Well this morning my personal photographer and I did alright. That beauty on the far right is 24" @ 4.25lbs. The honey hole produced again leaving the capt. wondering how long this good fishing can last. Or is that dependent on the fisherman himself making his luck, guess it depends who you talk to. I've talked to my pops bout it and would like to give a big shout out to him, Capt. Ray, with out his fishing genes and fishingstories this capt. might have been landlocked. BTW Mr. Todd has frustratingly given himself the title of photographer, this b/c he is too proud to take his turn in the 'Fish On!' line up. Todd capt. says you're batting lead-off next trip!

Well after being blanked last night an am trip was definately in order. TonyJabroni and I set out for the elusive striper out at the honey hole. The first pass no luck so we headed out to the next point and boom. Nice striper for Jabrones, but the captain again fumbled the fish, which I am sure it appreciated. On the way back the capt. caught healthy largemouth.

Saturday morning was booked by my coach who never caught a fish worth talking about. Sure enough he hooked up and had the fight of his life. Unfortunately the capt. fumbled the striper and he was set free with out us snapping a pic. Sorry COACH! Anyways it looked just like the one I caught this morning. ;-) Yes, another new record for CLOSENFF. This baby was 22 inches and had a belly full of shad. Great way to start off the week. Caught this one in a new spot too. These fish really do move.

Alrighty, this has been one great week of fishing. Despite the foul
weather this morning, the capt. of the STRIPER just had to get out
there after seeing this week's pics. I was glad we made the trip, we
had a double header two times! On one we got 2 stripers and the other 2
white perch. We tried experimenting with the perch as bait with no
success but we learned how not to hook them. We trolled back around and
John bagged another nice size striper. The capt. got one about the size
of John's 2nd, however he swallowed the lure and was in rough shape, we
figured he'd appreciate getting him back in the water rather than us
fumbling for the camera. Well hope we can maintain this streak. Have a
charter tomorrow am with a man who has never caught a fish in his life.
I hope CLOSENFF can accomodate.

Well after yesterday's excitement Mr. Todd figured he better get out there while the getting was good. Things did not start off as well as they did yesterday, tangles, spilled coffee & some defective super secret lures. Things warmed up with a nice largemouth that hit hard and jumped like MJ. We entered striper country hoping to eclipse Mr. Pedro's record striper caught yesterday Sure enough the captain hooked up and the line was screaming, a few minutes later and we finally were able to lip the 1st keeper to date, a bonified 21" and new CLOSENFF record. Here's much a closer look and a very excited captain. Mr. Todd sporting his lucky hat, caught his 1st striper ever and doing so in grand fashion a 20 incher, he only likes to catch big fish apparently!

Today's charter was booked by Mr. Pedro, a fisherman from back in the day. He was prepared to fish with worms and I hope I didn't disappoint him when I explained we didn't have need for them on this trip. Within 5 min. he became aware of what I was talking about. He insisted that he hold the pole while trolling, which I believe was key in him hooking up 3 times for 15 points! He also currently holds CLOSENFF's striper record, that baby is 19" very close to being a keeper. All you folks who don't like trolling, I hope you believe now!! Here's a closer look at the biggun.

Wow what a gorgeous morning out there this am. Trolled around the super secret lure and nailed this largemouth way out, she jumped clear out of the water a few times. Also picked up a striper that apparently wasn't blog worthy according to some folks comments about illegal sized fish and the game warden, jeez I throw them back! Anyways today was one of those, 'I am so glad to be alive' kinda days, the osprey and I whistled at each other for awhile but he still won't let me get a good pic of him. Maybe I can bribe him with one of the bait sized stripers I've been catchin. Signing off...

Easter fishing turned out to be pretty damn good despite the weather. That's a striper in the 1st pic at a bad angle, Todd must have done that on purpose! We caught another striper on the good ole super secret lure. The largemouth and the HUGE crappie were caught in the am trolling. Notice how my wife knows how to take a picture. The boat is now in the inlaws slip, THANK YOU, apparently the fishing up here is pretty good so far. Click here to really see the beauty of the crappie.

The captain of the 'STRIPER' has been itching to catch SOMETHING so he booked a live bait charter and we headed to the hot hole for some definite action. We did pretty well this day with 23 total points. 1 striper, 3 largemouth & 1 white perch. This seemed to really appease the captain. It was even more rewarding when he called and caught the last largemouth on a good ole' jitterbug. Nothing like the topwater action.

This past week's fishing charters have run a little slow. To attract more customers CLOSENFF now offers evening booze cruises for 4. The new charter format was booked and deemed a success when a newly wed couple, their son & my wife made it back to port. With the focus off of fishing we decided to sit back and just troll a few lines and concentrate not spilling our beverages. Sure enough the lucky husband hooks up with the biggest striper to date. Not moments later and their son bags a 24 ouncer to bring a big smile to his face.

On Sunday evening my lovely wife and bro-inlaw booked a trip to chase stripers on the north end of the lake. We started trolling our new super secret striper lures and watched the fish finder like it was a video game. Sure enough the ff went nuts as we trolled through a school of what turned out to be stripers. Both Michelle and I bagged a 5 pointer a piece, rather small but hey we're catching the species we are going after. Won't be long until we land the big one. Todd seems to have run into a bad streak since landing the monster largemouth. Hey Todd hang in there man, your next one will swallow the first one! My those are some REALLY big fingers in the pic below. ;-)

This past weekend charter was booked for a bassmaster challenge between CLOSENFF and STRIPER, a solid aluminum Sea Nymph. Striper had on board a veteran of the north end of Lake Norman and a young man who's tackle box is bigger than my entire boat. CLOSENFF had A to the J, an experienced farm pond largemouth fisherman. The stakes were high for this tournament, bragging rights! The CLOSENFF crew was a bit worried going up against a boat name STRIPER! as catching the elusive striper has been a challenge. We got out before the sun rose and after 10 min. of trolling we hooked up, STRIPER! Not two mins. later another STRIPER! We whistled over to the crew on the STRIPER and threw the fish their way. A little while later after unsuccessful jiggin on the banks we went back to trolling and picked up another. 15 points for CLOSENFF -5 points for STRIPER. Yep they actually admitted to fishing live bait and catching a stinkin catfish. Our 1st bassmaster challenge win!

Sorry folks, slight delay in updating the blog. Last Friday an evening trip went out with 2 fine fellows in search of anything but the bottom of the lake. We made a trip to the tackle shop looking for advice on a super secret ultimate STRIPER killer lure. The man knew exactly what we were looking for and provided us with a few choices. Being that we have not caught a Striper since our maiden voyage we would have bought anything the man suggested. We started trolling in a new cove on the south end of the lake. With in 15 min. of trolling we managed to snag a small yet bonified STRIPER! Unfortunately that was all we caught that day.

Well shut out again. That's why they call it fishing and not catching. Thanks Dad, that statement always made me feel even worse.

The wind was howling this week. Took the married couple and some extra weight out there only to get wet and a sore butt. We landed a 6 oz. largemouth. Yes ounces. We decided to cut the trip short b/c the newlyweds were nearly wet.

Another bachelor booked the Wed. boat and unfortunately the camera was on the fritz. However we managed to pull in a huge crappie and a respectable largemouth. Wind was still blowing, our drifts were really fast but we made it work.