of my reels painfully slow. I also realized I had cast the pole to the south and my line was clearly north of me. I started to reel and in came the second channel cat. This one was distinctly blue, and looked like it was trying to disguise itself as a flathead. I have never seen a channel cat with a head that big. With such a strange looking cat I had no choice but to release it into my fish basket. 
The second channel cat looked as if it had relieved another fisherman of some tackle. He was hooked through the lip with a snapped off line. **
**By now the fishing had really slowed down. I managed to score a walleye, but the wee 10 incher was released unharmed back into the lake. I don’t have high hope for the walleye since he had been caught and released before (I could see someone had cut their hook that was in him) I figure a walleye that dumb is bound to be caught again and again until he is big enough to eat. **
It was getting close on 9:30am and I needed to leave. I was seeing large schools of carp off shore and decided I better gather some bait before I left. Now some of ya’ll have fancy bows, homemade slingshots, laser guided missles, spears and other means of “catching” carp. Me being a purist I dug deep into my tackle box and produced the hottest carp lure I have ever owned.
**I tied the 1/8 oz. hand painted black jighead onto my line, and attached a black curly tail Berkley Power Grub and cast beyond a school of carp. I began to reel and… nothing. I tried again…began to reel… and using my best well honed carp foul hooking technique I snagged a biggun’ right on the dorsal fin. I pulled in the moster and in the basket she went. Knowing my good freind Rvanman2000 would never forgive me if I didn’t score a carp for him I cast out and foul hooked me another. Knowing I have limited room in the freezer I stopped at two carp. **
**With two channels and two carp I decided to call it a morning. It was finally starting to get warm and the lake was finally glass. I kinda started to wish I brought my tube, then I remembered… “Oh ya its still kinda cold!!”. I don’t much care for cold unless I am ice fishing. All in all it was a great night/morning. **
**Oh and for those wondering… the pot bellied cat was not pregnant… it was just a fat VERY VERY well fed hog!!! **
