Fishing with Doug and Nathan Jackson 5/29/19

I picked them up at their hotel at 4:45 this AM and headed to Big Bopper's for breakfast before heading over to Catawba to launch by 6:00.  The pier at Catawba is completely underwater at this time. The pierheads were not underwater when we left this morning, but when the wind shifted and came out of the north around 10am, they flooded and there was about "top of the ankle" deep water for about 15 feet.

We hit the Clinton Reef area early and put 6 eaters in the boat in short order. This was the first time for either of them using the Off Shore planer boards, so it was an instructional trip too. They were eager to learn, so after a quick tutorial on the first rod, they got busy setting the next 5 lines out.

We ran Bandits at 40/50/60 back at 1.7-1.9mph. Blue/Chrome was the hottest with Buck Fever a close second. Sunspot, Antifreeze, and Chrome Barbie were the other colors out. Antifreeze and Sunspot took fish, but the Chrome Barbie, which is usually a fish producer was taken off for its inability to catch one, and replaced with another blue/chrome. 

After turning around and going into the waves and not catching, I took that opportunity to suggest moving to another area, since the radar was showing no storms moving in on us anytime soon. They were game, so we pulled everything in and headed north towards G can. There were some boats in the area, but I didn't see what I wanted to see on the Helix, so we kept moving north up the can line to E Can. Yesterday, there were plenty of fish marks to make me set down there, but not today. Maybe they were still there, and moved a little, but I didn't want to waste any time and headed back down to the south.

We set up near Catawba...short of the starting point I had on Clinton Reef and set a course to intercept that previous line. The Helix was showing massive amounts of Mayflies coming up from the depths to spend their one glorious 24 hours of life on the topside. I kept my fingers crossed that they would still bite in those conditions. 

They did....:)

Boom! Game on! The outside board on the port side started to slide back, but instead of me saying something, I wanted Doug to see it... and, tell me there was a fish on. Earlier in the morning, he kept asking, "How will I know when a fish is on?"  So, when he turned around with that questioning look on his face after he noticed it, I smiled and shook my head...letting him know, "Yes, that's a fish". After that, he had no problem knowing when to grab the rod. :)

Nathan was a natural, even though he's never trolled before, and doesn't fish all that often. He picked it up quick, and in no time at all, he was setting those boards out like he's done it for a long time. 

We picked up the rest of our 18 fish there in front of Catawba and headed in at 10:30. Both men were very pleased with the day's events and their cooler full of fish....and, that makes me happy!

 I think tomorrow is going to be an easy day in the boat...as long as the storms stay off the lake. I think there's more scattered showers and thunderstorms forecast for tomorrow...more than today...so, we'll see.  I don't think it will take very long to get our limit in the boat, and so as long as there's no lightning, we'll fish.

The water temp is up to 61.7 near Catawba.

Fingers crossed that Old Mother Nature wakes up in a good mood tomorrow...

Stay tuned....

Capt Juls