For the Week Ending Sunday, Oct. 7, 2018

Monday, Oct. 1 (from Ron)...I did poorly for the tournament on Saturday. After six hours of effort, only caught one 10-inch bass. Kid got a 23.9-inch chain pickerel, but it wasn't in a category. Way too much effort and no results that paid off. Oh well. Back to saltwater next year. Caught some nice black sea bass on Sunday on a head-boat; the trip was a nice consolation. Went in search of speckled trout this evening but couldn't find any. Instead, got a personal best, 37-inch striper that dragged me around for a while...a whole lotta fun on light tackle. Got him on topwater, and the blow up was spectacular!

Monday, Oct. 1 (from Skip)...My buddy, Skip, felt like he wanted a little more after catching a limit in Saturday's tournament, so he headed back to West Neck this morning. Ended up with three bass and missed "some whopping hits," as he characterized them, on a new topwater lure he was throwing. "As with a frog, I'm having trouble getting hook-ups with this new bait," said Skip.

Tuesday, Oct. 2 (from Ron)...Laughable!! Searched for speckled trout and caught a real drag screamer on topwater. He actually hit a 5-inch topwater right next to the yak. Scared the crap out of me and took some drag!




Wednesday, Oct. 3 (from Ken)...Came real close to getting my you-know-what handed to me today. As luck would have it, though, I boated a dink bass on about the third or fourth cast this morning with a topwater. I then pretty much just flailed the rest of the day. Was throwing three different soft plastics for hours and couldn't even get a bite on one of those. The only thing that would draw a few strikes was one of my INT baits. Had about four nice fish blow up on it, but they either were too fast, or I was too slow. Either way you slice it, I didn't get a hookset on one of those big blowups. Was told this afternoon that management found a couple of dead bass floating in front of the store this morning. Don't know if it's the continuing low-oxygen problem or something else. Have to hope the tournament Saturday won't be a repeat of my misfortunes today.

Thursday, Oct. 4 (from Ken)...Caught a couple decent ones this evening in Rudee Inlet: an 18-inch speckled trout and a 23-inch striper that gave a good fight. Need a cold front to come in.