If you have kids (or in my case grandkids that live with you) you probably know that this weekend in Columbus Day weekend or now I'm hearing it called indigenous peoples weekend? I can't keep up... Anyway, the point is the boys had a day off school yesterday. And when that happens, those of us that work from home, have the added responsibility of entertaining them while we try and get our work done.
My daughter was off yesterday so in the morning she had them out playing and took them to the halloween store to get costumes. In our house Halloween is second only to Christmas in importance on the holiday rickter scale. That took us up to about lunch time so in the afternoon, it fell to me to keep them out of trouble for a while. You'll never guess what I did...
Yep, took 'em fishing. So I worked up to about 1:00 and then we headed out. Needed gas in the truck and the boat. (expensive date, I know). Since it was mid afternoon, I didn't want to spend a lot of time chasing shad so I pulled some frozen skipjack from the freezer and we planned on heading right to the fishing spot. I know it's not a good habit to spot fish, but when there is no reason for a pattern change, there is nothing wrong with starting to scan where you last saw the fish. So that's what I did. Headed to the same spot I was catching them in on Wednesday.
About a 10 minute run from the marina and I pulled up right on top of 'em again. Still in the same place, still a good number of marks. Wind had come around and was out of the North. So I went to the far end of the drift and started pulling baits back to the South. Wasn't long and I started seeing dink bites. and about 10 minutes in, wham! #1 rod goes down hard and the planer board takes of like a bullet out of a gun!
I yelled at Jer, get him! get him! Good fish! Good fish! He sprang into action. The look on his face when he couldn't pull the rod out of the rod holder was priceless. He fought back and got it out and started reeling. This was an outside board so it was a long ways out. He kept saying it's too heavy, it's too heavy. I kept saying no it's not, no it's not. You are gonna do this yourself! He got the board up to the rod and I pulled it off. He then looks at me and says "How far out there did you put this Poppy?!" I said nevermind. Just keep reeling!
Well after we got the board off, the fish came to the top belly up so you could see color back behind the boat. Jer saw that and didn't know what to do. Jeez Poppy! He's huge! That adrenaline rush gave him the strength to finish the fight and get the fish to the boat where I got him in the net. Mission accomplished!
I have been trying to get Jer off his 15 pound PB for a long time and yesterday was finally the day. She weighed in at a little under 22 pounds! When we went to get a picture of Jer with the fish, he was having trouble holding it. Wyatt jumps up and says, Poppy, I'll help him cuz that's what brothers do! So he stood there beside Jer and together they got the fish up for the picture, not without a little struggle. Haha. But they got the job done.
We Wyatt doesn't like to be out done but yesterday he came up a little short. He followed up Jer's 22 with a teener a few minutes later. And just like before, the two of them worked together to get the fish up for a picture.
That was all we had time for. Back to painting this morning. I am looking forward to this reno being over. It is really cutting into my fishing schedule!
God Bless & Tight Lines y'all be safe out there this weekend...