Good Day Locally Trumped by Even Better Day on Lake Gaston

With low water this morning, I decided to start in West Neck but only had found one bass, the beat-up 1-7 (pictured right), by the time I reached the mouth of the creek. I turned around and headed above the bridge, but Rob Peppers stopped me before I had gone very far and said the water got worse the farther you went above the bridge.

With that news, I decided to try my hand in Pocaty, where Rob had been a little earlier. He said the water there wasn't too bad, so off I went. It didn't take long to convince me to stay in Pocaty the rest of the day. I found one stretch that held a fair number of fish that would keep hitting my wakebait, so I continued working that same stretch back and forth.

At day's end, I had landed another seven bass and one white perch. My best five were 1-0, 1-2, 1-4, 1-7, and 2-2 (pictured left).

Given today's water level, I got reacquainted with an aspect of Pocaty I hadn't seen in a mighty long time. I learned that a lot of stumps I thought had washed out of the areas where they used to be are still there--just not as robust as they used to be.

I also learned a couple of new spots before wrapping things up and heading back to West Neck about 1:30.

Today wrapped up Jim Bauer's trip to Lake Gaston, and as I learned in an email from him this evening, it amounted to a "saving the best for last" kind of day.

Between about 8 and 11:30 this morning, he boated a total of six bass. His best four weighed in at 2-0, 1-5, 2-9 (pictured bottom), and 4-15 (pictured right).

Said Jim, "I was working all the shade around the docks and shoreline."

The water temp when he shoved off this morning from the boathouse was 67. It had reached only 68.8 when he checked it again at 11 o'clock.

Like me, Jim caught all his fish on one bait, but he asked me not to divulge what that bait was, so I'm staying mum. He likewise asked me to keep the color to myself, too.

In the final analysis, today's catch, by his own admission, perked Jim up and more than made up for all the rain he had to deal with the last few days.

"It has been a long time since I did this well down here," he concluded.

As I was completing the cleanup of my boat this afternoon, I saw something that really got my attention and warrants including here.

I happened to glance at the johnboat parked in the open space between my building and the round-top tent that's to the immediate left of it. The boy who owns that boat had left the gas hose hooked to an external plastic gas can the last time he used the rig. And with all the sun that can has received in recent days, it had swelled to dangerous proportions.

I considered loosening the tank's cap to relieve the pressure, but in all honesty, I was nervous about even touching it. Instead, I called Steve and made him aware of the hazard, and he assured me that he would take care of it when he got home this evening.

I'm not sure if the owner just forgot to adjust the cap the last time he put his boat away, or if he just didn't realize the danger of his actions. I just know I've never seen a gas can so distended before.

I can only hope everyone else with a boat stored at West Neck thinks about the fact we're getting into warmer days and how that may affect any external gas tanks they may have in use or stored out there.