Hook, Line & Sinker...

All this warm weather has 'em coming out of hiding--the fish and fishermen, alike, that is--as evidenced by what I experienced yesterday firsthand and by the email reports I received today.

The first report in my mailbox was from Al Lemieux, who stayed in West Neck Creek all day, catching fish on a firetiger 1-Minus crankbait. In his own words, Al had "a one in a million day" on the water, boating more than 40 bass. The five biggest (seen in the photo here) tipped the scales at 4-2, 3-8, 3-1, 1-14, 1-14, for a total weight of 13 lbs. 13 ozs. That's the kind of catch that will put a smile on any tourney angler's face--and probably a few bucks in his wallet, as well.

Al also caught this nice 1-12 white perch. All of his fish came from the stretch of water between markers No. 12 and No. 6.

While on the water today, Al saw a fella in a johnboat catch another big bass. He said it looked to be a 4- or 5-pounder, but the fisherman later told Jim Bauer, who also was out today, that he thought the fish would go close to 8 lbs. Without a pair of scales, there's no way of knowing if the fella in the johnboat was just giving his best imitation of Roland Martin, or if the fish really was as big as he claimed.

Unfortunately, Al's day ended on a sour note. He had a wheel bearing on his trailer go out on the way home. The hub is badly damaged, and he said the "spindle is ruined." In short, "It's a mess," and Al feels he's probably looking at putting a new axle on the trailer.

Jim Bauer got a late start on his day, choosing to wait for the showers to pass this morning before heading to the marina. He ended the day with two bass (a 1-0 and a 1-1), one white perch, and one pickerel. Both bass came on a firetiger Bomber Square A. The water temp at launch time was 55 and only had bumped up to 56 when he came off the water at 4 o'clock.

Jim met a guy in a Tracker coming in from above the bridge as he was going out. This guy said he had caught some nice ones on a spinnerbait and was headed to the ramp to pick up a friend, so they both could get in on the action.

Another fella in a Ranger told Jim he only had caught one bass today.

A high point of Jim's day was finding out that the new Revo baitcasters he just got performed even better than he had hoped. He was getting a lot of distance without really trying.

And last but certainly not least comes this report that I picked off the Bob's Fishing Hole website today. They hosted a tournament there yesterday, which saw 15 anglers in 10 boats compete. They paid three places. Finishing in first place was the team of Eddie Sapp and Paul Celentano with five fish weighing 12.38 lbs. Eddie also took big-fish honors with a bass weighing 4.32 lbs. Second place went to Chris Napier with four fish weighing 9.01 lbs. And third-place money was claimed by Chris Fretard and Mike Miller with five fish weighing 8.06 lbs. For those who haven't already made the connection, every one of these fellas were part of the Dewey Mullins Tribute Bass Tourney Series this year.

I offer a hearty "well done" to everyone mentioned in this report.