Fishing with Frank and Ray 4/26/2022

It's the end of April, and after a beautiful weekend of summer-like weather, when we think it should be getting warm, with stable weather, good old Mother Nature says, "Hold my beer, watch this!" Boom...it was chilly, with a moderately gusty WNW wind this morning. When I stepped out on my back porch to check the weather at 2am, it wasn't freezing, but it was chilly. I'm so tired of wearing layers, and just want to get in my shorts and flip flops again...(she sticks her bottom lip out, to pout).

I had gassed up the boat yesterday on my way home from my trip, and was planning on launching close to my house this morning, so I had to drive my "dog-hauler" car across town to the gas station, to pick up ice at 4am, because there are no open gas stations on this end of town. Dexter enjoyed the early morning ride with his head out the window, and his ears flopping in the wind, though, so that was nice. :)

This morning, I was fishing with repeat customers, Frank Smith and his friend, Ray. They met me at the river launch a little before 6am, and I was all ready to go when they got there. We did have to wait 10 minutes for it to be light enough to see the channel markers on the way out of the river, though.
It can get pretty shallow if you don't stay in the channel. And, those markers are big metal poles, so I didn't want to hit one...even at a no-wake speed. By the time we were in the water, I could just make the poles out...and, the sky was lightening by the minute, so by the time we were at the mouth of the river, it was light enough that we didn't need to have the navigation lights on anymore.

We headed over to H and G cans to start. We set up with Bandits and Spros, running 25, 30, 35, and 40 back behind the Off Shore boards, on both sides.
Speed was 1.5 to start, and eventually adjusted to 1.8mph.
Today, was the first time I saw the water temp hit 50 degrees...it was jumping between 50.9 and 51 degrees, by the cans.

We went 5 for 7 in that area on the 25, 30, and 40 foot leads. Then, the bite just went poof....gone. We picked up and moved back up and went a little further back to the NW, where there was a little cleaner water, but that was a bust.

Then, both Capt's Bobby Green and Sam Downing sent me messages telling me there was a good bite to the east of where I was, and said, "They are biting". So, we picked up and moved east a few miles, and set up again. Thanks, guys! I appreciated the info! :)

This time, the leads were a little deeper....the port side ran the Spros at 75 (outside), 65, 57, and 47....but would eventually be changed out to all Bandits, since the Bandits running on the starboard side were out-producing the Spros for some reason. The starboard side baits ran at 100, 80, 60, and 50 back. I kept he Spro program for the new Bandits, and they were getting hit now, too.

Bandit colors that did well were:
Furmi-Nuff
(2)Chrome Barbie
(2)Blue Chrome
Black Headed Wonderbread Chrome
Pink Lemonade
Carrot Top

We had a few doubles, and a nice steady pick happening, so my crew were on cloud nine after a slow start. They did a great job setting the boards out, and reeling in their fish, without any tangles.

Frank and Ray fish together a lot out of Frank's boat, and wanted to learn some tips and tricks by fishing with me. Apparently, it worked, because I heard Frank say more than once to Ray, that he learned something new today, and he's going to start "doing that" in his boat. Ray agreed.

We all had a good time, and finished just as the time was running out, and we headed in with three limits in the cooler. Yay!

They want to come back in the fall, and that makes me happy! :)

Tomorrow, has a small craft advisory posted, so my trip won't be happening. The crew for tomorrow, wants to reschedule to this fall, so I'll be cleaning the boat tomorrow.

Back at it on Thursday...wind forecast for Thursday right now is less than 10 out of the north.

Stay tuned....

Capt Juls