FISH CATCHING TRAVEL

What is not to like about a morning like this.  Get up and get out!

I might fish one more day before I take off, just depends on how much progress we make the next couple of days.  Today was different in that I caught 10 but it was slow as snot.  Now don’t get me wrong after catching 1 last trip it was a major improvement.  The Boss put in her order for 2 bass for her fry and at least I got that done.  And as it has been I continue to catch them on everything with nothing doing any better than another.  But I am a shallow water guy, and it may not be the most efficient way to catch them but it sure is my way.  If faced with a have to catch them day as if guiding or tournament fishing I would stay with the swim jig all day, that is the one consistent bait this month.

Weather

Wednesday 95.54 msl.   Today 95.59 msl.  (The lake is 2.69 feet low from pool and it really is starting to show.)

Bite Time

Major.  6:22 am to 8:22 am.   Minor.  1:16 pm to 2:16 pm.

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The Wade Right Fishing Belt and the new Madre Sling.

For all your wading needs.

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The water temp is basically the same and is in the high 50’s over almost all the lake.  The color is clearing some but unfortunately the water is still on a steady decline.  It will be past the end of the piers at the ramp soon so pray for rain.

Swim jig and a 4″ Greenback Knockin Tail.

It was hard to decide which way to go, back to the place where I struck out or up lake to my usual haunts, so up lake I went.  The wind was light out of the north which made it easy to fish.  It was just one here then a half hour another.  Nothing where I have been catching them, though I did fish newer places.  5 jumped on but it was a couple on crankbait, 2 on swim jig, one on jerkbait until I decided to run all the way to the place where I struck out last trip and of course they were there and biting.

One condition to note they were on a secondary point on a channel bank that was out of the wind with the sun shining on it.  Another tell-tale sign, the first couple of gators I have seen in a month.  Of course I forgot to look at the water temp but I am sure it was higher.  A classic spring location.

A jerkbait fish who looks like a Heron took a stab at him.  One on the 4″ Honeydew Knockin Tail.

5 jumped on there in 2 passes.  Several followed the Honeydew and the jerkbait to the boat, so I was fishing just a hair to fast.  But in the end not a bad day, it is fall and the pattern is inconsistent.  It won’t be long spring is going to happen and there is one thing to watch that can happen when the water conditions are like they are on Coleto.  Get a big warm rain and they charge the backs of the big flat coves.  Just saying.

Looks like I will miss the white bass run which is going to happen really soon up lake.  Guess trading white bass for brown trout is not that bad a trade.  Life is about to change here but the blog will continue on.

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Blasts From the Past

Probably 1962.  My grandparents and my brothers and sisters.  Looks like we all just got a Tootsie Pop.

They raised a family on 80 acres of land.  Huge garden, milked cows by hand, picked corn by hand and until sometime in the 70′ did the farm work with Belgians horses.  I thought they were 10 foot tall.  And I will always cherish the times in the winter when he would hitch them up to the sleigh, collars and bells on, and we would take the milk to the cheese factory.  I would always hear him get up at 3:30 or 4:00 to head out to the back pasture to get the cows.  Grandpa never wore his teeth and I never understood a word he said. Grandma raised the kids and made the best buns ever.  And 4 or 5 courses for lunch were the standard meal for hard working farmers.  Times lost that I am glad I got to live.

Bar Tending

Mope’s

While in college I decided to try out bartending.  It was at Mope’s which is in downtown Freeport Illinois right across the street from the courthouse.  This ad predates that, when I worked there it was the classic shot and a beer joint.  Great food, the best real steak sandwich in the world, and cheap booze it was a landmark.  Every day the judge would come across the street, eat lunch, then buy a bottle of Bud, tuck it up his sleeve and stroll back to work.  Last call was 2:00 am and everybody out at 3:00.  I learned real quick about drunks, no you are not funny, and nothing good comes of being out at 3:00.  I lasted 6 months.

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Have a safe and Happy New Year.  Do not drink and drive and participate in amateur night.  And even if you do not drink assume the other guy has.  Drive defensive, assume the worst and be so careful.  Getting in an accident or cuffed and stuffed is no way to start the new year.

2022 is in the rear-view mirror.  Let the bad go and build on the new.  Most of us made it this year, and our thoughts and prayers to family and friends who are not with us anymore.  The Boss and I are off on another new adventure.  Dreams can come true, and we are so excited for the future.  And to you and yours success and hope for the new year.  I will keep on fishing and writing so keep stopping in and thanks for reading my stuff.

Good Luck and Tight Lines