Monroe Saturday Morning

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.

Sounds like a great trip.
Glad that I was able to convince you for the fly.

Great story and pics, thanks for sharing. That's the Sam Heaton Rear Seat BnM pole you won at the Crescent event, isn't it. Cool, glad you like it. Can't beat a BGBS on a BnM, a great combo.

Great pix and prose. Thanks.

Awesome pics.... My son was by the opp this morning and bagged a 15.... He said it was slow also. Thanks for the report.... Again great pics!

Nice report and some great pictures, thanks for sharing.

Wonder what broke the new rod? Hate when that happens. Least ya caught a few anyway.

Nice report. thanks for all the detail.

Hey all, what is the "OPP?"

Old Power Plant.

Thanks for the read Skeet, on-call this week :(, but reading this & watching some angler's edge this morning, just might have to wet a line in local pond today.....

Great report and I really enjoyed those early morning photos too

Makes a man's soul peaceful.
Thanks

Great post skeet, nice fish !! :fish

Just to bring everyone up to speed; I called BnM about my recent broken rod that I won up at Crescent a few weeks back that was mentioned earlier in this post. I believe the woman's name I spoke with was Janice and she told me why the rod cracked like it did. It seems that they aren't designed to cast but to dip and the way they're designed to be light takes away some of the backbone in the lower portion. Hence if you cast them you stand a chance of cracking the lower end as i did. While I had her on the phone I brought up the recent broken tip on one of my BGJP 8 footers, the new style. See, I'm real particular about how my rods are treated and stored and I couldn't understand why this one broke as it did. Had I damaged or abused it I would have just bought another and tried not to do what I had done to break this one again. She was nice enough to wave the policy that would have prevented the tip being replaced and include one with the butt section of the other rod. I have to say I didn't expect that. I can't say enough about their customer service, and the rods that I've been using for several years and these are the first issues I've had. I do everything with my BGJP's and probably should upgrade to the PST's sometime in the future. Just had to shout out about being treated well by corporate America for a change.

BnM good folks. I have a few and a few Crappiemax. Now that my Tracker discount is done will be more BnM when needed. Just picked 2 West Point Classic 8' to replace the 2 I was running that were to fast for my likings. Next up is a BnM ultralight bottom reel seat to replace another pole.

Got my replacements for the broken rods today. Can't beat the customer service at BnM. Just in time to go pad dippin this weekend.

I will be doin same as last weekend.

Forecast is for 10 to 20 mph winds and I'm working today. I can help for a while if you need.