Knives to a Gunfight.

I’m gonna say up front that this will probably be long winded and picture heavy.

Haven’t fished with Phil for too long so today was the day to hit it. I had gotten two new UL 6’6” rods, put some Japanese nylon line on them both, and was just itchin to give em a try. The rods were a Browning Air Stream and a Leland Trout Slayer Series with the somewhat new micro wave guides. This is as close to high end as I’ve ever gotten for UL stuff. The line was 3lb on the one and 2 1/2 on the other. This stuff has more stretch and buoyancy than almost anything else if I understand right. Too much wind forecast for mid day and too many boats around my home waters from a tournament, so what to do..........let’s go get some shad. Recent intel said it was going on, heck yeah......we’re in! Phil showed up at 6:30 and off we went.

Some info on the internet said they’re more active early and late with good activity in the middle of the day if it was overcast. It wasn’t. Everything was loaded so we got out and stopped for breakfast on the run, put in about 7. Not a long run to the fishin grounds, rods tied up the night before, we were fishing in no time. And Phil wasted no time showing how well the Leland rod handled these fish. Drag music, rod bending, these early fish were studs. I had to change a jig or two before I got into the game, but it wasn’t long. Almost forgot, both of out first fish were crappie. Mine might have made a meager sammich but Phil’s, well......
So I’m once again being taken to school from his end of the boat. Most of our hits came from the downcurrent end of the boat, and that made me net man. Lots of these fish would slam the jig, pull the drag and then hit the air. Poor mans tarpon, and we were on the verge of being undergunned for these guys. They had their way with us almost every time.


I stumbled into a color pattern that worked better than any other for us last year, and tied some more of them for this trip. 1/16 seemed to work best with the current, but the lighter ones got hit also. Even on the fly rod. That one was a 1/64 and spoke for two of what we caught today. The wind and my patience made me put it down and go back to the spinners.



So this went on til about 10:30 and it just got slower than I could stand so we went in search of. Speck Detector and I had been out this way last year in the Other Woman, and I remember a creek that we caught a few crappie out of and it was out of the wind, so off we went. Did some sightseeing along the way, saw some extra fast boats and a rope swing or two, and lots of nice houses. Traffic was moderate and most folks were friendly and courteous. A pleasant change. Got there and eased our way in, we both picked up a fish or two pretty quick.



We weren’t alone in here either. Some of the local birds were relaxing and staying out of the wind also. Roseate Spoonbills are common around her and several were roosting together in this one tree. Great blue herons were seemingly always around, and the little blue heron wasn’t bothered that we got a little close. We also saw a Bald Eagle roosting on a dead tree top before we finished the day, always good to see them.


We both caught a few Crappie up in there, mostly out a little deeper and away from the bank in about 10’ . We would have eaten good had we put em on ice but neither of us wanted to, everybody got a pass today. But Phil had to really show off his skill late in the trip. Anyone can catch a big fish but it takes real skill to boat one like this all by yourself.



We ran out of fish in the one area, started getting hungry and it was just plain time to go, we had a good run ahead of us back to the ramp. Half way back we got rinsed when a shower passed by. Glad it was over 70* all day, far enough to go it would have been chilly. A little busy at the ramp but all went smooth, pulled out of the parking lot at 2:30. I felt we had fulfilled many of the tasks we went out to do. I tried some different baits and gotten some answers to make the next trip easier. Thanks for coming along with Phil and I today, we sure had a good time. A day like this in January sure makes the colder days easier to deal with. Hope to see you soon, maybe on the water enjoying what we all love. Til then.......Skeet.