A Short Day, Another Mixed Bag



2 channel cats (left), 4 bass (right)...

1 pickerel (left), and 5 white perch (right)...

Such was the extent of my catch for the five hours I spent in West Neck Creek today. I had planned to run to Albright's when I launched this morning but didn't like the looks of the sky and decided to stay close. Turns out that was a good decision. The black clouds, thunder, lightning, and rain moved in early this afternoon.

It didn't take me very long this morning to figure out it probably wasn't going to be the kind of day you write home about. I immediately had three fish come unbuttoned from my topwater bait on the way to the boat. I also had three fish swirl and miss on the same bait. That activity all occurred at the duck blind and in the last cove on the left before you reach the river. Once the sun started darting out from behind some of the clouds and warming things up, the topwater bite came to a screeching halt.

I ended up boating 2 bass on the topwater bait. The other 2 of them, plus all the other fish, came on a 3/8-oz. Bomber crankbait. Once again, the ticket to success with the crankbait was a slow crank-and-pause pattern--no other retrieve would work for me.

I talked to Jimmy Bauer before leaving the marina today and learned that he had boated 2 bass on soft plastics. He also picked up 5 or 6 crappie at the bridge on a flyrod.

In case you haven't already guessed, the water still is high--lapping at the end of that catwalk on the left as you face the ramp. The water temp was 80.5 when I launched, and it had gone past 82 by the time I quit. If the predicted northerly winds I saw earlier this evening come true, the level should drop some before our Saturday tourney.