zero to hero

[5th Tuition]

No lie. This has been the WORST start to fishing I have ever had in years. Four Trophy trips netted zero keepers in the box (or released). We did manage a few under <35 but that doesn't count
I couldn't wait until May 16th for the size change. Went out thursday with high expectations. Myself and 5 other boats, skunked

Finally had word where the fish were located and made the long run today. It paid off We had our 6 in the box in less that an hour. What a change
Fish ranged fro 22-31 inches.

On our run back to the barn, I ran shallow water looking for working birds and breaking fish. You heard me right, we have caught fish breaking during spring trophy season. I've never seen breaking fish this early in the season. They were not trophy's but lots of fun catching on light tackle.

My hope was to find them again, now that they were legal.

We found them
Breaking fish 20-26 inches. Topwater worked as well as BKD's. We had a ball releasing fish for over an hour.

I've been hesitant to even ask other anglers to go with me, because my success rate (zero) was so dismal. I needed a day like today just to JUSTIFY my fuel costs from 2019

I'll try to post a couple of photo's from my phone. Bear with me, I hope I'm successful.
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[5th Tuition]

Our nicest trolling fish of 31 inches.

[5th Tuition]

Downscan view of our breaking fish. So thick, even I could jig them

[5th Tuition]

Capt John with a nice fish, jigging.

[EDIT: I got yer pic all cleaned up nice - Scott]

[5th Tuition]

Two nice fish that avoided the box; jigging

[5th Tuition]

Sorry about the photos that came out sideways Don't know how that happened.

Maybe Scott or Mike (Garlien) can turn them for me
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[Chessie27]

Mr C,
I wouldn’t say you were a “zero”, just a guy, like many other guys this year, that hadn’t caught a fish yet. Now that you’ve kicked the skunk off your boat, I’m sure it realizes it is no longer welcome! I’m just hoping he didn’t leave your boat only to find mine!!! Barely any fuel burnt here yet Got out for shakedown cruise ALL the way to Swan Point. Everything seemed fine at least. Maybe schedule and weather will allow some boating this weekend...

[Spot77]

Originally Posted by 5th Tuition

Sorry about the photos that came out sideways Don't know how that happened.

Maybe Scott or Mike (Garlien) can turn them for me
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I did the important one; the downscan!!!

It was kind of a pain in the ass and I'm feeling lazy; I'll do the other ones soon.

[Spot77]

All done.....Nice fish!

[5th Tuition]

Thanks Scott. I knew you could fix the photo's

The sad part is that we haven't been able to reproduce that day We have found some nice schools of fish and pulled fish out of them trolling, but once the word is out on their location, the charters are running two a days over them and siphoning off the keepers. When we return a few days later, it's mostly links left.

We pull two or four keepers out of the area and that's it Constantly on the move looking for another slug of fish seems to be the norm. I've been putting close to 50 miles on the boat each time I'm out

Reports north of the bridge are pretty scarce. We have some guys ready to check out Eastern Bay and West River areas as soon as June 1st opens the fishing to rivers and tributaries.

Next couple of days look to be good winds (low), so get out there and find me some fish
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