Ran the Gamut

So decided to give Jesup a break & fish an old haunt to see how things are doing @ Harney. The gamut would turn out to be: lake, creek, river, sun, cold, wind, current, specks 3"-14", (4) mud fish, couple nice keeper war mouth, & (1) big ole shell cracker. Launched @ 8am, 1st pass trolling lake 10 fish no keepers, but good sign=their biting, however, upon seeing the sites ahead, realize there is 4 boats in the only area I've consistently caught fish this yr @ Harney.....soooo get grumpy or seek a new opportunity??? Chose the later & always look for signs to make decisions, this 1 was wind, which was starting to make rollers by10:30, so let's check-out Deep creek. Switched over to float/jig set-up & wouldn't be long before buttoning up w/a healthy 12"er, went on down the shore & only picked up 1 more keeper, but to my surprise didn't see many other boats of people getting out of the wind, so thought I haven't trolled Deep creek in some time, let's give it a go. Set out the short poles & @ dead middle of the day made about 5 runs 1pm-3pm & yielded 6 more keeper specks, including a beefy 14"er. W/fight of the mud fish & the occasional war mouth, was going to call it a so-so afternoon in hopes the wind has subsided a little to cross the lake, NOPE, crawled back as you can see the wave slap in pic below. Got to the St. John's part of the run to ramp & realized I had 8 fish in the box. Stopped to release the fish & some "LUCK" would present itself as I was distracted by fish busting the surface near the shoreline, didn't know what they were, other than know they weren't gar as they were rolling instead of needle nose snipping. Well gotta check this out, w/perfect spot to drive the boat onto the bank into a fixed position. Good current rolling into a back eddy that musta trapped bait fish. Deployed the CDC rod, Thanks Slab, picked up @ last Slabfest, teamed it w/cigar weighted float & 4ft leader 1/16 jig, dressed w/Mo-glow BG baby shad. Excitement through the roof when the 1st fish runs hard sideways & it's a stud 10" shelly, thinking 10 of these & I'm keeping today's catch. But not to be...& it gets even better as the next 20 fish in about a hrs time is 1 speck after another & 10 more for the box out of the lot.....Can't think of a more awesome way to end the day on a flurry like that, tight lines & final report note, parrot color was the best trolling color....