Thread: It is official !!

Today was the first full day for my friend Les of retirement. So like any good friend would do, I invited him out fishing. Now this is not something new for me to do. I have invited him out fishing lots of times, and some of those times have been in the middle of the week when he seemed to be always working. And he has made note of that as he turned down my offer to join me. BUT today ( Thursday , in the middle of the week ) he accepted my offer.

We met at the ramp before sun up and were on our way. There was a slight chop on the water and a bit of wind. I checked our drift, adjusted the boat and we set out the rods. We settled down to a good morning of fishing. Les seemed to settle into the routien a little too much.


Our first pass started off nice with me bringing in a nice 13 incher. It was a little slow this morning with only two fish making it to the box on our first pass. We pull the rods and make a run back to our starting point for our second try. Nothing to get excited about on this run also. Time to change things up. The temperature had dropped last night and water temp was down a couple of degrees. Maybe the fish have moved in closer to shore ? We set a new course. It worked ! Les' rod goes off and he has a fight on his hands. The fish is not giving in to Les and it is all he can do to turn the fish. Slowly he gains some line.We have 10 rods out and he is doing his best not to let that fish run across those other line. I stand by with the net.


One cat fish in the box. Not bad for a 12 ft rod on 4# test line.

Things still have been a little slow. That is when Les said that it was time to break out his secret weapon, Slab Sauce !

Now mind you that he is fishing from the back of the boat, while I am fishing off the front of it. He adds the magic juice to his lures and sets the rods behind the boat. Within 5 minutes three rods go off one right after the other. All of mine at the front of the boat.

The first fish is a fair size crappie, followed by a small striper ( that tangled itself in the net ). The third fish was also a nice crappie that I tried to lift into the boat. I should have waited for the net. Lost him !

By this time it has gotten late and we point the boat towards the ramp. I take a shallower path back hoping to test the waters on the way back. It worked as we picked up a few more fish.





Count for the day: 1 cat fish, 2 stripers, 3 LDR's, several shorts and 10 keepers that made the ride home.

Les, I hope you enjoyed your first day of retirement .I know I did. lol

Until next time, Tight lines and full nets

Jim

Yesterday was the first time I ran ethanol free gas in my Mercury. My old merc started and run like a new motor. It was worth the extra cash for good gas.