Ladi da.

Flounder eat it up though! Hand pouring allows cool things. 

  

Lure dev elopement is a slow process. I have what I want. But I keep thinking I can make it better. More molds and more testing. Hard for a dude with a full schedule and a fishing spot that's giving up lots of flounder. Can't stop fishing man. It's my lifeblood. 

Killer days.

Fishing has been absolutely stellar. Caught a limit of trout on a prototype soft plastic. Trout jumping out of the water going after a plug. Beautiful weather. What can I say. Life is good. Don't have time or the will to write at length on things lately. But the times are worth remembering. 

Hey guess what happened in the town I live in?

All these things. 

Home made lures and trials of patience.

I have made lures. Ones that didn't work like I wanted but still caught fish. Ones that I was sure would work bit failed and spun like a corkscrew in the water. Ones that were just plain failures also. And none of the time spent designing, building, and testing were a waste. All these failures and trials are stepping stones. Experience gained and knowledge collected to one day be focused into creations that are simple perfection. So many ideas that are in need of doing once and failing at. Only to be reworked multiple times until personal vision and function come together in a piece of plastic that does what I want. To swim right and catch fish. So many ideas. Some are probably just unnessicary. Like the broken back plastic lure. I have made this in the past before I dabbled in pouring plastisol. It can be done. But without a tail with a yet undiscovered action is developed it works just like a regular shrimp tail jig. This is one idea. But time is short. I need to focus the muse on current projects. The goal is to create lures that I want that I can't get in stores. Ones that I will fish exclusively. By that I mean I will only have those in my box. No name brands. No more shopping for soft lures. Only looking. Only designing only building. Big things start with small beginnings. And if I can catch a limit of fish plus some on a lure I designed that doesn't even work right. What might happen when I solve the design flaws? Te will only tell. Time that involves my favorite thing to do. Fishing. 

Lure making and beer tasting

I have started to make lures for personal use. Plastisol, silicon molds, hot stuff. I have honestly not done much fishing lately. Weather has been bad. I did catch a couple nice trout before it got cold again. They were following huge balls of shad and when the shad moved through the trout went with them. The weather has been good for drinking beer though. 

Well,

Early morning trip 3-8 am Sat. What will the tide bring in?

The early bird

Bark at the moon!

If you consistently strive to understand the quarry you chase, then you must constantly
explore theory's and gut feelings about that games movement and safe zones. Weigh it all with weather, tide and moon. Then attempt to apply those theory's and proven instances to formulate logical and predictable times when your sacrifice of sleep and family is outweighed by potentially amazing opportunity.

What I'm trying to say is....do your homework. Although its usually the case that the sunrise or sunset brings with it an opportunity for success regardless of factors. The time you are betting on is only a couple of hours before the light or darkness moves fish from their safe feeding zones or into different patterns that might take more time and lost tidal movement to dial into. Thus reducing the total time on pattern and ultimately reducing your chance for success. I'm primarily addressing the early spring and summer patterns in this instance. For winter daylight brings warmth and can be your best friend.

During one of my recent fishing excursions I was facing highs in the mid 70's and a low of abut 60. The water was still a little chilly but warm enough that fish would be active and feeding pre dawn. Plus being a weekend and a slack tide at 7 am the morning/day bite wasn't in my time frame. The moon was setting at 4 am so I wanted to be fishing before then. I slipped into the water at 3 am and caught my first male trout at 3:30. I had enough action to call it a great trip in one hour. Gradually the topwater explosions became slaps and looks. At about 6:30 I caught my last trout. Which also coincided with an armada of boats and waders. I think I counted 11 waders right before I left at 9am. I didn't see another fish caught. I managed a small redfish on topwater before ALL the bait stopped showing at about 7 on the dot. I switched tactics and lucked into 4 1/2 pound flounder on a corky devil. And then no bites were had for two whole hours. Albeit the tide had stopped but if fish are in an area you can sometimes get some looks or taps to reassure you without their commitment. I was fishing a large sand flat to really just try and feel the fish out and I think I did. I stayed late and observed from the shore to see if the incoming brought more feeding fish but the high sky's were a bad combo with the gin clear water and the trout were scattered. Moved off to deeper sanctuary to most likely set up on a drop off and await glass minnows pushed by the tide and shrimp migrating in from the gulf. I might have just gotten lucky but I like to think that planning and understanding of conditions was the deciding factor to my success.

Early spring can be a tough nut to crack. Some fish have already moved onto the sand flats that will be used to spawn when the temps are right. these flats also double as vast roaming feeding zones. Although in the early part of the year when water temps aren't at their optimal level these areas mainly contain smaller male with the occasional eater female. Theirs always a chance to luck into a larger female if the conditions are in your favor. But before the first big spring full moon the larger fish are still mostly in transition. And your best chance to catch the pre spawn fatback trout or your dreams might be more of a reality if you concentrate on fishing more winter time haunts with springtime features nearby. Key in on the shallower shoreline areas with bait. Work slow. Move slow. Make a LOT of casts before you take a few steps and push forward. Be patient. If you don't get any bites try switching lures of move 30 yards down the shore. If big fish are around they might be on a slow cruise. Mingling with male suitors and trying to get an easy meal before their big date.

All in all I have had a good spring. I released a seven pound trout caught on a bomber long A in knee deep water and caught a five pound flounder on the same trip fishing a lunker candy colored gambler dipped with a chartruse tail. Hopefully I can get out and have some more success, but I will just hope to get out and let the cards fall where they may. You know what they say about a bad days fishing.

P.S. I bought the fucking glasses. We will see how long they last. Trying to just use them while driving and fishing. And I'm sticking to that. So maybe the last time I fall for it!