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Gambled with the wind tonight, 10-15
We've had a great stretch of wonderful fall weather here but nearly every day we've had a wind that has kept me off the water. The last few days it has seemed to calm down about 5:15-5:30 or so. Finished up a bit early at work, flipped a coin, loaded the gear and headed out to try my luck. Air temp 52 at waters edge and water temp between 55 & 56. Wind not bad at the start of the trip but 45 minutes later it was actually getting stronger, not lighter. Figures...
The foliage is great, here are a few pics of my setting today.
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Lines in the water at 3:59 and first bluegill in the boat just 3 minutes later, the first of about 6-7 on this trip.
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Nice 'gills again on this trip, most near 9".
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I clipped on one of Micanopy's hand ties and the first crappie of the night got measured.
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I kept that one tied on for a while but that was the only fish it would fool. I tried a couple of his other ties without any success. But the Tennessee shad color triple tail grub from Southern Pro, on both 1/16 and 1/32 oz. heads would be the clear winners tonight for both crappie and bluegill, although I did get one crappie on the Crappie Magnet, Percy color once again. Here are some of the target species I'd catch and release tonight.
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The wind caused me all kinds of trouble tonight but I kept my patience hat on and just dealt with it. It was really blowing by 5:30, near white cap conditions, but I stayed with it until 6:15 before winding in the lines for good. It was getting darn chilly and I was glad I had on an extra sweatshirt and my PFD; body was warm but the hands were cold.
A total of 16 fish would be landed and released; more crappie than 'gills for a change. I think it was 10 crappie and 6 bluegills. Or 9 & 7....whatever. It was a beautiful night to be out other than the wind; the sky was just amazing with lots of big clouds rolling through, moon coming up, nice sunset, the whole works. Was hoping to see the comet but had a solid line of clouds to the west that blocked it out.
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And one last picture of tonight's sunset.
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I'm glad I went.............
