Post by striperjohn on Mar 27, 2016 7:28:47 GMT -5
We got the boat in around 3 on Wednesday and started looking for bait in a blistering wind with gusts up to 30-35mph. I don't recall ever having a 20lb cast net being thrown back in my face like I did that day! After mucho searching for bait we had about 4 big gizzards a 1/2 dozen money makers and a bunch of peanuts. Just and FYI to guys liking that "shrimper" method of casting. Yes it works great, if you don't have a bad back and are young. But when you get older that bending over to get the net doesn't cut it. 
Then we set out to fish, it wasn't a matter of going to places that held fish it was a matter of can we find a place out of the dang wind. Finally set up a pull just on the inside of a main channel point. By the time we got lines in the wind had me running at about 10mph, I constantly slowed us down by using the TM. Just beyond the point our first line out on a float, my grandson brought in a nice 25 inch and really fat fish. Then the far bank board got blasted and we had another 28 inch fish. Then the middle board gets hit and this turned out to be big 8.5lb Largemouth. In the midst of all of this I was constantly twisting an turning the TM to keep the boat headed in a semi-straight direction. Then an inboard line hits which I grabbed and it's a nice fish. By the time we got it landed and the wind had twisted us around, I had 7 lines tangled, and one in the boat with a 32 inch fish on. What a mess. We called that a day and went back to the hotel for the night. Fish on float hit a peanut, bank board a small money maker, and near board a peanut. Not one touch on anything over 9 inches. All fish released.
Thursday I checked the tank while it was dark, turned my floor lights on and had none. Tried the Nav lights and had none. Tripped breaker. Reset, it tripped again uh oh. Somewhere I have a direct short to ground. Sooo we waited until we could legally run without Nav lights thus getting, in my opinion a late start. We headed up north of the S turns and pulled into a creek and started pulling. First point we hit a moneymaker was blasted around on top running from fish, the kept up for 1-2 minutes. Then stopped, I started moving the board again and the fish nailed it and took off. This was a decent 28-29 inch fish that was easily 16-17 lbs it was so full of eggs! We pulled in the back of the creek and back out and didn't get another interest at all from anything. Then about 10 the wind started up again. We pulled another creek and I'm pretty sure I saw one of the forum guys come into the creek. We were leaving and he came in running wide open, slowed down, went by us sped up and raced into the back of the cove never to be seen again. The boat was kind of like a stripedYam sorta color. LOL Never got a chance to say hey to him. Went in to try to troubleshoot my short ckt to no avail. So I had no bilge pump, running lights, aerator pump etc. My bait tank and Fishfinders all come off a different house battery circuit so I was okay there. We went to lunch and were back out again for the afternoon looking for a place to fish out of the wind. No such luck. We pulled a couple different banks but that lasted for only about 20 minutes at a time before wind direction would change (the Old SML wind shift) and make a mess. We caught 3 more fish most in the 24-26 inch range and all released. Fighting the wind sucks.
Friday it was forecasted to rain so I jumpered my bilge pump/float switch to a house battery with alligator clips so the boat wouldn't sink while we were out fishing.
Headed south in dark skies with rain coming. Spotted a bunch of gulls over a couple breaking fish and decided to pull that area. We caught 4 more fish in pouring rain, all came on peanuts, not one single touch of a big gizzard and/or moneymaker all morning. Three on planers and 1 on and float. We did catch another nice largemouth 6lb 8 oz within 40 yards of a sparkly boat casting the bank. He was to say the least, upset. We asked him why he was fishing the bank when the fish were out here in 40 feet of water. He was a good guy. ;)My grandson has decided he likes fishing in the rain when they're biting, but it's not so good when they're not. 
Saturday morning we went out to get a couple hours in before having to come home. Went back to the same spot as the am before to be met by "the Fleet". Word got out I guess. We did manage 2 more fish. Then the jerk appeared.
Some jerk, and if he's reading this take heed, was fishing the far inside bank of the S turns when I was running the opposite outside bank headed in the same direction as him. This guy had been following one of the guides around that area for a while. Now we're separated by I'm guessing 500 yards. We catch a fish, land it and see a couple fish blast up in front of us about 100 yards. Suddenly the jerk comes screaming across the channel, lines out mind you and turns right directly in front of me coming straight at me, no more then 40 yards in front of me. Game of chicken I guess. So I did not budge. He looks at me and I held my hands out wide so he would get the message. Now mind you I have three boards running the bank on my left side and 3 running out say 30 - 40 yards on my right side. Big channel I'm out of the way. This idiot then does turn and just barely misses banging out boards together. Then has the balls to say "hey how you doing". I said, "fine until you came over here, are fish that important to you?" He just threw his nose in the air and moved off.
Just about that time we hooked up on two more fish which was very appropriate.
Sorry to end this on such a negative note but that guy is an accident waiting to happen. Anyway, my grandson had a nice spring vacation and we provided a great deal of business to Moosey's and the Pizza Pub.
Cheers,
John
