So, I was awake at 4:45 AM and just clearing the eye stuff when the phone rang. Should have been the alarm, but . . . Bill Fowler was on Kerr and the high wind and lack of adequate baits in the tank prompted him to cancel his travel to LKA. With only a couple dozen baits in his tank, there wouldn't be numbers for 2 boats. I sent a text to Marcus to see what his druthers were. In Bumpass, the weather was overcast and threatening rain, but no wind.
The return text said that my crew was on the way, bait or no bait. Got the Sea Pro launched and we were on the water at 6:30, a half hour late. Marcus and Nathan were anxious. Stopped at dike 2 to see if there were baits, but the sonar wasn't working? Tried to get the trolling motor to run, but it had power and wouldn't rotate. An impossible situation! Kept playing with the remote and finally got the head to rotate so there was direction, but I'd drifted into 0 depth. Fired the outboard, bad idea, and headed for deep water. Bump, and another bump, obviously the motor hitting rocks. :( OK, clear and on our way to Fish Tales to get bait. Marcus loaded $25 of jumbo shiners on the boat and we had to wait for the 55 degree bait to increase somewhat near my bait tank. Finally got the baits in my tank and we were off again.
Today's crew: Marcus doing the selfie, Nathan on the left doing the bird, and Joy at the helm.
Nathan's first keeper of the day.
Right outside the no-wake area, we saw many arches, finally did an about face and dropped baits - nothing. So, went up the river toward the destination called the "SPLITS". All kinds of boats across from JET's Island, so we looked there for a few minutes. Not seeing much on the sonar, we opted to get on with the planned Pete's thoughts. Saw Himbey's pontoon leaving High Point while we headed up river. He kept on going above Jet's and we didn't see him until later in the day.
Up the North Anna River to the Rose Valley Cove, but didn't see much. Dropped baits anyway just in case the stripers were scattered. No luck! So, headed back through the "S" curves to the Splits. Tried toward Jet's for a bit, but nothing. Then headed back to the starting area just outside the no wake markers at Fish Tales. I decided to do the drop offs on the way and Nathan picked up his first keeper of the day. That was it . . . and then Hemby's pontoon motored toward us. Of course we would love baits! About 4 dozen very nice hardened baits. Got new striper location info - at the mouth of Marshall Creek. Hemby's associate had taken clients to the area twice earlier in the morning and limited.
Back up river to Marshalls Creek and found deep water just down river from the mouth that had tons of arches. Picked up one dink and continued to get hits - catfish type and boated several 10 inchers. Finally opted to go into Marshalls Creek and picked up a large catfish for the cooler. Back to the deep water where all the arch activity was. Still only catfish hits.
Getting late and Marcus had to be at his house by 3 PM. Got to the dock in time. Nathan helped me unload gear and he was on his way. Nathan was a happy fisherman because he caught the only keepers of the day. I didn't fish, only tried to get the boat going. Marcus only got small catfish for toss back.
Exhausted, I didn't have the energy to clean the bait tank. The boat is still in a location where the hose will reach. But, Saturday after the fish day, each time I decided to get to the boat, monsoon rain fell. Now Sunday and it seems clear after continued T-storm all night.
Bill Fowler and crew fished Kerr with a limited bait supply and boated a couple of stripers and blues.
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