Miles Apart, But Results Very Similar

The evening email from Jim Bauer about his day on Lake Gaston revealed that he had another four-fish day, led by the 2-6 bass in this photo. He also caught a 1-2, 1-0 and a dink.

Said Jim, "I caught the first real early on a Rage shad, then missed a good one right after that on the same bait. The darn fish was well off a dock and surprised me."

Jim fished a worm, craw and buzzjet jr. before he decided to pick up his "old reliable"--a French fry, which accounted for three of his four fish, including the 2-6. It came off a dock in deep water. As he explained, "I just was dragging the bait along as I headed for a cove, and the fish nearly yanked the rod out of my hand. Got lucky!"

The wind on Lake Gaston this morning was blowing from the north but shifted to the south before the day was over. The water temp this morning was 78, compared to 83 this afternoon.

In assessing today's outing, Jim wishes he could have known that all he needed to do was fish an hour this morning and then another hour or so this afternoon and get the same results as he got from fishing an eight-hour day. "It was a long dry spell between the first and last fish," he noted.

Like Jim, I spent eight hours on the water today and also had a four-bass day. The similarities don't end there, either. My best fish was the 2-13 pictured here. I also had a 1-4 and two dinks and lost another fish equal to or better than the 2-13 early this morning while--yep, you probably guessed it--reaching for the net. One of these days, I'm going to throw that net as far as I can send it--I came close to doing that today.

Besides the bass, I also boated a 15-inch striper and about a 21-inch pickerel. They, like all the bass, came on only one bait--a topwater. You'll have to excuse me, but with another tourney this coming Saturday, I'm not prepared to divulge what topwater bait I was using. However, I will tell you that the other bait I threw today was a chatterbait, and I had four or five hits with it but wasn't able to get the hook in any of the fish.

I didn't check the water temperature this morning, but I noticed it was showing 80.7 degrees as I motored toward the ramp this afternoon.