A Few Degrees Make the Difference

Ron Ameika took his kayak back to Albright's again today. He fished hard for three hours, with nary a nibble, then decided to head westward in hopes of finding clearer water. About halfway to where he and his son, Alex, were yesterday, he found some clear, albeit skinny, water and stopped to give it a try.

While working his way into the area, throwing a BPS STX minnow with the same twitch-twitch-pause cadence used yesterday, there were two or three boils under the bait. He was way up in the area when the nice 2.3-lb., 16-inch bass pictured here slammed his ultra light rig.

Said Ron, "His final surge took the rod under the yak, and I was worried it would break, but I was able to work him out and land him. Made my day."

Ron caught his biggest-so-far fish of 2016 at 1351, with nothing before or after that time. The important point to remember here is that, although the water temp in the main creek was 49, the temp in the wee shallows where Ron caught the fish was reading 53 and 54 degrees.

Ron also told me that he talked to a friend, who was trolling an XTS minnow farther back in Albright's about 1530 when he scored a nice 21-inch striper.

And, for the first time ever, he had a boat pull up next to his yak and ask for his license. "I've been at West Neck and West Landing bank fishing and had that happen, but never on the water in my yak," Ron explained. "Good thing I had my license."

Tight lines and safe boating.