The words from the Bait Lady were ominous.
"Too bright at night" she muttered while handing me a net half full of live blueback herring.
"Huh?"I asked.
"It's been too bright at night lately. The fish are feeding all night, and it makes them tough to catch during the day" she answered.

Great. Bad juju before I even hit the water. I headed to the ramp anyway.As I pulled into the parking lot, my feelings sank even lower. Parked at the top of the ramp was the Rabbit Sheriff's truck, and empty boat trailer. Look, I obey the law and everything. I just don't like knowing that The Man is sitting out there somewhere, watching people through high powered binoculars. Kinda creeps me out.

I quickly readied my boat, and started backing down the ramp. At the bottom I see a boat pulled up on the bank, and the bilge pump is working overtime. I figure he's pumping out his bait tank, and getting ready to pull her out. As I unhook my rig, I look over and realize it's the cop's boat thats taking the big whiz, and it ain't from a bait tank. It becomes clear that he has lauched his boat without putting in the plug. I realize that nobody's hurt, so I begin to laugh. I'm talking about hands on my knees, bending over laughing. More whooping than laughing at some points. The poor cop stands there and takes it like a man. When I slow down long enough to wipe the tears from my eyes he tries to explain.

"Hit an underwater obstruction, and it must have pulled my plug out" he says very seriously.
"No kidding? I didn't realize this lake had underwater obstructions. Now stumps we got plenty of. You can walk from here to Little River on stump tops. You should use a screw-in type plug. Maybe that will help next time" I say to my new friend.

"Oh, thats what I use" he says as he absently pulls the plug from his jacket pocket.

Caught a limit of smallish stripers out in 20 feet of water around the stumps. I guess they didn't stay up all night feeding.