Getting Our Licks In Ahead of the 4th of July Weekend Crowd

I really can't say that's what Tom Acree (left) was thinking this morning as he launched his Triton just ahead of me at West Neck Marina. However, that's exactly what I was thinking as I watched my Skeeter slide off the trailer about 6:45.

Many moons ago, when I still was working fulltime, I'd often mix it up with the holiday-weekend crowds, but now that I'm fully retired, you'll very seldom find me on the water on a weekend, unless it happens to be another Dewey Mullins Memorial Bass Tourney. The truth of the matter simply is that I don't have the patience to deal with what usually goes on. And when you fish most weekdays, it's highly likely you won't see more than a dozen other folks on the water--if even that many. There very well may be something better than retirement, but if there is, I haven't found it yet...nor am I even looking.

That being said, I rarely get rattled by having a slow fishing trip like the one both Tom and I had today. Take my word for it: There's far more truth than fiction to that saying about the worst day fishing being better than the best day at work. And just to set the record straight: Tom isn't retired. He's just on his summer break from teaching school. If I understand him correctly, though, his retirement is not much more than a hop, skip and jump away. We'll likely be seeing a lot more of each other on the water once that happens, 'cause Tom is every bit as addicted to the sport of bass fishing as I am.

With high water in the offing again today, Tom and I once more found ourselves heading to Albright's. I went straight there this morning, and he was only a couple hours behind me, after first checking out a few of his favorite haunts in West Neck. We both initially went to the back of Albright's, which proved to be a mistake. Neither of us boated a single fish there.

After seeing the error of our ways, we came back and fished the front end of the creek, which really wasn't all that much better. However, we both quickly stumbled onto a stretch of about 100 yards where the fish were active. That stretch yielded four bass for Tom, including two keepers and two dinks. I ended the day with three bass--none of them keepers--plus a white perch and a yellow perch. To the best of my knowledge, Tom caught all his fish on a soft plastic, while I did all my damage, such as it was, with a 1/4-oz. tandem spinnerbait. I kept getting a lot of bream hits on my Senko, and the only decent bass hit I got was another one of those tail-biters. He hung on just long enough to trigger some major arthritis pain in my hand, then opened his mouth and let go.

I ran across Rob Peppers in Albright's today but didn't do any more than exchange greetings. He already was gone when Tom and I came in this afternoon, so didn't find out what kind of day he had.

With the breeze we had on the water today, I thought it was pretty decent until about 1 o'clock, and that was only an hour before Tom and I threw in the towel and headed back to West Neck.

Here's wishing all the weekend crowd the best of luck, regardless of what your pursuit is. Keep a sharp eye on what's happening around you, 'cause this is a weekend often fraught with mishaps. Don't let yourself become a statistic.