I decided to take my chances on the weather today and headed to West Neck Marina about 5:30. It was about 6:20 before I launched. Since I hadn't been to Pocaty yet this year, I stopped there, dropped the trolling motor over, and started fishing.Given the heavy overcast sky and the steady surface activity I was seeing, I figured it was going to be a topwater day. I threw a number of topwater baits but didn't have the first strike until I tied on a hollow-body frog. In no time at all, I had had five strikes but zero hookups. One thing is certain: I've got a long ways to go before I'll be able to stand toe-to-toe with my friend Charlie Bruggemann when it comes to timing the hookset right with these frogs.
When the frog bite went away about 9 o'clock, I started running through a series of crankbaits and spinnerbaits, all to no avail. By 10:30, I had had about all the inactivity and frustration I could handle and decided to run back to West Neck and see if I could get something going there.
It took very little time before I boated a dink on a topwater, another dink on a Bandit 100, and two barely keeper bass on an 8-inch junebug red worm. I also missed several worm strikes because of my lack of recent experience with soft plastics in general.
The water temp when I launched was about 76, and I saw 81 as I was motoring back to the ramp about 3 o'clock this afternoon. Despite the north and northeast winds we've been having, the water level has remained just about as it was during our tourney last Saturday. I think the answer is the fact the winds generally all have been light.
With any luck, I'll get back out one more time before this coming Saturday's tourney. After all, I have to believe my partner, Paul Celentano, will be hoping to catch some decent-sized bass, and I haven't found any yet. It seems evident I have some serious scouting to do.
I'm not the only one who hit the water today. Shortly after I returned home today, I received an email from Charlie and learned that he had gone to Beggars Bridge today. The calm water and overcast sky had Charlie singing the same tune as me. "You would think it would be an all-day topwater bite," he penned. Instead, though, he didn't have any topwater bite, except for a couple of "short, half-hearted strikes" on a hollow-body frog.
When Charlie switched to a Gulp shad and a Johnson Silver Minnow, business picked up. He ended the day with six bass. A couple were in the one-to-two-pound range. His best was a 2-13.
"Most fish were out in the grass chasing minnows," said Charlie. "It turned out to be a sight-fishing day," he added.
Watch for Charlie's full blog report and video to be posted sometime tomorrow. Here's the link to his site: http://vbfishguide.blogspot.com/.
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