Totals at End of Day Are the Same

Fog was a major player to start the day but quickly burned off and allowed Skip and me to begin our fishing day in earnest.

I ran south; so did Skip, but he ran a little too far on the first pass and had to double back. I watched him from a distance fly south past the cut-through to Albright's, then return about five minutes later. I first thought he might be headed to Blackwater, but as he admitted to me later, he just missed the turn on the first pass. I've similarly missed the turn into Milldam a few times, so I couldn't say anything.

My initial plan was to hit a couple of spots beyond the Pungo Ferry Bridge, but the traffic I had encountered by the time I reached the cut-through persuaded me to spend my day there.

Any thoughts I had of repeating what I accomplished Saturday quickly vanished. The bite was much slower, but I still managed to find five keeper bass--nothing bigger than the 1-3 pictured above, though. And once again, all the fish fell for my INT topwater bait.

Skip's day started even slower than mine, but once he replaced his topwater lure with his remake of a Senko worm (one that he assembled from scraps of original Senkos), the picture changed rapidly. In no time, he had boated a total of five keeper bass, too, all of which resembled the one here that he stopped to photograph.

The high point of Skip's day came when he got hold of a real nice bass with one of those remade Senkos.

As Skip described the situation to me, he had worked the bass beside the boat and was trying to hold tension while reaching for the net when he unintentionally dipped the tip of his rod in the water, which allowed just enough slack to form in the line for the fish to throw the hook.

In Skip's words, "I hadn't seen a fish that big since those infamous bygone days on Back Bay."

Most of us have faced similar circumstances over the years, and it's never any fun to lose a trophy fish, or for that matter, to find out that someone else, especially a good friend like Skip, has lost one. However, I reckon these disappointments are what keeps us going back to the well, hoping to eventually get Bubba in the boat. Here's hoping you get one sooner, rather than later, Skip.

Had some emails waiting for me when I got home today. Ron Ameika had written, letting me know he had landed a personal best today--the 44-inch, 13-lb. 11-oz. gar pictured here.

He said this one was two inches bigger than last year's best, which he caught June 12th. He went on to explain that the weight on this latest "big boy" might have been a bit off because he had a hard time holding it over his head and seeing the display while sitting in the kayak.

"I was slimed, and he was tough to handle," said Ron. This fish is his first citation of the year. He said he hopes to find a 30-inch bowfin next.

Also had another email from Ron and one from Chris Vitovich commenting on the post I put up yesterday about the dream I had of hooking a giant ol' bowfin. Chris thanked me for the good laugh he had to start the workday, and Ron gave me some details of a dream he had recently.

He said he dreamed he had a reel failure and had to hand-over-hand a big bowfin with braid. "I was getting cut, bleeding, and almost losing fingers, while yelling at my son 'not to lose this bowfin,' Ron noted.