Took a Ride Down Nanney's Creek Today

At the boat's helm was my friend, Chris Vitovich (left), who had invited me along today for a few hours of fishing an area I haven't been in for a mighty long time.

We got an early start, hoping for a little topwater action, but that was not to be--not where we were looking, at least. After a couple of stops, Chris said he knew where we probably could make something happen, and it was then that we entered Nanney's Creek.

Once we got to what Chris described as his "favorite area" of the whole creek, things indeed started happening. In no time, he was swinging fish over the side of the boat, and I eventually managed a couple of my own. The tally for the day was somewhere around 12 or 13 bass for Chris, including 6 or 7 keepers. He also caught a couple of catfish and one grindle--the latter of which he released from the side. "Those things don't come in my boat," he said, which is the same way I feel about those toothy critters.

I managed to put two fish in the boat, both of which were keepers. We didn't weigh any of our fish, but all the tournament-sized bass for both of us would have gone between 1.5 and 2 lbs. They nearly were the spittin' image of one another. The bait Chris used was a black finesse worm. My choice was a magnum-sized curly-tail worm in junebug red.

It didn't take long for both of us to realize we would have to keep one eye open for snakes today. They seemed to be everywhere we looked, and none of 'em were what I would describe as "little fellers."

All in all, it was a most enjoyable day, and we agreed on parting to have some more outings together down the road. I'll likely show Chris one of my favorite spots on the next trip.

I failed to mention one point while writing this post last evening. As I was putting together a scaled-down tackle bag for the Back Bay trip, I came across some stuff I long had forgotten I even had. So while I was throwing things in the tackle bag, I also was creating another stack of things to sort through later. Bottom line: I now have an expanded bag of soft plastics. The one I had been using just wouldn't hold all the stuff in my pile, no matter how much I crammed. There are three old tackle boxes and bags I still haven't opened for a long spell--and likely won't, given what already has happened.