Geezer Gathering at Lincoln Beach 7-20-23 (VIDEO ADDED)

[TubeDude]

I have been exhibiting geezerlike tendencies for quite a few years.  But today...my 80th birthday...it sorta becomes official.  Wife is visiting family out of state so I called BLK...a fellow geezer...to join me on "Golden Pond.  We met up a bit after 6 am...me with my red tube and he with his yak.  And wonder of wonders...another geezer showed up.  Mr. J drove up with his boat and his wife.  Now I know Mr. J is over 80 but as a gentleman I didn't confirm the age of Mrs. J.  No matter.  She is a great partner for Richard and they are a great fishing couple.


We all got launched and headed different directions.  I originally planned to work out from Benjamin Slough, but changed my mind and headed toward where BLK was yakkin' out off the first spring.  My aim today...besides just enjoying being fishing on my 80th birthday...was to give a further workout to the line of buzz blade whirly fligs I have been playing with...with crawler rigs.  I have caught some nice walleyes about this time of year in the past out in the deeper water so thought I would try for something besides cats.


As soon as I started seeing evidence of fish life below on my sonar I put out two buzz flig rigs.  One fire tiger and the other chartreuse with red spots.  The latter got the first hit...within 10 minutes of beginning fishing.  Not a walleye, but a crawler chompin' kitty.  No pride.  No problem.  Then I got two more cats in fairly quick succession...both on the fire tiger with crawler.  These were both chunky 26 to 27 inchers...with no "love marks" on them from the recent spawn. 
 

Worked a variety of other baits and colors for the next hour and a half with only a couple of missed munches and no wet nets.  Decided to head over to my originally intended fishing spot...on the flats east of Lincoln Beach.  Stopped to chat with BLK in his yak on my way by.  He had caught a half dozen cats by then fishing shallower water...6-8 feet as opposed to the 10-12 feet I had been working.  So that is where I began fishing when I got out off Benjamin Slough. 


Fishing wasn't fast but I did pick up a few more cats...plus 3 white bass on the buzz flig crawler rig.  And those whities appeared to be well fed...on the growing crop of baby white bass.  One of them actually had a tail of one of the little tykes protruding from his gullet.  And there had been lots of baby whities eatin' midges off the ramp when we launched.  Looked to be about 2".  Maybe they got off a good spawn this year.
 

By 10:30 the fishing had cooled but the temperature had not.  Once it gets much past 80 the enjoys begin to decline.  So I headed for the ramp...as did BLK.  He said he had caught a total of about a dozen cats...fishing primarily for cats.  I figured I got 7...not even fishing for them...so it wasn't all bad.

One interesting tidbit was that there was a big black blob just off the bank near the ramp.  As I watched, it changed shape an moved up and down in the water column.  Then it occurred to me that it was a ball of newly hatched baby bullheads.   When they got close enough to the top you could see individuals rolling around.


Great day for geezerdom.  Good company, good fishing, good weather...good grief.

LINK TO VIDEO