Fishing with Keith and Stacy....8/14/2024

[Capt Juls]

I had fished with Keith a couple years ago...his wife likes to read my reports, and relay info for their own trips, because Keith isn't online a lot. He has a Ranger 621, and doesn't live far from the lake. The other day, when I had a cancellation for Tuesday and Wednesday of this week, Stacy told Keith about it, so he called to see if they could do a perch trip with me.

I was available.


I met them at Catawba at 5:45...they were right on time. Stacy got in the boat, and Keith and I got in truck. As I'm driving down to the launch, I see a crew of two, loading their boat in the approach...ugh.
It was still dark out, so there was no hurry at all to get going, I told Keith, "He's lucky it's still dark out, or I would have said something by now." He laughed, and told of his own experiences at other boat launches.


They were taking much longer than we had expected, so I got out of the truck, and walked over to chat with them. As I approached, I said, "You're lucky it's still dark out", and smiled. He nodded, knowing they were in the wrong.... then said, "Morning Captain, we're your crew for tomorrow", and reached out to shake my hand.
I about died...thinking of how close I could have been to becoming a Karen at 6am in the morning, but refrained, and went the nice route instead. It just goes to show you....you should always try to be nice...it always comes back to you when you least expect it. That could have been a very bad experience, otherwise. lol


Anyway....we got launched, and I even waited for Dan and Ed to launch, so they could follow us out to D Can, because they're from Missouri, riding in an aluminum bass boat, and this was their first time to the lake. They wanted to try for some perch today, too. They followed us out, and we both got set up near the can.


We caught, but it was a very slow bite, and I wasn't happy with the marks on the screen, so we moved. The boats were piling in, so ...we left. I pointed the nose of the Vexus to the north, and went up to Niagara. No one was there, but there were good marks, so we set up again.


Stacy and Keith were using the Fishing Addiction Fly Rigs, and I was using one of my homemade crappie rigs. The bite was slow for us again, but the marks were good, and when we did catch one, it was a big fatty yellow perch.


Looking back at D Can, we couldn't even count how many boats were there, because there were so many. I wasn't going back there. I hate fishing in crowds.


Algae formed on the surface of the water, due to the absence of wind, and looked like pea soup. We decided to turn the Spot Lock off and just drift ever so slowly.


We didn't catch our limits of perch, but they were very happy with the amount and size of them. Memories were made, and we all had fun, and that makes me happy!


Tomorrow, I have Dan and Ed for a walleye trip.


Stay tuned....


Capt Juls