[broncotwisterjim]

Saturday, I had an opportunity to have fellow NCAngler & Captains' Club member, Possum, on the boat for a few hours. We hit a local favorite spot and battled wind, rain and cool conditions for the afternoon. Water temp was 59-61 and it was pretty stained from recent rains. We were targeting bass in 15' or less with a variety of plastics, cranks and jerks.

I've read many reports this spring indicating how "weird" the fishing seems to be. I guess I would say this trip fit that description pretty well. The couple of reports I received from folks at the ramp were nothing short of terrible, up to and including, "No one has caught anything all week!" You just gotta love hearing that when you're about to launch, huh?!

Well, we started out anyway and tried what "should" be producing in the places likely to produce. Nada! With about three hours to fish, our first two went by without a bite. Halfway through the final hour, I decided to hit a bank that I hadn't fished in a while. It didn't differ greatly from the area we had just covered, but it was convenient and time was running short, so I figured why not. On the first cast, Dustin (Possum) landed a crank right by a nice laydown. With one crank of the reel, a nice bass shot out from the wood and nailed it. Possum brought it boatside and we welcomed it aboard.
Next cast, my turn with a Shakey head trick worm in the same area.......BAM! I pulled the shakey head over a limb and this bass hit it like it was his last meal!

Both of these guys were 3.5-4lb class fish and put up a nice battle. It was a nice reward for 2.5 hours of fishing hard in some nasty wind. Not sure what the takeaway was today really, but we were mighty happy to catch these two. These came off of a blowdown on a bank with the wind ripping down it in about 18FOW.

BTJ

 

[SurfRider]

Laydowns were the ticket for us yesterday, too Jim. Two 5's and a handful or two of others between dinks and 3 pounders. Andrew got one on a spinnerbait, I got one on (shocker here) texas rig, and we picked up almost all our fish on laydowns either main lake or in pockets that were close to main lake channel. We didn't find anything in the backs of creeks or pockets *still*, despite surface temps around 60 degrees. Well, actually there was one in the back of a pocket but it was still not far from main lake. Weather was what I would call fairly nasty in the morning with chilly wind driven showers to light rain, and a pretty stiff wind in the afternoon that made boat control very tough.

Glad you guys got some fish in the boat towards the end! Congrats.

 

[jerry condrey]

Matt and Joey had a decent day Saturday at HPCL (until the "incident"), all their fish were off wood as well. Glad y'all had a good day.

 

[broncotwisterjim]

Sam-

Sounds like you guys did pretty well. I wish we'd had that much time. The fish on laydowns represents a return to normalcy, so I'm glad to hear more of that mixed in with all the "weirdness". Yeah, big shock on hearing another report from you & Tex. I'm not sure you shouldn't just carry the ONE rod! I feel for poor ol' Andrew trying to demonstrate for you how fish can be caught using other methods/lures, in hopes I'm sure, that one day you may even be seen using said methods. I feel your pain, brother Andrew! I know you were hating it, but it was really all about the wind for us. In hindsight, switching from leeward to windward was the ticket! Good ol' Joel!

BTJ

 

[broncotwisterjim]

Jerry-

Yeah, I read about the "incident" with pure shock and surprise! Ha! Sam & I were fishing the Belews tourney last month which we went on to win, despite a similar "incident". We were fishing like machines on a main lake point sitting off just far enough out to sling a c-rig to the bank with trolling motor deployed.

We see this fishing Einstein, with Einstein, Jr. (fishing kid in training by daddy Einstein) sitting in the back of the boat, coming down the bank to our right. Without hesitation and while performing a perfect lesson in no-manners-whatsoever for his kid, this fishing Einstein cruises right by in front of us, between us and the bank. He has the trolling motor running and he and Jr. are casting away right at the same bank Sam & I were fishing. We literally had to stop casting until they moved through or cast over their boat. They looked at us like we were from Mars. I really could do nothing but laugh, but we sure felt your son's frustration! A reminder to us all to be sure and acknowledge good manners when you see them displayed. They're fading fast and rarely being passed to future generations!

BTJ

 

[Possum]

Jim-

Thanks for letting me tag along Saturday, those 2 fish were definitely worth the wait! Now if you'd just let me have a day off work (he's my boss) so I can go back and use all the knowledge I gained on Saturday