It Was an "Exhilarating" Boat Ride South Yesterday

That's just another way of saying it was a "long" ride, given the conditions yesterday morning. I really wanted to speed things up and end my misery, but for the life of me, I couldn't bring myself to put pedal to the metal. As a result, it seemed to take forever to reach the Pungo Ferry Bridge and continue the short distance beyond to Straight Creek.

I finally made it, only to learn that all the rain from the night before had turned the creek into a giant mudhole.

There was one slight diversion for me before reaching my mudhole, though. While motoring through the no-wake zone, I noticed that the old boarded-up marina store there on the Pungo Ferry waterfront finally had been taken down, and equipment and workers have moved in to begin erection of what will be a 22.5-acre waterfront park, including a ramp for motorized boats, as well as canoes and kayaks, and a parking area. [1/21/2016 UPDATE: Had an email from an "inquiring reporter," otherwise known as Charlie, who had been out to this site yesterday and talked to a Parks & Rec guy who just happened to be there, too. He told Charlie they only got $800K for this phase of the construction, which will cover the cost of the parking lot and boat ramp. He said both would be open sometime in the late spring or early summer. Other things planned include: beach for swimming (wetlands issues involved here, though), playground, and a fishing-instruction spot at the small pond for kids.]

After spending an hour and a half in Straight without even so much as a bump, I decided to go back and fish some of the same areas in the Albright's oxbow that my buddy, Charlie, likes this time of year. I eventually moved into Albright's itself. All of this water looked good, but I still couldn't find any fish.

For the last hour, I went back to West Neck, which also had good-looking water, but, alas, I was destined to wrap things up at 2:30 without ever boating the first fish.

Having seen Eddie Sapp on the water with Chris Napier yesterday, I sent Eddie a note this morning, asking what kind of day they had had. Eddie came back, saying they had caught 20 to 25 fish, most of which were yellow perch. However, they also boated a couple of good-sized crappie and a couple of bass.

Further, on Bob's Fishing Hole website this morning was a note confirming that Al Napier won the Goody's Big Bass Tournament yesterday with a 7.01-lb. bass, and Brian Skeens took 2nd place with a 2.44-lb. bass, so some people definitely had a nice day.

I spent about 90 percent of my day yesterday throwing various suspending jerkbaits. The rest of the time was split between a crankbait and a chatterbait. The water temp as I left West Neck yesterday morning read 47 degrees, and it only had bumped up to 49 degrees by the time I reached Straight. When I returned to West Neck about 1:30, the reading was 51 degrees.

The weather forecasts I've seen for next week aren't exactly conducive to my making plans for any more trips. I'm not ruling anything out yet, though. Will just have to take a wait-and-see attitude.