Thread: Yesterday's shakeup/down was

another example, although ultimately awesome +, had its moments building early on. AJ had recently informed me that a "men-only" trip would be on the agenda because of his new bride of under 2 years(Kathy)had TCB issues. Though sad for our 1st meetup, there will be definitely be other opportunities now. The shakeup portion of the title didn't take long to rear it's ugly head occurring just 7 minutes from our meetup spot! Early, headlights-needed timeframe, yielded a line of traffic coming towards us from the E @ 50 mph on a rural-type roadway. We felt a slight thump as the 1st vehicle(handyman passenger truck) lost it's 6' step ladder off a side-mounted(driver side) rack. Actually happening as our front bumpers crossed which propelled the ladder spinning towards my towed rig. Due to darkness, this was only formulated after our pull-over investigation as all the traffic sped off unknowingly to the West. Luckily, as they say, it could have been much worse ] Gotta now wonder about the "rest of our day"! I'll reveal, at this point, my chosen destination of where the re-kindling of our 9 year hiatus(re- my retirement) would be. My recently built (newbie) fondness of what Highland Park>Lake Woodruff ambiance has to offer really has no competition. Now AJ is definitely capable of quickly adjusting to the learning curve from his deep-water SW Grouper passion to this skinny water, skinny tackle stuff... L/l'g 10 rods was 1st method of 3 to "teach" him. Mother Nature would be extra kind to us today beginning with our easy-peasy 3 mph N wind. I tried, within reason, to basically instruct while AJ had the FUN! After deploying just the 3rd rod, I informed AJ to attend to his 2nd rod's(blue/chartreuse curly tail) over here, throbbing activity. After slipping the rubber net under the thick-shouldered 11.5", I was thrilled to let the earlier accident activity fade. Now, we were going to load the box... or were we? As many of us have found, sometimes finding quick success leads to "only" success. Definitely hit a dry spell before AJ would get to leave his comfortable rear seat for his early morning, skinny-fishing exercise class. After more of the somewhat monotonous l/l'g catch/release/keep, we yielded to pad dipping and then to my "William Tell" fav s/p'g! Had aboard some minners in case AJ Tell had "foliage interruptus"! Going 1st, I added a 1 - 10 proficiency scale to show him what the high percentage cast would look like. I started off casually with the me cast/hand off that modest yield. Now is when the laughing loudens!(Sorry AJ, I really did try to suppress your Horticultural "tendencies") Actually, all kidding aside(possible?) he did well. Significantly seen when he presented a perfect "11"!(Also verbally announced) Just 1.5 seconds later it was styrofoam in the southbound lane! A tiny bit soon, he enthusiastically set the hook and briefly turned a large-headed speck b4 he would have to try to duplicate his proficiency. Sorry, AJ, next spot...we managed a few more fish encounters, including a tutorial on his mudfish WTF is this? Truly a 12 hour door to door day of some keepers/throwbacks, fun and laughs to tighten the 9 year vacation between us.No manatee sightings but plenty finger-pointing exercising with da Gators! Thanks for the read/enjoy the pics-

ps- on another note- when you hear someone say "It's more than just about catching fish" = believe it! When you fish mainly solo, it doesn't really ring as loudly as it does when fishing with a true friend, especially while catching up on each other's lives. Lastly, but easily not leastly...where is this Kathy person??

u2s