A youngster gets personal best

[goinsfishin]

Crew today was Jerry (Swartj), John (Jalopy), and Jeremiah a 13 y.o. young man who lives in my neighborhood.
I went down to the dock this morning and the entire boat was covered with about an inch of hard frozen ice……chipped away enough to get the battery hatch open and the motor running and then dumped some salt on the rest of it. So we started out with a Parker ice rink.
We left Deale at 0700 and headed where I left them Friday….ran east and dropped lines in 50 feet. The guys worked bit by bit to clear the remaining ice off the deck.
I’ve fished with John and Jerry so some experienced hands were on deck to get Jeremiah involved and helping.
A slow bite today, had to work for them……lots of bait and fish on the finder but they were all deep and seemed to have lockjaw.
First fish hit a 21 Tony on the WTFB line, Jeremiah was up and tried valiantly but it tangled with another line and he had to hand off to John…….a nice 34” ended up on ice…..and a tired kid went to take a nap with JoeDaDog in the vberth.
Two hours later we had a flurry of smaller fish, a 20” off a yellow UB trimmed with Storms, and it’s two brothers off a white board tandem and a yellow tandem WB.
Then a long boat ride…..
Around 300 we decided to pull lines, as we were doing so a chart tandem at 225 ft got hit good. Jeremiah got the rod and he wasn’t going to give up this fish ! (Especially after all the ribbing he took). He kept cranking and we kept coaching and a fat 37” came over the side. Jeremiah’s biggest fish ever !!!!!
Back at the dock I don’t know who was prouder, him or his father who came down to meet us !
John and I cleaned up boat as Jeremiah and Jerry cleaned fish….we wanted to make sure the young man got the full experience.

WX was cold, wind was up 15-20 most of the day, seas were choppy….Parker weather.
Not many boats out, didn’t see a Grady all day……