Don't Base Your Fishin' Day on the First 5 Minutes

That's the main lesson I learned today. I mistakenly figured two quick dinks on a popper was going to put me on the fast track for a good day. How wrong I was, though.

After those two dinks in Blackwater, I decided to stay there a while. Two hours later, I hadn't so much as had another strike, so decided to run to Albright's and see what, if anything, was shakin' there. I headed to the back to fish the wood and had four blowups in my first four casts with a topwater. I only felt one of those four fish and didn't even get that one in the boat.

At that point, the day turned so ho-hum I was having trouble just staying awake. After four hours, I was seriously considering looking for new water when I saw a V-shape following my INT bait out of an indention in the shoreline. I kept working the bait slow but steady, and suddenly, I saw the splash I had been hoping for and felt a fair amount of resistance as I set the hook. That fish weighed in at 3 lbs. 4 ozs (see above right). The strange thing about this fish was that he appeared to have been fertilizing some eggs. I still have the stuff all over the floor of my boat that he started spewing as soon as I lifted him in the boat.

Thinking that the action might be getting ready to pick up, I slowed down and started working areas more methodically. However, it was about another 45 minutes or an hour before I had another bass slam my INT. This one tipped my handheld scales at 1 lb. 12 ozs (see above left).

Let me caution anyone running the river between West Neck and at least Blackwater, pay close attention to the buoys marking the crab pots. They are scattered hither and yon, including some directly in the channel. I'm not sure if the mess is a result of the storm that passed through a few days ago, or just some overzealous crabbers who don't give a hoot for rules. I felt like I was running an obstacle course today, as I picked my way through all of them.