Always interesting. Every day is different. On the water: The best fishing hasn’t started yet. It has been good but it hasn’t been “winter good.” Off the water: Capmel.com went through the biggest upgrade in years. So, the site got so big is was clogged. Performance wasn’t good. I spent a lot of time researching it, talking it over with my experts. I made a move. Now that site cruises. And with the plan it’s in, it will continue to get better.
Something I can’t remember happening in forever. Today, throwing a topwater lure for the first hour of the day. NOT A SINGLE blowup. Not one. Switching to jigs, the ladyfish and trout were pretty good. But NOTHING on the topwater. Silver trout? Strikeout. It’s the time of year they should be easy. I caught one. One. That’s completely odd.
Pompano led the charge in 2017. It hit the wall three weeks ago. It didn’t take me long to figure it out: They moved 250 yards. Why they aren’t where they had been: I’ll never know. They’re still here, they’re still huge.
The next project when there’s time: Book publication. A long time in the coming, the first book is the Kayak Fishing book. It will be the best kayak fishing book ever put out. If there is one thing I know it is fishing from a plastic boat. That’s what you get when you spend more time than anyone on Earth sitting in these things the last 13 years.
Customer feedback has been great. I expect people to get me back positive reports when they go fishing on their own. Afterall, I’ve trained them.
Thinking back, I had some great contacts in the fishing world. One guy, now no longer with us: Doug Hemmer. If you are into fishing and from around here you know him from TV. He was on the Channel 13 fishing shows. That guy was great. I wish we had worked harder at hanging out more. The guy really liked it that I was a baseball umpire. I don’
t think he really liked baseball necessarily. But he liked not only what I had done but what I stand for. He was there when a guy was acting up and I said to everyone “Just ignore him.” It continued and I stood up, walked right up to this guy and just undressed him. The guy left, completely embarrassed. I sat back down and Doug said “That’s your way of ignoring him?” Everyone broke into laughter. I said “Actually yes. You should see what I would have done if the guy actually upset me.”
Of course, going farther back, Mel. I miss Mel more all the time. Mel and I were not as close as we could have been. But we had something pretty special. I was his co-speaker at every major speaking engagement he had his last three years alive. He kept me regular on his radio show. What Mel liked was that I knew my place. It was his show. When he spoke, I was silent. In his final year and a half, he would sneeze or cough and he wouldn’t be able to speak for a long period of time. I stepped up. No dead air. When he was ready he took back over. He never said anything about it. Other people kind of figured it out. It was a good team effort. Mel was a great communicator. Where he had me beat: he really liked people. All kinds. It didn’t matter. He liked them all.
My ex-girlfriend from 14 years ago, I have seen glimpses of her online. I got her so into fishing she is getting pictures with fish I haven’t even caught. My father liked the story. It is about two years after we broke up. She is recently married. I run into her in a parking lot. She starts to complain about her husband and how he doesn’t know anything about fishing. I said “Wait a minute.” And she stared at me. I continued “you were unhappy when you were catching fish. Now you are unhappy because you’re not catching fish. Maybe it is your problem, not mine or his.”
My father says “No matter how much you like something, you will eventually burn out on it.” Probaby true. I’ve averaged 270 days per year on the water for years. I can tell you, there are times where I sigh. To me, more about being out in the sun than anything but it can wear you down. But today I said to the guy I had with me “All things held constant, I would still rather be right here every day than anywhere else.” That’s the truth. Off days I mostly try to keep as off day, same thing I mentioned above: Staying out of the sun. But I am still inclined to get out there on an off day if I’ve got someone else that would like to go. They’re usually shorter trips, by design, but I will still go. I love those two hour outings.
You think you’re having a bad day? My client from last week: He has a major heart attack the night before I was supposed to take him fishing. Nine days later, he’s on the upswing. He’s having a good day. A car drives up into his yard and runs him over. He’s back in intensive care. That guy, that guy hasn’t caught a break lately.
The next time: My thoughts revisiting baseball. I had a vision.
Don’t be an idiot, let every snook go. Don’t be a jerk: Only keep legal fish. Unless it’s a snook. You kill a snook legally, you are still a moron.
Be careful out there.
Neil
- The Neil Blog… - July 26, 2023
- The Catfish - July 26, 2023
- update - July 22, 2023
