Eelin' for the Bigguns

After 47 days without fishing, I finally finagled my way out to the water. The wind was finally looking right, I still had the ok from the boss to take a day off, and I had a plan to make sure the wife was happy. So, after a full day of work and putting Natalie to sleep, I was good to go. When my mother-in-law found out what I was doing, she had a bewildered look on her face asking "You're doin' what?!?! You know it dropped down to 12 degrees last night..." I reassured her I was taking every safety precaution and I was going to be fine. On the flip side, my wife is not even phased anymore. She just rolls her eyes and says to have fun.

As I pulled into the launch area, the temp gauge on my dashboard read 24degrees. Freakin' cold indeed. I reached the spot and met up with Justin Mayer, Ashley Bishop and Miles Wong. Ash and Justin had already had a few hook ups but dropped them at the boat. I was all pumped up. Finally out on the water, nice paddle out, fish being hooked up.... it was a great feeling.

Miles hooked up immediately after I joined them. But he also dropped his after a good 2 or 3 minute fight. A couple minutes later, he hooked up again and it was pure chaos when he brought it up to the surface. We heard the big splashes in the darkness, followed by a "Ohhhh man....". It came off, again. It was the same story with Ash as well. Except it happened 4 times!!! Poor guy had some tough luck but I'm sure he'll be back out there soon to redeem himself.

It was Justin with the hot rod of the night. He landed a 38", 39", 40", 44" and 45". The 44" and 45" came back to back. Just as he was landing the first, his other rod went off zipping.

Justin's 40"er.

Justin with his double.

While all this is happening, I'm not getting a single bump. I was using the same technique, same depth, right next to him, and I just wasn't getting any bites. And then the bite shut off. No one was getting anything and that awesome feeling I had earlier when I got to the spot was wearing off. After 6 hours on the water, the penetrating cold was starting to get to me and I desperately wiggled my toes in futile attempt to warm them up. Then, just as we decided to move to a different spot, BAM! I was instantly on a sleigh ride. I mean, I was bookin'. Justin said he had to paddle pretty hard to catch up to me. After an intense fight, with a big ol' grin on my face, I leg lifted him in.

44" Release Citation

It's funny how your frozen feet don't bother you after that!

I got back to Richmond by 8am, just in time to feed my daughter and take her to daycare. And now it's nap time for me.

Before we left, I said to the guys, "It's amazing how much money we'll spend, time we'll put in, the number of "stupid" things we'll do for that 3 or 4 minutes."

It's worth it.