Silverwonder run to MRGO

TEAM JO-JO:

Today's first mate was none other than Big Rick—fresh off a world tour, or as they say, "Down Under." After shaking off the jet lag, recovering from his ailments, and settling back into home turf, he wasted no time letting me know he was ready to get back in the game.

As soon as that text hit my phone—Heady, ready for a fishing trip anytime—I didn’t hesitate. Fingers fired back: What about tomorrow (Tuesday)? The plan? Load up Bay Flat Jr., head out to MRGO, and put those jerk baits to work, chasing after the big girls—the kind that make your drag sing and your heart race.

Big Rick didn’t need much convincing. Just one more text sealed the deal. Can go, he replied. And with that, the trip was locked in. Now, all that’s left is to see what the water, tide, and the Silverwonders have in store for us. Time to make some memories on the water!

SIGNS:                            

·         Got a good night’s sleep

·         Up at 4:45 for our 6:15 AM meet up

·         Had to re-arrange Bay Flat Jr for trip

·         FORD transporter little slowly getting started

·         No wildlife sightings along Hwy 1 or 90

·         Big Rick waiting for me at Gulf Outlet

·         Big Rick looking real relax from his trip

·         We loaded up his gear into Bay Flat Jr, and prepped her for launching

·         Now the question can Big Rick back her down in the water, no problem he handles like a pro.

·         3 pulls to start Yamaha Nightmare Machine, she be looking good too

·         Off to MRGO to start our fun day of fishing.

CONDITIONS:

·          Perfect

·         Wind,  N.N.E. 10-12

·         Water status / conditions: slight chop

·         Sky, overcast, sun came out late

·         Temp, cold, had shirt, sweatshirt, jumpsuit & rain jacket all day, cold it be, real cold running around

·         Water level, down 3-4 feet based on water marks on rocks, rocks come out farther then you think as we lost a few lures fishing it

·         Water Temp , 41.2 F

·         Salinity,    3.6

·         Specific Conductance  6320 

·         Pressure,   30.16  R

·         Water clarity on a scale of 1-7, 6 plus

·         Mississippi gauge:  3.5

·         Caernarvon Outfall:   570        ft3/s

·         Tide,  falling

·         Peak tide,  01:34  H  .04’

·         Peak tide,  11:28  L  0.7’

·         Major Feed Time:  22:25 - none

·         Minor feed time:    08:19 – 16:30

·         Tidal Coefficient:     80

·         Fish Activity

·                              Very  High Activity  

·         Boats out and about,  10

·      ONEOFTHEPACK’S REPERTOIRE OF TECHNIQUES / STRATEGIES      

·         Be safe.

·         Have fun.

·         This is me daily therapy for ALL me aliments.

·         Put some running time on the Bay Flat Jr and the Yamaha Nightmare Machine

·         Gather Intel for future trips, and to share with fisherperson, (on Facebook) to help assist them in their choice of areas to fish, lures to use and presentation of same to the elusive Silverwonders.

·         Catch what catch can.

·         Learn what learn can.

·         Introducing Big Rick to:

§  Bay Flat Jr

§  Gulf Outlet Mariner

§  Bayou Bievenue

§  MRGO

§  Jerk bait / lure fishing

§  Big Girls

§  Operating Yamaha Nightmare Machine

§  Operating trolling motor

§  Not just big girls hungry for lures, but rocks hungry for lures too

§  Cold weather fishing

·         Big home some fishes for Big Rick & Petite Carol

·         Find a spot  # with the seven fundamentals / criteria of catching:

1 WIND AT YOUR BACK: (Perfect it be blowing us towards rocks, even help with our casting distance as we were further from rocks due to low water, and the fish seem to be further out away from rocks.)

2 MOVING WATER: (Falling hard all day, slowed down around 11:30, started to look real good, but we had it and came in)

3 WATER CALRITY: ( 6 plus a little sandy looking, but fish did not seem to mind.)

4 HOLDING FISH:  (MRGO & ICW)

5 PATIENCES: (Needed some bites early then it was one / two here and there, but we enjoyed every second of our trip, and learned a lot from our experience on the eater.)

6 SKILL: (Tossing a jerk bait, presentation was everything, twitch let sit for a long time, twitch let sit for a long time, (NMR) Silverwonders would hit went it sitting, set hook and hold on.)

7 LUCKS: (Big Girls still there)

·      Oneofthepack’s repertoire of Techniques / presentations:

·         Anchor up cast & retrieve slowly along the bottom, with a twitch every now and then, tight lining…………………………………Casting Berkley jerk baits, twitch, stop let sit caught 8 NMR Silverwonders

·         Drift with the wind cast & retrieve (DWWC&R)……………DID NOT TRY

·         Oak River Troll (ORT)……………….Did not try.

