Lesson Relearned: Things Aren't Always As They Seem at First

The water at the West Neck ramp when I launched this morning reminded me of some distant Navy port calls I made many moons ago...to such "exotic" places like Karachi, Pakistan and Mombasa, Kenya. There was just one way to describe the conditions: scummy! In all honesty, though, I really hadn't expected anything better.

My forever battle plan when I see such nasty water is to make a beeline for Albright's, and if the water there is messed up, too, you might as well go ahead and fish it, 'cause your chances of finding any good-looking water are slim and none...or that has been my experience over the years.

I'll have to admit the water in Albright's was a "little bit" better than West Neck but not much. However, I made the mistake of reading too much into something else I saw happening as I pulled into my first stop there. Despite the water conditions, there were wads of baitfish everywhere you looked, and they weren't just swimming, either. Fish had them jumping all over the place.

My first thought was that today just might turn out to be a red-letter day for topwater baits. Oh, how wrong I was, though.

I had two topwater baits tied on, and they both immediately drew some attention. Unfortunately, however, the fish seemingly were only swatting at them with their tails. After a good 30 minutes of this kind of action, one "better" fish (I felt some weight) got hold of my bait, and I had it (whatever it was) headed toward the boat. About two-thirds of the way there, while I was feeling some serious head-shaking going on, the fish finally shook the hook.

Near the end of this action, I heard and saw some of that crashin' and bashin' we notoriously hear and see this time of year from carp. I also saw several tell-tale gar swirls...even had one try to snatch my topwater bait as I was lifting it out of the water for another cast.

Despite everything that was going on around me, I decided to pull up stakes and head for my planned next stop, where I quickly was met by more of the same. As far as the eye could see, there were wads of baitfish being chased by fish.

For just a few minutes, I went back to work with my topwaters, again with the same results. So, I shifted gears and started throwing a spinnerbait, with absolutely no attention being paid to it. The worm I also was throwing had a couple of pickups but was dropped just as fast. It wasn't until I went to a shallow crankbait that I finally picked up a couple of white perch, but that was lump-sum total of my efforts that spanned about five and a half hours this morning.

Saw Rob and Don on the water in Albright's and waved but didn't stop and find out how they were doing...hopefully better than me.