Capt'n and I met in line 5:00am on Saturday. We talked with DMS and BassFan in line. i enjoyed catching up with you guys. I actually go earlier anymore just for the chance to talk with good friends.
I wanted to get shad and use them on the striper. There were only a few scattered shad at the ramp, so there went that plan.
We set out the rigs as we left the ramp. No sooner had Capt'n put his rod down and he was hooked up.
He hooked this UGB, contaminating the rigs and making them unpalatable to respectable fish!
After that we trolled for four hours and didn't get a single hit. We trolled through school after school without any indication of it except on the fish finder.
Around 11:00 we went down and started looking for a bait spot. We set up on a hump inside of a cove with lots of fish around on the hump and on adjacent slopes. As soon as
Capt'n's pole was set before he could pick up another one he had a bite. The bait pulled from the fish's mouth on the hook set and he put it right back where it had been. We figured it was on! We waited but the fish didn't come back. We still had high hopes for this spot but didn't have any bites for a long time. Capt'n finally had another bite as we repositioned the boat using the anchor lines. Trouble was, we were busy and he didn't get to it before the fish spit.
We called it, pulled anchor and went out to the fleet anchored outside of Slalom Cove. We talked to the guys there, they were doing pretty good. I checked my fish finder but didn't see the fish soup that I like fishing in. I told Capt'n " Let's take the tour and look around, if we don't find something better, we'll come back here.".
When we checked the BL there was nobody around but we found some good marks and anchored up.
Within 5 minutes I had a bite and as soon as I hooked that one my other pole tip went down. I knew that I had a decent fish on and the other one looked decent too, so I asked Capt'n to grab it. We were working those fish when one of his poles got slammed but it wasn't long before the fish busted his 3 lb. leader. After I landed my fish, while I was throwing the fish in the fish hold Capt'n's other pole tip went down in the water. Since he was still working the fish on my pole, I took the chance to make up my deficit!
So that's 2 doubles with one of the fish involved in both doubles!
We hadn't been anchored there 10 minutes and we had 3 nice fish in the boat!
This is when the debate started. Those two fish that we got on each others poles were nearly identical and one of them was the big fish so far. So we debated. Each of us claimed that the big fish honors belonged to "me" and it didn't matter which pole it had come in on.
We hurried to get our baits back out and as soon as I had 2 baits set on bottom one of my rods was hit. I picked it up and before I could set it the other rod was hit. I set the hook on the one in my hands then grabbed the pole out of the rod holder with one hand, set the hook and threw it back in the the holder. I was stoked! I was keeping tension on the one in my hands and grabbing the reel handle on the other, reeling to keep tension on it too. Imagine my surprise when I found out that I had one fish hooked with both of my poles. It sure made for a quick fight. With 2 poles hauling the fish up from bottom the fight was over quickly.
After that I guess lunch was over. We had a slow pick of smaller fish all afternoon.
We farmed many, about the time we would quit paying attention something would happen. At one point Capt'n had a good hit on his bait-runner but he was trapped at the other end of the boat by me and my rod handles sticking inside the boat. As soon as he got there the fish was gone. Later there was another hit in a similar circumstance. I decided to help out, stepped down there, tripped the second drag and set the hook. Of course, I farmed it!
Then there were the ones that we didn't farm. At one point I got hit and set the hook on a fish that didn't impress me. (I'm sure that I hooked it.) Then I saw my other pole get hit. I threw the rod that I was holding in the holder with the fish still attached and grabbed the other one. I asked Capt'n to reel the first one up. He grabbed it but it was slack, soon he felt a tug and swung away. Well his fish was the bigger of the two, so we debated! ("I've got 10 fish." "No you don't, I caught that fish!.") Neither one of us would concede. We had a great time, just having a great time!
At about 4:00pm both the smaller fish and our preferred models decided that it was dinner time. By this time some fishermen had showed up and we put on a nice show. It wasn't quite, a fire drill but it was steady action. We had at least one more double. We were releasing the 1 - 1 1/2 lb. models and keeping the bigger ones.
My last fish settled the debate about big fish. I set the hook and said "OH!". I knew right away that it was heavier. I landed one approaching 6 lb.
We released 8 or 9 and kept 17 for the day.
The final count was something like,
Capt'n 12 and two halves.
fishinone 16 and two halves.
For a total of about 26 actual fish.
Thanks for fishing with me Capt'n, you're good company! Oh, thanks for the great sandwiches too!