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I was invited to join Herschel Finch and John Lipetz on an Upper Potomac float....Brunswick to Lander. This was to be my 1st cold water kayak float. Of course, 65 degree temps made it easy to make that decision. These guys are smallie river rats so I was in good but intimidating company.
The boys wanted to meet at Penny's Diner at 8 am....I was good with that.They were in no rush to get on the water when it was cold.
Penny's Diner gets a thumbs up!
We went on down to the ramp and got all set up....
No hurry....all is good.
When I had my OK 13 footer, I always put 1/2 of it in the water, sat in the yak and scooted myself in the water. No big deal, did it often with no issues.
So now I have a Jackson Cruise 12. I put 1/2 the yak in the water, sat down and asked John to give me a bump. Ooops....this yak has a higher rear end keel and in a few seconds, I am in the water. Now I am wet and thinking of calling it off. And I have a stogie in my hand (it was the 1st thing that came out of the water)!
Once we determined I was OK (very wet but we retrieved all my gear safely), John lent me a shirt and ready to roll again once I dried off. 1st thing John says is, "this is a good sign, you will catch a pig today".
And I saved my stogie while I dried off!
All is good again!
So we are now on the water and start fishing. Nothing for the 1st hour or so and then I find a deep pool and yell at John to tell him about it. At the same time I am doing that, I get nailed.....
....with this nice @18-19 incher!
John was nice enough to come down and take a nice shot!
I caught it with a HookUp (George) home made jig in green with a Z-Man BatwingZ as a trailer.
That felt soooooo good!
John then hooked up as did Herschel but they we not close to me.
Next fish was @13"....
And I caught another one later as well. Had maybe 2-3 more bites but that was it.
I ended up taking out before they did as I needed to get back to get ready for striper fishing on Saturday. John and Hersch went on to the Brunswick Grill for some chow!!
Saw lots of nice channel cats and was hoping to hook into one but no dice. Also saw some carp.
What a beautiful day to be out on the water!!!!
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Rough start, but that 19"er made up for it I am sure! Way to get a late Fall chunk! Congrats.
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I know where you were ;-)
Nice job & nice jig.
Glad you got a couple nice ones with it.
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Nice! I gotta do a float up there some time.
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Beautiful smallies. I need to put in some work on them this Winter. That's one official looking kayak too.
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ccampo wrote:
. That's one official looking kayak too.
Ha! The guy that I bought it from pimped it out!
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Success all around. Is that black and orange baitcasting rod in the bottom picture the newer model St. Croix Triumph X?
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ccampo wrote:
Success all around. Is that black and orange baitcasting rod in the bottom picture the newer model St. Croix Triumph X?
Not sure what it is....I'll have to ask Herschel.
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Those are some nice fish! What happened to that last guy?? Looks like he ran into something too fast.
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ccampo wrote:
Success all around. Is that black and orange baitcasting rod in the bottom picture the newer model St. Croix Triumph X?
Not sure about the black & orange one, but I do think I see the butt of a St Croix Legend Tournament in one of Ernie's pix
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hookup wrote:
but I do think I see the butt of a St Croix Legend Tournament in one of Ernie's pix
You see right! Just bought it on RS...got very lucky to see it when I did. Incredible price!
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I saw it too. Want to buy the same blank but in 6'6" & build one 4 myself.
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