Monroe Saturday Morning

[skeetbum]

I watched someone do real well single poling on Monroe a few weeks back and couldn't get it out of my mind. I had the dipping rod I won at Crescent and was itching to get it wet also. Flycaster also had a couple caught with his fly rod and that was bugging me too. I heard of fish elsewhere that I could have gotten into but when I got to the corner of the street this morning I still hadn't made up my mind. So Monroe it was.

Gate was still closed when I went by so I went to the free side and got busy. Still pitch dark when I parked the truck I didn't even fire the outboard, just dropped the TM and grabbed the fly rod and started casting to the bridge pilings. The sun had started to show and my truck had said it was 44*. Insulated bibs and a Carhartt jacket made me a little constrained but it was going to warm up nice so I figured what the heck, live with it. Post after post was helping me knock the rust off cuz I haven't held a fly rod for a minute, and it was all coming back. worked my way down through and finally, as I was letting the Clouser I had tied drop a little more than I had been I felt the telltale"TIC". The little 4 weight had a tough time for a little while but I finally got him to the boat, a stout one about 12", and after his pic he went back for another day. I believe it was a male, no swell to the belly. OK, 1 down and 2 to go.

Now there was light in the sky and I figured they would move a little deeper because of it, and I was right. Pitched out my little BGBS and let it fall, and with a 1/32 and some current that takes a while. Just about to move on and here was the "TIC" once again. I really like the 10' Sam Heaton dippin rod, handled the fish nicely. He (also a male) had his photo op and back he went too. Now there's light every where and I moved around to try some of the other pilings on the other side. Pitched around for 10 minutes or so and I went to pitch to one of the clusters of pilings and there was a funny sound. No one around, nothing close enough to have been hit, wonder what that was. Went to pitch again and the same sound. Started looking the rod over and found it had cracked in the lower section. So much for enjoying that today.

I pulled out the favorite of mine and continued working anything that looked fishy. But that was a wasted effort, found no others. Now I just had to try and find those fish up by the OPP. Tried everything I knew, not many fish on the sonar, hardly any other boats and none of them busy at all, just covering water, and time was a wastin. Pulled the TM and fired up and went downriver some and started pitching to the cypress, nada. Pitched the drop offs I could find, nada. Fooled around and caught a nice little Shellcracker and a dandy Bluegill that would have filleted very well but little more. Didn't see anyone else doing very well and no one I spoke with had anything to speak of.

My stomach had been talking to me for a while and I hate checking what time it is when I don't have a schedule to follow so down by marker 189 I called it done and headed back. The air was crisp and quiet, the sunrise was outstanding, and I got some things out of my system. All in all a good day. Enjoy the pics, and thanks for tolerating my rambling......Skeet.