Fishing with Jeff and Lee Burr 4/28/2022

[Capt Juls]

Jeff wanted to take his Dad, who was visiting from California, out today, because they both love to fish. Thankfully, Mother Nature was not throwing a tizzy-fit again, so we were able to get the trip in.

I met them at Catawba at 6am, and we were headed out by 6:15. It was still dark, and the east wind was still blowing a bit, so since I couldn't read the waves in the dark, I opted to make a pass down inside by Clinton Reef first. The water clarity was much better than I expected, but we only caught one there. They just aren't in there, like they have been in the past this time of year, so that's disappointing.


Since they have never used Off Shore boards before, it gave me a chance to teach them how to set the boards, and talk about how to get fish in from the outside boards without having to clear any inside boards, and how to reset an outside board back into place, easily.


They were quick learners, so once the sun was up, we picked up the gear and headed north. We stayed on the west side of the islands, to have some protection from the early morning northeast wind, which was blowing around 11 mph, and managed to pick up 6 more up there. We made one more move to finish out there limit. We went 12 for 17, so it wasn't a stellar day, but they were happy as could be with their limit in the cooler.


The usual program I've been running lately was still working....


Bandits anywhere from 45 yo 85 back at 1.5-1.6mph. Water temp dropped from 50 degrees two days ago, to 47.3 today.


Colors that caught today were:
Furmi-Nuff
Blue Chrome
Black Headed Wonderbread Chrome
Pink Lemonade
Carrot Top
Chrome Perch


The weather was "hand-freezing" cold in the morning, but by mid-morning it had warmed up, and the wind had laid down to around 5 mph, so the windchill was gone too. It was a beautiful day on the lake this morning, and the father/son team had a great time and made some lasting memories together. They also said they would like to come back and do it again, so that makes me happy!


Tomorrow's crew are repeat customers. The wind forecast is ESE at 10-15 in the morning, and by 12pm or 1:00 it will start picking up, so I'm hoping we have a better bite in the morning, so we can get a 4 person limit in the boat before that wind picks up, and it gets really rough. Fingers crossed!


Stay tuned....


Capt Juls