The fish whisperer :)

[5th Tuition]

Such a pretty night; I had to run down to the boat and see who was there and what was happening.

Mako Mike and his friend Dale showed up and planned to make a quick run to see what the waters close to the Bodkin could produce. I've been wanting to get Mike on my boat, so I suggested we take my Judge. Made a short run south and scoped the area for working birds. Nothing happening that we could see.

I dropped 5 trolling rods in the channel and then began to work the edge. Lines were in the water about 15 minutes when I spotted birds working Belvedere. We wound up the big sticks and ran to the flock of birds with the "little wippy ones".
As soon as I got there, the birds stopped working. Still plenty sitting on the water, and we saw Shawn Kimbro's "Thunder Road" preparing to leave the area This most likely meant small fish (if Shawn didn't want to stay).

We were really only interested in some bent bent rods with the HOPE of a keeper or two. I was jigging small metal because I figured a six inch BKD might be too big. Sure enough, tiny fish 6-12 inches found my jig. Mike had a gulp plastic shad (maybe 5 inches) and Dale had something similar. We all laughed and ragged on each other as we continued to boat dinks.

Suddenly, Mike hooked one that stretched his line and threw a decent bend in his rod. We all told him he had foul hooked a small one He convinced me to get the net, and a keeper came onboard. Mike noticed some nice splashes and was sorry he didn't have any topwater plugs. I looked around my tackle and found one that was just a bit big for the fish we were catching Mike tied it on anyway, and on the first cast, had a good swirl behind the lure. The second cast produced a nice 22 inch striper

Dale and I continued to hook into the small stuff. Eventually, Mike went back to his gulp lure and put a third keeper in the box. I continued to be the good host and let my crew catch all the good fish

Good to be able to make a quick trip; have at least one angler who could catch keepers; and get back in just before dark. Mike did such a good job, I was almost tempted to show him the Judge secret handshake

5th