605 miles, 606 hours in 190 Trips

Those are statistics that Ron put up, starting May 28, 2016, when he began using his Map My Tracks App. From Jan. 1 to that date, he already had recorded 98 trips in his fishing log, for a yearly total of 288 trips.

In short, those numbers mean he was wetting a line about 78 percent of the available days. He admits, though, that this figure is skewed a bit because, as he explained, "I often went twice in the same day on weekends."

As detailed in his latest email, Ron caught a total of 554 bass in 2016, his biggest weighing 6.1 lbs. He also bagged five bass in the 5-lb. range, eight in the 4-lb. range, 18 in the 3-lb. range, and 66 in the 2-lb. range. The difference between the total of those groups and the 554 grand total represents those bass he caught that weighed less than 2 lbs. As he explained, "I don't enter the weight of bass in my log if they are less than 2 lbs. I just enter inches. I would guess that most of those fish weighed around the 1-pound mark."

Ron also logged two citation chain pickerel and one citation gar at 13 lbs. 11 ozs. and measuring 44 inches. "Not a great year for bowfin, though," he lamented. "A highlight of my year was the 8-lb. carp I caught on my ultralight last spring." (See accompanying chart below for further details. Click on the chart, and it will expand big enough to see everything.)

During the 2016 season, Ron further suffered 41 skunks, which amounted to a ratio of 14.236 percent. Since I didn't get a big red drum, those skunks at the refuge and pier certainly hurt my average.

"With this being my first year for keeping statistics," said Ron, "I now know how to better detail them. We shall see what 2017 has in store."

Not content to let today's nasty weather keep him off the water completely, he launched from Bob's Fishing Hole (for only the second time) about 12:30, when he noticed the rain was light and diminishing. He was searching for panfish, especially yellow perch. Unfortunately, he only caught one (a 5-incher)--too small to keep. 

The good news, though, despite the fog, dampness and mild temps, was that he found some bass and chain pickerel. He caught four bass, including an 8-incher, 10-incher, a 1-7, and a nice 2-9 (above). He also caught two 18-inch chain pickerel (one of which is pictured left).

Said Ron, "'Twas nice to have a pole-bender bass that was worthy of the scale."

Incidentally, folks, Charlie has a new post up on his blog, showing his numbers for the last three years. In case you're interested in taking a look at those, just click on this link: http://vbfishguide.blogspot.com/.