If It Hadn't Been for This Lure...

I would have recorded my 5th skunk of the current season. But as luck would have it, I wheeled around and sent a cast off into the middle of the S-curve in West Neck today, and about a 1.5-lb. bass jumped on this Bomber Square A while working it back to the boat. Actually, the fish didn't "jump" on the lure. It was more like he just reached out to touch it as it passed in front of him, and my reflexes were fast enough to get the hooks in him.

As I'm sure my partner, Rob, would tell you, this was about the only time today my reflexes were very quick. I missed two other strikes because of my sluggishness in reacting. And, on one of those occasions, the fish hit the bait twice during the same retrieve, and I couldn't pull the trigger to save me. It was like I was frozen or something. As Rob reminded me when he saw what happened, "The idea is to jerk--not just keep winding."

Meanwhile, Rob managed to boat two bass and a white perch today, but we'll both readily tell you it was a tough day--and we're not alone in that assessment. I just had an email note from our friend, Charlie, who went to Stumpy Lake today, and he said he didn't boat the first fish. Now when Charlie has a day like that, I don't feel bad at all with my one.

In closing this post, I'd just like to apologize to everyone for not getting an updated photo of the water-level gauge today for my blog. I tried, but the camera had gotten turned on accidentally in my coat pocket today, and the battery was dead when I tried to get a shot of the gauge this afternoon. I barely was able to get the photo above. If my memory serves me correct, the level was down to about 3 feet when we came off the water about 1 o'clock, and if tomorrow's predicted strong north winds become reality, there probably won't be much water at the ramp by day's end.