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Fishing with Gregg, Phil, and Jay 5/6/18
The plan was to pick up my crew from the Best Western at 5:15, but as usual, I left the house a little too early and arrived a little before 5am. Guess what? They were ready and waiting! Woot! Woot!
After stopping for some ice at Speedway, we headed down to Catawba to wait for a little bit of light in the sky to launch. It's not very often I'm the first one to a launch site this early in the season, but I was this morning. The air was still, so the air temp of 59 degrees felt a little warmer than that.
We launched at around 5:45/50 and headed west to the cans. I put the Ranger on plane and took it slow, because of all the big logs floating around out there right now.
I asked my crew if they had run Off Shore boards before and Gregg said, "I've run the big boards, but never the inline boards, so we're here to learn". I said, "That's cool...I just like to know what level I'm working with". I laughed and said, "The ones that have never run them before are the easiest to train how to do it the way I like it done".
It didn't take long for them to learn it, and were setting and reeling in lines like they had done it many times before. I have this "thing" where I like the person reeling the fish in to turn off the "clicker" (tension button) before reeling in, because that clicking noise is like fingernails on a chalkboard to me. The only time I want to hear that sound is when the boards are going out...it helps me keep an eye on where to have them stop them.
Gregg's new nickname is "Clicker", (given to him by Jay), because even though he did everything else almost perfectly, he couldn't remember that one "thing"...lol It became a joke in the boat today. There was a lot of teasing going on, and a lot of laughing. :)
We ran Bandits 25, 30, 35, 40, 45, 50, and 55 back over 20-21 foot of water this morning. Every lead took a fish at one time or another, but 35 was probably the hottest number, until the late morning, when I brought a blue/chrome Bandit up to 8' in the water column (25 back). That one took three fish in a row shortly after moving it up.
The water was stained, and I could just make out the cavitation plate on my G2.
Chrome colors were the ticket once again, with blue/chrome producing the most fish. Water temp today, where we were, was 57.8 degrees.
The crew caught their three man limit, along with one of mine, and some huge white bass today. I haven't seen any sheepshead yet though. I wonder where they go in the winter and spring? I don't see them until the water warms up a little more. Anyone know where they go?
After dropping them back off at their hotel, I headed home. I got a text from Gregg that said, "Thank You! It was a great day on the water: great music, learned a lot, awesome brownies, and the fish cooperated..." And, that made me happy. :)
Tomorrow's forecast is calling for gusty NNE winds in the morning, but diminishing in the afternoon. I'm supposed to take Steve and Jeremy Chapman again (regulars), but I'm still trying to figure out what time to head out. I'll keep ya posted.
Stay tuned....
