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After I had a tough day on the water yesterday - 6 hours paddling, zero fish - I had high hopes for better results today. All the variables looked favorable and the enthusiasm was high.
Scott and I launched about 7:45 to a falling tide and 40 degree water. The winds were light or non existent and the water was like glass.
As we made the first run, it didn't take long to get into fish. Trying to apply some of the book learning and solid mentoring I have been lucky enough to receive, I followed a contour line that produced my last fish. The falling tide was sweeping across it and the fish were there in wait of some fast food sushi.
I used a 1/2 oz (Scalloped Head?) bucktail that had produced fish on my last trip to these waters. It did not disappoint. I was quickly in double digits with all the fish in the 17'-19' class. Ten fish became twenty and then thirty... All in the same upper teen range. I felt like I was on a Florida beach at Spring Break amidst a sea of carefree and willing teenagers.....
Every time I ventured away from the contour line on my FF, I stopped catching. Every time I returned, I resumed catching. It became an extremely predictable pattern.
As the falling tide slowed, so did the catch rate. By this point, I had boated over 40 fish. We discussed calling it a day, but I decided that I needed to try for 50. Scott thought better about leaving and stuck it out to fish the flooding tide.
While the action definitely slowed, we were both still catching absurd amounts of fish. We kept saying "We'll give it ten minutes. If we don't catch any more, we'll call it a day."
That 10 minutes lasted another 4 hours. After all was said and done, I had boated over 75 fish and Scott somewhere over 50. We paddled 16 miles and spent 9 hours in the boats. Neither of us wanted to leave, but ended up calling it a day around 4:30.
To add to the beauty of the experience, the spring peepers were serenading us with a cacophany of their lust filled version " Hey baby, how you doin?". They were loud and constant when we got closer to shore and are one of my favorite spring time indicators.
While the 80% of my fish were in the high teens (smallest fish of the day was 16"), I did manage a handful of low twenties, with my nicest fish being 24", 25" and 26". All of them were caught in 8' of water or less on a variety of baits, including Bucktails w/ 4" paddle tails, X-Raps, Crystal Minnows and Storm Shads.
I will post some pictures when / if I have the energy to get them off the camera.
Time to take a nap....
Scott and I launched about 7:45 to a falling tide and 40 degree water. The winds were light or non existent and the water was like glass.
As we made the first run, it didn't take long to get into fish. Trying to apply some of the book learning and solid mentoring I have been lucky enough to receive, I followed a contour line that produced my last fish. The falling tide was sweeping across it and the fish were there in wait of some fast food sushi.
I used a 1/2 oz (Scalloped Head?) bucktail that had produced fish on my last trip to these waters. It did not disappoint. I was quickly in double digits with all the fish in the 17'-19' class. Ten fish became twenty and then thirty... All in the same upper teen range. I felt like I was on a Florida beach at Spring Break amidst a sea of carefree and willing teenagers.....
Every time I ventured away from the contour line on my FF, I stopped catching. Every time I returned, I resumed catching. It became an extremely predictable pattern.
As the falling tide slowed, so did the catch rate. By this point, I had boated over 40 fish. We discussed calling it a day, but I decided that I needed to try for 50. Scott thought better about leaving and stuck it out to fish the flooding tide.
While the action definitely slowed, we were both still catching absurd amounts of fish. We kept saying "We'll give it ten minutes. If we don't catch any more, we'll call it a day."
That 10 minutes lasted another 4 hours. After all was said and done, I had boated over 75 fish and Scott somewhere over 50. We paddled 16 miles and spent 9 hours in the boats. Neither of us wanted to leave, but ended up calling it a day around 4:30.
To add to the beauty of the experience, the spring peepers were serenading us with a cacophany of their lust filled version " Hey baby, how you doin?". They were loud and constant when we got closer to shore and are one of my favorite spring time indicators.
While the 80% of my fish were in the high teens (smallest fish of the day was 16"), I did manage a handful of low twenties, with my nicest fish being 24", 25" and 26". All of them were caught in 8' of water or less on a variety of baits, including Bucktails w/ 4" paddle tails, X-Raps, Crystal Minnows and Storm Shads.
I will post some pictures when / if I have the energy to get them off the camera.
Time to take a nap....
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