Bluegill Ramp

It really isn’t but it’s the ramp from which I chase the local pet bluegills and such. The celebration is that they finally opened the ramp on Thursday. It’s been closed and unsafe since the hurricanes that went through months ago. Today was the first time I got to go see some old friends, and I have missed the quiet mornings I’ve spent there. Quiet is a relative term as the resident bird population was screaming at the top of their lungs. The pileated woodpeckers were heard and seen and the snail Hawk was also seen, a rare thing. The cold weather has the Manatees piled up in Blue Springs a few miles away. The water was still high but below flood stage and flowing kinda fast for a few of the places I like to visit. The app on the phone said high fish activity today but the major feed was this afternoon and the morning minor feed bottomed out about noon or so. Today, I believe them. Fishing was slow but I didn’t expect much anyway. The first contact was a few bumps that finally gave up a 5” gill. Skunk out of the boat and a few casts later came a ten inch LMB. Stretched the line and slipped the drag, I felt accomplished.nothing for the next hour and I moved some and finally decided to change from the hand tie gray ghost to a silver rainbow Bobby Garland Itty Bitty and it got smacked hard in the first six inches of the first cast with it. A nice 9 1/2” bull coppernose gave me what for with a comedy of errors. Didn’t have the bail quite closed and brought tight when he hit, drag was loose and the anti reverse switch got bumped off so I had everything but control for a little bit. Finally came tight with him and the game was on, and he didn’t want to play. Pulled more drag and headed for the trash as he began doing circles. I just stayed tight and he came to the net.
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So on down the bank I go where I picked up 4 small and medium sized gills, but nothing much is going on. Now I’m going through some bedding areas from trips past. Also spooked a big lizard about 9’ long easy who left with a good sized splash. I guess he didn’t like me much. Headed back through where I started and threw into the slot where the good bull came from and got smacked again, and the show was on again. This one wasn’t colored the same and I called it a hen gill but not sure that’s what it was. Almost 9” she gave up a good fight also.
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Now this is a quiet area I fish and right about now a 19’ flats boat comes down through on plane at about 30 and chops the throttle throwing a good sized wake at me , then smiles and waves. I showed restraint. But now that everything was freshly flushed I just wrapped up and headed in, I’d had a good morning in a little over.3 hours.

Worth mention is the guys at the ramp in the morning. Nice enough younger fellers and the one launching the boat was waiting for the one getting the minnows. I helped him drop the boat in and as we talked, here comes his friend with the minnows. Now I’ve seen some unusual methods of transporting the bait of the day but this was a first. I told them he was dedicated to the cause.

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Dumped them into a bucket and headed out with a smile. I hope they did well. They reminded me of me at that age. Run whatcha brung! Hope y’all enjoyed the story, I know I enjoyed the trip. Holler if you see me out and til then, God Bless and take care………Skeet

Super post Tim! Thanks for sharing

Great times

Awesome catches Skeet , that place sounds like paradise to me .
Glad you were able to get back out .

Chaser, I’d love the chance to show it to you. You’d remember it with a smile like mine.

Good times, thanks for sharing

Great post and I love the looks of those Coppernose !!

Good times , congrats on a fine outing bro ... :highfive
reminded me of this .....
had a ding dong buddy open a bag of minnows one time with his cigarette :yikes
It of course was filled with straight oxygen back then and looked like a balloon.
Ever seen 2 dozen minnows explode right at your feet is the next question :Rofl:Rofl

Good story and times! Thanks.
Bob

Very Nice. Can't find bullgills where I fish.

Good post, good story, good day on the water and great memories made.


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Awesome write up Skeet. I was doing some cleaning and ran across a few packs of those baits you like to use. Please pm me your address as I’d like to send them to you and a few JDM jigheads. Thanks as always for taking us along for the ride!