The Latest from My Email and Phone Calls...

I had a phone conversation with Bobby Moore (right) this morning, telling me that when he awoke aboard his houseboat on Sunday after our tourney, there were a dozen or so bass floating belly up in the creek. In talking to Dewey about it, they both pretty well came to the same conclusion: that the fish likely were ones we had released Saturday after weigh-in.

Because none of us are biologists, I don't guess we'll ever know for sure what happened. Both Bobby and Dewey wonder, though, if maybe the problem could have been caused by a difference in water temperature between where the fish were caught and where we released them.

Bobby indicated there already was an unpleasant odor in the air around the marina, so anyone venturing down that way in the next day or two likely will find out for themselves.

This evening when I checked my email, I had a couple notes. One was from Charlie Bruggemann (left), who had a report of his fishing results in Straight Creek today. He boated eight bass, but not the one pictured here. His biggest today was about one-and-a-half pounds, with two that weighed about a pound apiece. The others were dinks.

He also caught a couple of grindle, a few white perch, and, much to his chagrin, another pickerel, which just like the one last week, injured a finger--not the same one, though. This new injury isn't as bad as the last one, but as Charlie explained, his finger "sure bled like a stuck pig."

This morning's topwater bite for Charlie was great from 6:30 to 8:30, but then it was like someone had thrown the switch. He had to change to Senkos, beetlespins and crankbaits to catch fish.

It was getting warm by 12:30 today, so Charlie decided to call it a day. Despite his injury, it was a satisfying day because he feels like he finally has it down pat how to fish a hollow-bodied frog. He said he scores hookups on most strikes now. The drawbacks to fishing frogs, as Charlie sees it, is the fact the fish tear them up pretty bad, and they're more expensive to replace than, say, a Zara Puppy, so he's probably going to be fishing more Zara Puppies than frogs.

Check out all the details and video of Charlie's day on his blog at http://vbfishguide.blogspot.com/. He should have the new entry posted sometime in the afternoon of Tuesday, July 31.

My other email this evening was from Skip Schaible (right), seen here during Saturday's weigh-in. Although he hadn't made any fishing plans before climbing out of bed this morning, he took a notion to hook up the boat and head to Dewey's to see if he could find a few fish. It was 10 o'clock by the time he got to West Neck, so he stayed in the creek and initially made his way up above the bridge.

Given his success Saturday with topwaters, he started today with them, too. He threw several different ones but to no avail. He also tried a Slider and a Senko, all with negative results. It was then that he decided to come back under the bridge, motor about halfway toward the North Landing, and start fishing. He tied on a chartreuse and green crankbait and went to casting. By this time, the wind had picked up and was moving the water pretty good. Working the crankbait about the backside of trees, stumps, etc., Skip put five bass in the boat, three of which were keepers. The biggest weighed about 3 lbs. He also caught a couple white perch.

The worst part of Skip's whole day was cleaning up his boat. "The water was nasty, and I had to use a scrub brush to get the scum off," he said.

Epilog: As John Goodman has pointed out, besides the effects that high air and water temps have on fish kills, another factor is oxygen content of the water both where a fish is caught and where it's released. He pointed out that the area of the weigh-in station very well may have a higher temperature, as well as a lower oxygen content.