Fishing with Jeff and Bart 4/30/2022

[Capt Juls]

The wind forecast for this morning was showing 15-20 out of the ESE, but when I went out on the back porch at 3am, it was hardly blowing at all. I was hopeful that it wouldn't be as rough on the lake as I knew it would be at 15-20 today.

After gassing up the truck and boat, and getting ice for he cooler, I headed to Catawba to meet my crew at 6am. I got there early, of course, and got things ready, so when they arrived we could hit the water before the launch started getting busy with all the weekenders that show up on the weekends.


Jeff, and his Son-in-Law Bart showed up right on time. We launched, but didn't go very far....maybe a 1/4 mile out of the launch. The Ulterra was deployed and set on a westerly course. There was no need for the kicker motor at the time, because there was enough wind behind us to work with the trolling motor, to keep us at enough speed without having to go over power level 4 on the remote.


We set up with Bandits at 20, 30, 40, and 50 on the starboard side, and 25, 35, 45, and 55 on the port side. Same colors as yesterday...(2) Chrome Perch, (2) Blue Chrome, Chrome Barbie, and (3) Carrot Top....at a speed of 1.6-1.8mph.


We started catching, and put one limit in the boat fairly quickly, and went 8 for 10 on the first pass. After two miles, the bite died, so we picked up to make a run back up and reset for another pass. However, it didn't produce like it did earlier in the morning, so we lowered the port side Bandits deeper...80, 70, 60, and 50 back. Eventually, all the leads would take a fish at one time, or another, so to make a long story short...we ended up going 15 for 19 this morning on two passes.


Jeff and Bart caught on quick, and did a great job of setting and retrieving the Off Shore boards. "You're a great teacher", Jeff said, and Bart agreed, so that makes me happy!


Bart, who has served a very long time in the Army, and was a mechanic, thought of something to help my crews when attaching the back OR-16 clip on the back of the board, and told me about it. (He probably got tired of me telling him to bring the board back in to "fix it".)
I turned, and looked him in the eyes, and giggled when I replied, "Are you playing Engineer now? (Pause) That's a VERY GOOD idea. Let's try it."

You see, sometimes, the back clip that is used with a split ring on the Tattle Flag system gets twisted, when putting the line in behind the pin, and if it isn't noticed, it can make the board run a little funny. So, Bart's idea was to add another split ring, to the split ring that is already there, to make it longer, so it's easier to handle and make sure it's in the right position before the line goes in the release.
Freak'n brilliant idea! So, easy.


We tried it, and it worked wonders...so, now I'm going to add another split ring to the split rings on all the boards tomorrow. Thank you for the idea, Bart!


This was Jeff's second trip with me, and Bart's first. They both want to come back again. They were having fun, and were happy with their limit of fish to take home to Indiana.


I'm off tomorrow, and need to catch up on the house cleaning, and boat cleaning. I'm scheduled to fish on Monday with another repeat customer, Jeff May. Fingers crossed for nicer weather next week!


Stay tuned...


Capt Juls

[Fishing Tiger]

FWIW
We run a large barrel swivel before our releases. It gives you even a little more room and maneuverability than twin rings and stops binding. We found with just straight rings ( we tried it) the line can sometimes get caught in the rings (primarily rough water). Not fun trying to work the line out when a big fish is on and it is rough. NOTE: line catch in ring is rare but it does happen.
We have split ring, swivel, split ring. Still two rings but it seem not to tangle as much.

[Capt Juls]

FWIW
We run a large barrel swivel before our releases. It gives you even a little more room and maneuverability than twin rings and stops binding. We found with just straight rings ( we tried it) the line can sometimes get caught in the rings (primarily rough water). Not fun trying to work the line out when a big fish is on and it is rough. NOTE: line catch in ring is rare but it does happen.
We have split ring, swivel, split ring. Still two rings but it seem not to tangle as much.

Excellent! I like it. Thanks for sharing the helpful advice. Makes sense!