·         Reverse Oak River Troll (RORT) ………..DID NOT TRY

·         Oak River Skim (ORS) ……………DID NOT TRY

·         Cork ……..DID NOT TRY

·         Lake P Troll (LPT)…………….Nothing.

·         Drop shot: (2) NMR’s.

·         Dead bait……None

·         Live bait………………None

·      Oneofthepack ‘S repertOIRE of LURE DU JOUR:

·         3” H&H Purple Beetle, matched up with H&H ¼ oz. round white head with gold hook……………Did not try

·         3” Chartreuse Glow Beetle, matched up with H&H ¼ oz. round white head w/gold hook………….Did not try

·         Matrix Shad Lemon Drop, matched up with H&H ¼ oz. round white head w/gold hook……………Did not try.

·         Matrix Shad Lemon Drop, matched up with H&H 3/8 oz. round white head w/gold hook……………DID NOT TRY

·         Matrix Shad Lemon Drop, matched up with H&H 1/2 oz. round white head w/gold hook……………(2) Silverwonder

·         Salt Strong Power Prawn (added 10-25-24) matched up with: Did not use:

§  ¼ oz. jig head :          

§  3/8 oz. jig head :    

§  Tandem Rig:           

·         Matrix Shad Lemon Drop, matched up with 3/4 oz. round lead head w/ 2 trailers, ……Did not try.

·         Tandem rig, ¼ oz. round H&H jig head with gold hook, matched up with Matrix Shad Lemon Drop …..Did not try.

AREAS / SPOTS / NUMBERS ON THE MAP FISHED:

MRGO (5) NMR’s big girls, ICW (3) NMR’s, ICW Boh Bros. they not there yet, made as top in the Pen to see if Redwarriors there yet, none yet. Stopped fishing around 1 :20 called it a day.

OUR REWARDS:

·         Lived to fish another day.

·         (8) Silverwonders, equated to (16) filets for Big Rick & Big Carol

·         Quality time running around in Bay Flat Jr trying to find the mother lode of Silverwonders.

·         Lots of fresh clean, dry, cold air in our lungs

·         Being on the water with one of the best fisherpersons me know that be Big Rick

·         Lessons learned:

§  Big Rick is not sure he can back a trailer down, but he did, and did a good job launching Bay Flat Jr & Oneofthepack

§  Big Rick lost one of me Berkley jerk baits on 3-4 cast, told him me had no more so he had to sue his tackle. He tried a few then put on an old rusty lure, , he caught the trout of the day on it. Then he put on a 40 year old BINGO, green in color, bingo he hooked another big girl lost at boat. Just going to show you lures might not make a difference.

§  Big girls back, last time we got out got skunked, water temperature back up in 50’s this be good.

§  Water clarity in :

o   MRGO a 6

o   ICW a 4

o   ICW Boh. Bros  a 3 plus

o   The Pen a 3

§  ICW is not holding Redwarriors anymore, at least for us.

§  Boh. Bros. no Silverwonders, no action still not there.

§  The Pen Redwarriors still a no show.

§  Clear to run through, (proceed with caution)  iron dam from bayou Bienvenue to ICW, short cuts make it a lot easier to run to those spots.

§  MRGO bites early over by 7:20 AM, big girls don’t play around too long.

·         Best fishing trip of my life, until the next one.

FISHERPERSON OF THE DAY:

Big Rick has been on vacation, off water for a while, plus this be the second time he be fishing with Oneofthepack, he did catch big trout of the day, had another one online lost at boat, tried  real hard all day, changing up lures, techniques,  presentations, but all this effort fell short for the honors today.

Oneofthepack was just Oneofthepack!

SUGGESTIONS:

Big Girl Bites are real early, maybe last 60 to 90 minutes, or 3600 seconds to 5400 seconds, every second is pleasure, but when you hook one it seems like eternity until you get her in the boat.

Get an early start, and if you catch one , stay in the SPOT and work it .

Fish jerk bait real slow, twitch, stop let sit for a long time, then twitch again and let sit, they hit when sitting.

PONDER OF THE DAY:

"...buying a spinning rod in the average city store, that is, joining it up and safely waggling it a bit, is much like seeing a woman's arm protruding from a car window: all one can readily be sure of is that the window is open."

Q&A:

What is your favorite jerk bait?

TEAM JO-JO’S future stratagem:

Trip plan tomorrow with Indian Ron in the “Gloria Marie”  we will be out and about the MRGO!

Good Fishing

Team Jo-Jo & Oneofthepack

釣り先生

Please subscribe to me video channel