Let's just say it was the kind of day that keeps a man humble. Given the weather forecast this morning, I left the house early, so I could get in some extra licks today. Instead of the usual 4.5 hours or so I've been getting, I would get 6 hours. As it turned out, though, I should have stayed in bed that extra 1.5 hours.
Upon launching, I immediately hit the two areas that have been good to me for a couple trips now, but nothing I did rang their dinner bell. I fished a chatterbait and a suspending jerkbait without getting a single fish. After seeing several swirls in the water this morning, I tied on a Bang-o-Lure and didn't make but a few casts before I had one make a pass at it. He missed, though, so I kept chunking it and eventually hooked up with a bass--a dink--my only one for the whole day.
By 12:30, I had fished my way to the mouth of West Neck with no further action, so fired up the gas motor and ran back through the bridge. I started at a couple spots where I picked up fish yesterday but had no luck today. It wasn't until I had gone a ways and was fishing a point that I felt something bump my Bandit crankbait and set the hook. The prize, though, was only a very small channel catfish.
Those two fish were the only ones I put in the boat. I had four hits on the chatterbait this morning but didn't get a single hookup. I only can guess they must have been hitting the trailer, because I set the hook every time without ever feeling the first fish.
As I expected, several folks showed up this morning. Several of them stayed in the creek, so I got a look at what they were doing. The only anglers I saw catching any fish were a couple guys in a Tracker, who were above the bridge. It looked like they might have been throwing spinnerbaits, but I couldn't tell for sure. I did see the guy on the trolling motor boat a couple.
Then, after I had cleaned up my gear this afternoon, I found a couple kayakers who just had come in from a day of fishing live bait. One of them had caught and released a nice bass--his personal best ever. He also had caught some crappie, several catfish, and a huge bowfin.
I learned via an email, too, that my friend, Skip Schaible, stopped by the marina this afternoon and talked to a kayaker who had caught a couple bass well over 22 inches long. He caught both of them in the same place within minutes of each other.
The water temp when I launched this morning was about 51, and it pretty much stayed on that all day long. When I returned to the ramp this afternoon, the water level was about 4 feet above the joint in the ramp, but it was going out ever so slightly.
For anyone planning to hit the water tomorrow, I'll be keeping my fingers crossed that the weather folks do a better job of giving you a nice day than they did me today. I wished all day long I had seen fit to throw my thermal coveralls in the boat this morning.
I'm not sure when I'll get out again. Plan just to keep my eye on the weather.
No comments:
Post a Comment