With a High in the 80s, How Could I Stay Home?

Simply stated--I didn't. I got up, got around, and was on the water by 6:30 this morning. While I was getting the boat ready, I kept hearing music but couldn't figure out where it was coming from. My curiosity finally got the best of me, and I went looking for the source. Turned out someone had gone off and left the radio playing in their boat parked along the fence line in the back. The same radio still was playing when I put my rig away this afternoon, so I notified the girl in the store, and she was calling the owner as I left for home.

As for the fishing today, I've had better, but I've also had worse. Once again, there was no topwater bite this morning. A spinnerbait also didn't work, and my first choice of crankbaits was a bust, too. Shortly after I tied on a Bomber Square A, though, I caught two small bass, the biggest being a 1-2.

Once it appeared the Bomber had lost its usefulness, I picked up a SwimSenko and, despite losing several fish with it this afternoon, managed to boat three more bass by day's end at 2:30. I intermittently had problems with more of those tailbiters. On one such occasion, I lost the Senko tail on four consecutive casts and decided to toss my spinnerbait to the same spot and see what would happen. On the first cast with the spinnerbait, the fish nailed it, and I got a decent hookset. However, he made one big leap about halfway to the boat and, just that fast, what would have been my best fish of the day was gone.

Overall, it was a satisfactory day, other than for the fact I lost two spinnerbaits and a favorite crankbait. I frankly don't remember the last time I lost that many baits in one day. Looks like I'll be placing an online order tonight once this blog post is done.

As I expected with today's nicer weather, I had company on the water. My friend, Jim Bauer, was one of those I shared West Neck Creek with.

His final tally, as reported to me while we were cleaning up our boats, was nine bass, including a 1-14 and 1-7. If my memory serves me correct, he said he had one other bass that tipped the scales at better than a pound, with the other six all running 14 or 15 ozs. He caught all of his fish on a worm.

While I was dealing with the loss of lures, Jim had a problem of his own--a busted trolling-motor prop. Seems he learned--a bit too late--that a certain log is a tad bigger than he originally had thought. He ended up finding a spot to anchor and replacing a two-month-old prop with his old beat-up one that has seen several years of service. I'm certain he likewise will be placing an order for a new prop, so he can put the old one back for a spare.

And from my friend, Jerry, came this photo taken of the 2-0 bass that he caught today--also in West Neck. His fishin' buddy, Eddie, was with Jerry today and caught the first fish of the day--a 13-and-a-half-incher that fell for a white worm just a half-hour after launching. This marked the first visit to West Neck for both anglers thus far this season.

Before calling it a day at 10:30 a.m., Jerry and Eddie boated four more bass. The highlight of their morning, though, was this 7-lb. bowfin that Jerry caught in just a few inches of water. Two of their six bass were keepers. Jerry also explained that all of his fish were taken on a fluke.




I can't speak for any of the other fellas here, but unless the weather forecast for the rest of this week changes, today will have been my one and only trip. I will try to get at least one day again next week, too, in preparation for our next tourney on the 27th.