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Submitted by Ned Kehde - June 21, 2000
The Bivin's Touch
Even the first ghost light of the morning was exceedingly bright.
In the midst of this unearthly radiance, the volume of the songbirds'
choruses sounded crisper and more intense than ever before.
By the time the sun lifted off the eastern horizon, the beauty
of its hot
apricot glow was beyond most mortals' descriptive abilities.
Then at 10
a.m. it turned brighter and shinier than a new dime. And from
horizon to
horizon, the sky cast a spellbinding ultramarine hue.
Even more startling were the dark and finely focused shadows
cast by the
combination of the brilliant sun and the cool, dry air. And never
had the
wildflowers bloomed so radiantly.
Just before the sun commenced its rise, thermometers hereabouts
nearly
reached an all-time low for that date, compelling most residents
to don
jackets or long-sleeved flannel shirts.
In the eyes of the folks gamboling about town, it became a
pluperfect day,
and every casual salutation noted its beauty.
To many local residents, it seemed as if they had been magically
transported to a vacation site in the mountains or the northwoods.
The only malcontents were the fishermen. In the odd jargon
of angling, such
times are often called bluebird days, which means perhaps that
it is easier
to catch a bluebird than a fish.
Nevertheless on this picture-perfect day for everyone but
fishermen, Terry
Bivins of Lebo traveled to Coffey County Lake for an afternoon
of fishing.
Upon arriving at the lake, Bivins overheard a several befuddled
anglers
complain that the cold front, which always precedes a bluebird
day, had turn
the fish sullen and unwilling to bite. And a pesky southeast
wind made they
day even more trying.
But when Bivins has a spinning rod in his hands, he seems
to find a way
to achieve some sort of perfect harmony with whatever circumstances
Mother
Nature wields.
On this outing, he wielded an medium-action six-foot spinning
rod with a
medium-sized reel that was spooled with 10-pound test Trilene
Big Game
monofilament. Affixed to the line was a 3/8-ounce round jighead
that
sported a three-inch Walleye Assassin in a black-shad tint.
Throughout the afternoon, he visited only four humps. At each
of these
locales, Bivins made long casts and retrieved the Walleye Assassin
by
slowly bouncing it on the bottom in water as shallow as eight
feet and as
deep as 22 feet.
As Bivins worked his magic on Coffey's denizens, catching
and releasing
scores of white bass and wipers at a deep covert, two boatloads
of anglers
couldn't believe their eyes. When they crowded closer to examine
his
methods, Bivins even enticed several fish from beneath their
boats.
As they watched, they attempted to emulate Bivin's tactics,
but they didn't possess a 3/8-ounce jighead and a Walleye Assassin.
What's more, they
couldn't duplicate his deftness at bouncing a jig across a hump.
Eventually
these spectators became frustrated and headed for home, blaming
the weather
for the sorry fishing.
By the time Bivins called it an afternoon, he had caught and
released 67
walleye, white bass and wipers. And as Bivins headed home, he
said that he
could start relishing bluebird days if they all were as bountiful
as this
one had been. Of course, that is little solace to thousands of
anglers who don't have his Midas touch.
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