FISH CATCHING TRAVEL

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  Tip for the Day

Always charge your trolling motor batteries immediately after use.  They will last many more trips.  And when you unhook the cord go ahead and hit the starter key, it is always nice to know the motor turns over before you head to the water.

It is always good to be home no matter how good the trip was, and in our case this was one of the best trips yet.  Peru was great, and the people even better.  The Boss and I spent some time yesterday working on pictures, of which there are hundreds.  So some of that will be coming this week as we get back to the “real world.”  On the fishing front it is 4:30 am as I type this and I am headed to the lake.  The buzzbait bite should be on, and that is the morning’s plan.

But the real news is Sunday a group of 10 of us head out on a houseboat to the Chandeleur Islands for 3 solid days of fishing.  That has been on my bucket list for years, and though I just got home I already started packing for this weekend.  They have taken this trip before and reported last year lots and lots of trout so the Controlled Descent Lures will get a real workout.

Some of the seats on the Mako are at the upholstery guy, of course it is not done though he has had it 5 weeks.  He asked me when I dropped it off why I did not drop the other pieces at the same time, and this is the reason.  At least the Mako is not totally devoid of upholstery.  Though the boat is usable, just the livewell lid and back rest are there, I will just grab the skiff and go this morning.  Who knows, maybe I will sack a few, though it has been a while so we shall see.

Weather

92/64  Sunny.  Wind  S 10 – 20 mph.  0% chance of rain.  (We read how tough the Amazon weather can be, and when we got there it was just like home.)

Lake Level

One month ago  96.43 msl   Today  96.04 msl.  (Almost a half a foot drop in the last month.)

Solunar Times

Best  6:00 am to 8:00 am  Good  11:48 am to 1:48 pm.  (About as good as I can hope for.)

********************Get inhaled!

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It was barely cracking daylight as I headed up lake.  It was calm and sunny and the plan was to fish the side of the river early that would have the sun on it, then the other side as the sun got up and there would be the last bit of shade.  The Solunar times today said the good bite was 6 – 8 am, and it was right on.

I caught a small one on about the 10th cast, and from there it was around 10 on buzzbait until about 8:30.  A moderate steady retrieve produced every type of bite from the light slurp under to the blow up.  None were big, in fact I did not have a big bite all morning.  They were here and there, and neither wood, nor trash, nor rock seemed to be any better than anywhere.  Of the 15 bites or so the majority were right on the bank in the first couple of cranks so it was important to have it moving when it hit the water.  By 8:00 it was really sunny so I moved to the shady side and caught a few, but it was really slowing down fast.

From that point until I quit at 1:30 it was swim jig and senko, with the swim jig getting the most bites.  If memory serves me it was 3 on swim jig and 2 on senko.  It was interesting that I did not get a bite tossing the senko to wood.  Again they were just scattered.  I fished both ends of the lake, but after about 9:00 it was only a couple of bites, and after about 11:30 not a bite.  I did have a big tussle when I hooked a nice soft shell in the side.  It was easy to figure out what it was and we did the round and round before I unhooked her at boatside.  Other than that no real excitement today.  I intentionally stayed until 1:30 to fish through a “good’ period, and it was fruitless.  So I called it a day.

Of course it has been a while since I fished and obviously did not land on the right bank.  But there is fish to be caught first thing in the morning and maybe next time I will try the Whooper Plooper, which might trigger those bigger fish.  But the water is clearly dropping, and since we are over 6” of rainfall down the fishing probably won’t be improving anytime soon.  Might be time for a night fishing trip.  And it would seem the points would be the next place to work over.  And on the crappie side lots of folks are fishing, which on Coleto usually means they are catching.

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I did want to make one comment.  While in the Amazon it was getting up as soon as there was a inkling of daylight.  You could hear the jungle come to life, and as I fished this morning I thought how cool is this.  The birds were having at it, the gators were out in force, I saw several pigs, deer, it was an outdoor morning.  So maybe it isn’t the Amazon but it sure was nice.  Sometimes we forget to just take a second and look around and it was just a cool here as the Amazon.

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Tomorrow it will be running errands and getting things ready to leave on Saturday.  Going to take it easy and stay about halfway there, and who knows, maybe a little game of chance or two.  I really am starting to get excited about going, it will be so interesting and maybe it will be as good as I know it can.  But before then I will fish another day or two this week, and there will be a few stories on Peru.  So back in the grind.  Keep stopping in and thanks for reading my stuff.

Good Luck and Tight Lines