Everybody Appears to Be Catching Fish

In a recent email from schoolteacher Mark Kinzel, I learned that he and his children were celebrating spring break week before last. Besides attending both boys' baseball games and his daughter's field hockey contests during that period (and throughout each season), Mark and his son, Gray (pictured here with a largemouth beauty), managed to go bass fishing seven days in a row on North Carolina and Virginia rivers.

At week's end, they had tallied 13 fish over 4 lbs., 6 over 5 lbs., and their biggest of the week, a nice 7-2.

"It seemed that all were pre-spawn, as we were fishing chatterbaits and jigs," said Mark. "Visibility was always a factor. We avoided the lakes and sightfishing due to the weather." Make no mistake about it--catching all those fish was a lot of fun. For Mark, though, his biggest enjoyment was watching Gray forget all about his arm injury--a cast just had been removed. "That was priceless," said Mark.

Incidentally, if Gray looks familiar, it's probably because you remember him and Mark from our 2015 Dewey Mullins Memorial Bass Tourney Series. They fished a couple or so contests with us last year, and Mark tells me they plan to fish some more with us again this year.

In an email I received late last week, Nathan Gottsch sent me this photo of one that he estimated would have gone about 2 lbs. It was one of those windy days we had (and yes, I know you're probably getting a good chuckle from that statement, seein' as how nearly all the days here lately have been windy), so Nathan had gone looking for a little protected water.

As you can see here, he found what he wanted, and the rest is history. You don't have to look very hard at this picture to figure out that the protected area where he caught this bass isn't in West Neck Creek.

The final email report I want to share with you came tonight from kayaker Ron Ameika and his son, Alex, who returned to the borrow pit otherwise known as Crystal Lake today. They fished from about 2 to 7 p.m.--"until it just got too cold," said Ron, adding, "the wind wasn't bad, but 10 degrees warmer would have been nice. The water in the lake was 58; the air temp was about 50."

Their first fish, a 2-11, was boated at 2:25 by Alex, using a chatterbait with a Havoc craw trailer. Two hours then passed with nothing. About 5 p.m., Ron boated a healthy 2-14 and a 3-pounder even (pictured right) on a shallow shadow rap shad.

Alex switched to a swim jig with a craw trailer and bagged five more in about a half-hour. They all weighed between 1-9 and 1-13, for a total of six bass weighing a grand total of 10 lbs. 15 ozs.

Ron then lost two on a chatterbait before landing one that weighed 1-14, for a three-fish total weight of 7-12. He felt he would have scored more, but his day ended when something slammed his chatterbait hard. He suspects it was a toothy gar or bowfin. He described it as "a solid hit, then slack line, and a clean cut." At the time, he was working the chatterbait with a craw trailer, just jigging it off the the bottom along the brush line.

"The kid outfished me again," admitted Ron, "but I'm glad. It was a good day."