You're apt to find this guy nearly anywhere in the local area. If there's a body of water to fish, especially a new spot, he's all about checking it out to see what it has to offer. And he does it all from a kayak, then shares the details of each trip through text and video on his blog (http://vbfishguide.blogspot.com/). If you're not already familiar with it, I urge you to have a look.
That being said, I'll get to the heart of this story--the "fishing machine" that is Charlie. Back on June 15, 2012, when I first featured him in a blog post, he already had scored a better-than-15-lb. bag of bass that year, with nearly 300 total bass to his credit for only the halfway point in the year.
Fast forward now to yesterday when, despite steady rain, Charlie launched at West Neck Marina and stayed in the creek, where he boated seven bass, plus a pickerel and a striper. His best five bass tipped the scales at 1-5, 2-0, 2-3, 2-11, and 4-14, for a total weight of 13 lbs. 1 oz. That, however, is not his biggest bag this year. In recent weeks, he also has scored one that went 14+ lbs., followed by another that weighed in at better than 16 lbs. And his yearly total to date is 550+ bass and still counting.
He's no slouch by anyone's standards. I've had him in my boat on two occasions now--the first being our shootout contest last October, and then earlier this month when he joined me for just a fun day on West Neck. Both times, he simply fished circles around me, and as he demonstrated to me in our latest outing, he can do it from the front of the boat, as well as the back. He's just good at what he does--make that "everything" he does. His paint job on hard baits is nothing short of fantastic. He's also a skilled taxidermist, photographer and computer expert--to name only a few more of his many qualifications.
It wasn't until near the end of the day in our outing this month that I think I finally figured out why Charlie had been catching fish all day while I simply had been thrashing the water. The difference, as I learned, had been the depths at which our two crankbaits were running. The one Charlie had been fishing ran about 2 to 3 feet, whereas I had been using one that ran 3 to 5 feet. In the last hour of fishing, I tied on one that also dived only 2 to 3 feet and managed to put a couple fish in the boat before quitting time.
Whether the day's final outcome would have been any different if I had been using the shallower crankbait the whole time is anyone's guess. Even if it would have made a difference in the totals, that fact in no way would have negated the ease with which Charlie brought one fish after the other over the gunwale all day.
I for one firmly believe that if Charlie ever were to find a way to put a livewell in that kayak of his and then joined our Dewey Mullins Memorial Bass Tourney Series, he'd be a force to be reckoned with on a regular basis. I'm convinced he's just that darned good.
As I said earlier in this post, if you haven't checked out Charlie's blog before, you need to take a peek (see earlier link I provided). Find out for yourself just how easy he makes it look to catch a boatload of bass.
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