My friend mentioned to me that some people think I'm getting soft. And in some ways, perhaps I am. Long hours with clients were followed by a myriad of never ending chores, kiddo piano lessons, nerf gun battles, and making sure to create lasting birthday party memories. With timing being what it is, I've been playing make believe fishing in Lego land with my youngins more often than I was actually casting lines in the water. And that's ok. The richness in my life doesn't feel diminished in the least.
I also haven't felt the need to keep this site updated as much and even thought about shutting it down. With social media being what it is now, I wasn't sure it was needed anymore. Then I went back and read some of my old posts. I used to tell stories and really had a nice following. I suspect not many will keep coming back but I don't think I can just delete such great memories. I decided to keep updating from time to time more for my own sake than sharing with others.
On that note, yes I finally had a chance to have a productive fishing session. As in years past, I went on a fall marathon. Time of departure, 9:30pm. First stop, good ol' HRBT. It took a while but I cruised the light line and found the the schoolie stripers chompin. Along with them were a gazillion baby bluefish and grey trout. I had to work the dark paddletail deeper and very close to the pilings to get the stripers to eat it before the blues. I iced two at 22" and took a nap in the car.
A few hours later, I met my good friend and fellow Werner Paddles and Kokatat Team member, Drew Camp. I've been wanting to check out his local lake for some time and the standing invitation had been there a while. After all this time, I can't seem to pull myself away from the trophy/citation hunt. It was a good lake for big channel catfish I was hoping to check that off the list. While catching bait, I suddenly found myself in a familiar mode saying "Get in the boat. Get in the boat!". I went from catching 6-7 inch bream to hooking into what I thought was a nice crappie.... until I realized it was a massive dinner plate size sunfish.
Citation starts at 11" for a Virginia sunfish so needless to say, I was a ecstatic.
Drew was tearing up the bass as usual...
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| 21.5" bass caught on a tiny blade bait vertical jigging |
Drew went on to mention how he's caught tons of the sunfish in that area but never anything that big.
I said I'll take luck any day.
Just then I noticed a grasshopper sitting on the very tip of my bow. Thought it was pretty cool and perhaps lucky.
I went back to fishing and not long after hooked into a really nice channel cat an inch shy of citation on the same tiny ultra light rig with night crawlers that I was catching sunfish on.
That drag was SINGING!
I went on to catch several more in the 28-29" range on normal medium heavy catfish gear but kept coming up shy of that 30" mark needed for trophy.
A few hours went by and I was thinking of calling it a day since I already checked a new trophy specie off the list. On the proverbial "last cast" I hooked into one that pulled me along. I've caught tons of much bigger blue cats and flatheads as well as smaller channel cats. I have to say, I was impressed by the citation class channel cats' strength. They put up a good fight for their size.
And yes, it turned out to be the trophy I was looking for.
And no, I didn't get a grip and grin, like a dummy.
On my way back to the launch I paddled by a downed tree
and my lucky cricket jumped ship.
I smiled and thanked it for the luck.
And on a more serious note, messaged Drew about how much I appreciated him showing me around his spot.
As timing gets tougher and tougher, it's really hard to fully express how amazing it is to have friends willing to help out someone getting "soft".
Like a proper marathon though, on the way back home I stopped at the HRBT again and took my newbie kayak fishing friend Mike. He did better than last time (last year) and hooked several schoolies while managing his kayak better in the current/structure.
I ended up scoring a fat 23"er and one just shy of 28".
I got plans for these guys in the future. 
