It had been a month since I last stirred the water, and I decided today was the day I was going to shake off some of the rust that had built up in that amount of time. To my delight, it was as though I had been running the Yamaha regularly, 'cause she fired as soon as I turned the key this morning. If I didn't know better, I'd almost think someone had reinstalled my thermostats the way it took off and ran.
With the wind I had at launch time, I decided just to stay in West Neck today and make the most of it. I started out by running to the mouth of the creek and worked my favorite shoreline all the way back to the bridge and finally beyond. It wasn't until I got to that point that I finally caught my one and only fish for the day--a dink. I was fishing a 1/4-oz. Bomber in firetiger at the time. Also fished a chatterbait and a jerkbait, with not so much as a smell.
Ran across Rob Peppers and a partner while I was out. Their platform for the day was my tourney partner's old Stratos. Rob paused long enough about 10 or 10:30, when I first saw him, to let me know he had 1 bass then, and his partner had 2. He also voiced some frustration with a fella who was out running around in a Tracker. Seems this dude had run between Rob's boat and the piece of shoreline he was fishing. When Rob asked him what he was doing, the fella just responded, "I thought you were fishing the other side."
Didn't get any further reports from Rob and his partner before I quit about 1:45, but they still were out... as was the guy who had caused 'em some heartburn earlier. As a matter of fact, that guy was headed in their direction again as I was wrapping up and preparing to head for the ramp.
In places, West Neck Creek didn't look too bad today, but in those areas really being beat by the wind and waves, quite a bit of mud was visible.
The water temp as I arrived back at the dock was 49 degrees. Sorry, but I forgot to check the temp at the start of my day.
Received an email from Ron Ameika since posting the original piece above. He and his son, Alex, dusted off their yaks and stroked all the way from Old Pungo Ferry Road to the North Landing River Natural Area Preserve in Albright's Creek today. "Wiped me out!" said Ron of their estimated 10-mile roundtrip.
Using a Bass Pro Shops XTS Floating Minnow, with a twitch-twitch-pause cadence, Ron managed to coax two chain pickerel (one 20 inches, the other 16) into biting. He also caught three white perch, one yellow perch, and one 12-inch bass. As Ron clarified, however, the yellow perch hit a live minnow. Meanwhile, Alex suffered a skunk, even though he was fishing the same area with the same bait.
Said Ron, "The bite seemed to pick up about 2 p.m., then shut down about 3. The water was murky near the main channel but cleared the farther we went." He also pointed out that the wind was gentle in the area where they were fishing.
In closing, Ron told me that they had run into two fellas in a boat about three-fourths of the way to their destination, and they had told him they had landed three bass. I have to wonder if those two gents were my friend, Rob Peppers, and his partner whom I encountered in West Neck.
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