Rain, Rain, Go Away... Come Again Another Day

These are lyrics to an old nursery rhyme. However, they have special significance for my good friend, Jim Bauer, as he begins another week of fishing on Lake Gaston.

In an email I had from him last night, he wrote, "Not sure 'bout tomorrow. The forecast can be summed up in one word: rain. Got to check it again later."

The same front that forecasters say promises to dump up to 2 and 3 inches on our area in the next couple of days may find my friend watching a lot of TV and/or doing a lot of texting/emailing the next day or so, as he waits for skies to clear. It's a heckuva way to spend vacation time, but Jim is an old pro at it after all his trips there and, in earlier years, to Lake Anna.

Even though it looked and felt like rain all day yesterday, Jim hit the water just after 4 o'clock and boated a couple of keepers. The 1.11 in this photo was his best, but he also caught one that weighed a pound even, plus a couple of dinks. The 1.0 fish came from the cove where he's staying, the 1.11 from a boat dock.

Jim described the bite as "weird." He said they just picked the bait up and were swimming to the boat. "I missed a couple before I woke up," he said. Rounding out last evening's activity was what he thinks was a catfish that snapped his line. "All I saw was grey and white when it went airborne," he explained. Everything that Jim brought in the boat came off a coon-tail worm.

He ended yesterday's email by noting that it "felt good to get back in the saddle again after a couple weeks off." Here's hoping your week isn't ruined by the weather, my friend. Catch a big 'un for me.