For Week Ending Sunday, Jan. 12, 2020

Monday, Jan. 6 (from Ron)...Arrived home late and only had a small window of opportunity. Hemmed and hawed, then decided to launch Milldam for a short trip. It was a very nice afternoon/evening, but the bite was super slow. Managed to catch two small bass that were dark in color, and I avoided a skunk for the sixth straight day. Saw where it might rain tomorrow.

Tuesday, Jan. 7 (from Dave and Ken)...A phone call from Dave is all it took to "twist my arm" and persuade me to spend today on the water. We launched at West Neck at 9 o'clock and recovered about 2:30. In that time, we boated 25 bass, plus an assortment that included pickerel, white perch, yellow perch, crappie, and a shad. The biggest bass of the lot would have gone 2 1/2 or 3 pounds. All but two or three of the fish fell for jerkbaits. The remainder went for a small crankbait that Dave was throwing intermittently. We didn't see the first drops of rain until we had recovered and were in our vehicles headed home. All in all, it was another good day, which makes two in a row for us. As I reported earlier, we caught 21 during our trip last Friday. Not sure when we'll get out again, but we plan to see if we might be able to sneak in another trip before this week ends.

Thursday, Jan. 9 (from Ron)...Gauge was way too low, so went to the Burrow Pit (Crystal Lake). Fished from 2 to 5 p.m. and caught three chain pickerel, but no big ones. Had a bass on that may have been two pounds, but he threw the hook before I could land him. Jerkbaits were all I threw (XTS Minnow and Shadow Rap Shad). Was kind of chilly out there, but at least no wind.

Friday, Jan. 10 (from Ron)...Such a nice day. Fished Milldam from 3:30 to 5 and found a few bass (1-1, 1-3 and a dink), as well as a couple of chain pickerel. Of course, I never got to touch the one decent bass (maybe 2 lbs. plus) because it threw the hook. The chain picks were hitting the XTS Minnow. The weather was about perfect for January.

Friday, Jan. 10 (from Dave)...Old man winter showed up in North Landing River today. Fished from 9 to 2:30, catching two crappie, two pickerel, and only three bass, including a 3-pounder, the high point of my day. The water temp was a "balmy" 42 degrees.

Saturday, Jan. 11 (from Ron)...My friend titled his latest report "Dead in the water"...for good reason. Seems he launched at Old Pungo about 8:30 this morning for a trip around Albright's. "Then, while fishing the northwestern far side," as he explained, "my rudder cable broke. Of course, this equipment failure just happened to coincide with the same time the wind kicked up. Took a herculean effort," he said, "to paddle back against the wind to my launch site. A Hobie Outback doesn't work very well without peddles and rudder. The peddles are useless without the rudder. A couple hours and 5 bucks later, I got all the repairs done. That, in no way though, takes away the sting from my first skunk of the new season. Next outing won't be 'til end of the month." (You might look at it this way, Ron: Thank God for all that special-ops training and the fact you still have most, if not all, of your strength. I don't even want to think about how I would have handled a similar challenge.)