Tuesday, January 1, 2019

For the Week Ending Sunday, Jan. 6, 2019



Tuesday, Jan. 1 (from Ron)...Started the year out without a skunk! Fished upper North Landing from 3:30 to 5:20 p.m. and found a small bass and a small crappie. Productive lures were the XTS Minnow and Berkley Pitbull crankbait.

Wednesday, Jan 2 (from Ron)...Went to Lovitt's Creek at 3:30 and fished till 5 p.m. The bite was on. Caught eight bass and lost a big chain pickerel as I tried to lip-grip him. XTS Minnow was the ticket, but tried Booyah Prank, and a few hit that as well, especially one tiny aggressive dink. One bass I caught may have had a bit too much pie over the holidays--'twas a fat little fella, or he may have just been misshapen. Also caught my second ever tagged bass: a 1-8. Biggest weighed 1-13, and all the rest were around 12 or 13 inches.

Wednesday, Jan. 2 (from Ken)...This would have been my first day on the water in 2019 if everything had cooperated with me. As it turned out, though, the piece-of-crap trim & tilt unit on my rig decided to pick today to call it quits. I'm just glad it happened before I could launch. Called my buddy, Wayne, when I got home, and by about 4:30, he had removed the old unit, loaded it in his truck, and took my money, with a promise to have a replacement in a few days. Have already told him I'm not going to nurse any more boat problems this year. Plan to fix everything that's wrong and then plan to get back to fishing like an old retired guy. Checked my records a couple days ago and learned that I only fished 40 days in all of 2018. That's anywhere from 15 to 25 fewer days than I used to fish when I was working full-time. UPDATE: As of  5:30 p.m. Thursday, Jan. 3, Wayne had replaced my trim & tilt, tested it, and everything worked perfectly.

Saturday, Jan. 5 (from Ron)...Gusty winds today forced me to fish Okum Creek for some shelter. Between 10 a.m. and 1 p.m., caught three chain pickerel and two dink bass. The chain picks were all the way in the back. Not great, but sure beats a skunk. Pickerel were hitting a micro spinner bait. The bass liked the XTS Minnow.

Sunday, Jan. 6 (from Ken)...At last, I got a day on the water, and it turned out a lot better than I expected. As usual, the weather gurus got the predicted winds all wrong, but I was determined not to let that get under my skin. Caught a total of six bass: one on a jerkbait and five on a shallow crankbait. My best three weighed 1-1, 1-9, and 2-11. The other three were 6-to-8-inch dinks. Missed a couple more strikes this morning on the jerkbait. The water temp reached 51 degrees. Saw about eight boats on the water today. Only talked to one angler, though: Dave Anderson. He told me had about 8 keepers for the day, plus a number of dinks, all of which he caught on a jerkbait, in the upper stretches of West Neck.

Sunday, Jan. 6 (from Ron)...Launched about 2:30 at Lovitt's and fished until 5 p.m. The bite picked up about 4 p.m. A micro spinnerbait caught nine dinks, a 2-0, a nice chain pickerel, and the first of the season yellow perch. Wish I could have found a few more yellow perch for tacos. Will start targeting them.

No comments:

Post a Comment