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Well last trip I was skunked and embarrassed by my father in law that caught ten fish while I sat there with nothing... (9 mudcats and a nice carp for bait)... Still don't know what was up with me that day... So last night I ran out about 7:30 just to try it even though I didn't have much hope after the storm and cold the last few days and with the wind blowing it didn't look like a good night... but I had time that I could sneak out, so I did... It was slow to start with nothing for at least a half hour and then finally a hit, I set the hook and wow, I woke the beast... That thing pulled like nothing else I've seen lately... Fun fight, I pulled it close about six times to have it turn around and peel half the line off my reel in great blistering runs... as it was close I would pull like crazy to try to get it off the bottom and see what I had tied into, but I couldn't budge it... Well I won't bore you any longer with the details, I finally landed it and was surprised it was only a 24" male channel cat... Casted back out and a while later after a soft bite I ended up with a 24" female channel cat... Flipped it back out and this time I got into something a little bigger... didn't fight like the first one, but it was still good... Ended up with a 27" female channel cat, but she swallowed it so I had to cut my line to let her go... While I was tying my new hook on, I flicked out my bobber pole... before I got the hook finished it took off... This one didn't feel the same, and I guessed maybe a bass had grabbed it... Well sure enough it was a beauty, 17.5" LMB... Took a chunk of carp suspended on the bobber... big surprise to me... Cast back in and finished up with a 23" channel cat as the Jazz was winning the game and it was time to quit... Fun night, hard to believe how it can go from skunk to good night from trip to trip... but it always does for me... Did I ever mention I love fishing!! Later J
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I almost used the weather as an excuse not to go out to Willard the last two days. Turned out to be the two best trips this year. Guess I'll have to save that weather excuse for another time.
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Nice Jeff. I guess I need more patience. My son and I went out Sunday for a while and caught small cats. We mostly went for a boat ride up the river to the Smithfield bridge to show him around. He had never been out there.
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Sounds good Larry, are you still flinging flies? Looking forward to trying Willard at the flotilla this Saturday... Seems like I'm lazy this year and haven't been taking the boat, so I need to get it on the pond and this should be a good excuse... got the trolling motor remounted and set up my sonar phone fish finder transducer as a permanent mount on the boat so I'm excited to see how these things work... May not be as easy to try a fly from the boat as the toon, but I'll probably bring it anyway... Glad you had some good trips... You still just chasing kitties or are you picking up the wiper now days? Thanks J
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Jeff, picked up six wipers yesterday evening between wind/rain storms, all on flied. Also got a Kittie dragging a FLIG. Report posted under fly fishing. Here's a picture of the flies that the wipers liked. Not sure if I'll be there Saturday. Might be wandering around the desert.
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Hey Rod that sounds like a lot of fun... I don't think it's so much patience as being there at the right time... Some nights they just don't bite... Other days it's fun.... Last night for some reason was one of the better ones... Next trip will suck... It just goes that way for me, on or off... I think the important part is just to go try it when you can and have fun while your doing it.. A trip with your son up exploring the river was probably about as good as it can get... Fun times... Once you set up with a tried and proven set up, stick with it and if they don't bite in half hour move on... Good luck getting your son out with ya more often... that should be great fun to come... Later J
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Thanks for the report Larry, sounds like a blast... We'll miss ya if you don't make it, but I'm sure I'll see ya around to get ya your flag.. Just don't get lost in the desert, fishing isn't that good out there... Later J
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It was really nice of you to let the father-in-law catch all the fish! Glad you had some fun by yourself. I've noticed that I always catch the biggest and the most when I'm by myself. But it is usually more fun to go with another fisherman
Thanks for the report!
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Wish I was that nice, but about 7 to zippo as the razz'en was starting to heat up, I pulled the carp off and put on crawlers like Rich was fish'en with and I still got skunked.. So I full on earned this one... In fact I stayed about fifteen minutes longer than we had agreed on to try and break the skunk... didn't work... So I'm like you, if I want to catch the most and biggest I have to go alone too!!! It's fun to take Rich and he loves it when he's catching fish and I'm not... think it makes his day... So this was one skunkin that wasn't as hard to take... Later J
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Way to go Jeff! I'm glad you got some kitties and a bass!!!
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Good to hear you are tearing them up again man I hope to get out and put a few on the board right after I shot a Turkey [cool]
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Thanks Derek, it was quite the fluke to find the bass, but I was happy to take a fluke... Funny when you're used to fighting kitties the bass don't seem to be as great of a fight as they are when you're going after bass... That bass would have been a high light to my bass season, but when I was used to muscling the cats, I didn't get to have the enjoyment of a bass battle... I hate to waste a good chance, so I put it back to try it again when I'm looking for bass... Went back out again last night, because I'm addicted ya know, only it was much much slower... thought I might be skunked, but got one at the closing bell that was a good fish... Thought it might go 28, but when I put it on the board it shrunk to 25.5 to 26" but it was a fat toad and filled my whole bump board side to side, but my stupid phone said its memory was full so I couldn't take a photo... let her go to spawn us a new crop... That was an amazing fish... Are you getting out this year? I think that spot you like on the west side will probably be yielding the same type cats... I've been wanting to try that area, but I don't have long enough to get there and still fish each night... My trips are down to about an hour a night now, so I have to get in the water quick so I have some soak time... Funny that my longer trips don't seem to do as well as my short trips.... Look for those active carp areas, these crazy cats are hanging with the carp... Hope you can find time to get out we need a couple good fish to keep the north ahead... Good luck... J
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Thanks, it's fun to get back into them... I was starting to get nervous and afraid they moved on me, but they swam back through... I still want to get to the area we discussed, I heard there are a couple groups fishing the area. I'll probably PM to find out if it was you or another group... As the carp spawn kicks into go time, I know the cats follow them into the really shallow, so I expect we'll see some switch in pattern soon... Man I'd like to find a big one soon... I know my window is closing and I need to get my good fish on the board before it's too late for me... Just can't find those contest worthy fish... fun to try though... Later J
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