NFGFC March Meeting Recap and Pictures
Posted: March 7th, 2009, 2:17 pm
Thursday's meeting was lots of fun as usual--Pat is quite the enthusiastic and entertaining speaker. It sounds like a lot of people were headed to Keaton today for the tournament. Good luck everyone. Wish I could make it—I’m reporting from an economics conference in Vegas. 
The first tournament of the year had 33 boats! This is a club record. Congrats again to the winners.
Captain Pat McGriff was our speaker. Main points of his talk: (1)Fishing is nothing but math (2)Fish slowly this weekend. As a math geek, I appreciated all the algebra, geometry, and arethmetic Pat uses in his occupation. (Where's a nerd smiley when you need one?)
Pat started off by telling us that he’d been unable to catch any fish in the past two days, because of the cold front and the wind. But, he was hopeful about tournament Saturday since the weather was supposed to be significantly better and the fish haven’t eaten for days so they’ll be ready for a meal.
Pat’s tournament day tips and predictions:
• Head north from the launch since there’s no prediction for wind or clouds.
• Lots of water movement (high-high to low-low tides) means anglers are likely to take their fish early in the day.
• Fish white colored, slow sinking plugs for the best results. Glow, bone, and pearl lures will get the most strikes.
• Fish slowly! After your cast, let your plug sink for 20 seconds before twitching it. Fish are cold and not moving fast. If you fish too fast, you’ll attract the fish and then take your lure away before they have a chance to hit.
• Use some sort of scent on all your lures for best results this weekend. Sometimes you don’t need this aid; this weekend, Pat says, you do.
General advice:
• Never throw a single color more than 5 times, even if you’re catching shorts and keepers. Smaller fish are intrinsically different than bigger fish. You never know what color “the big one” will like. Switching it up is a must.
• Big trout live behind rock grass since it casts a long shadow. Gators are so big that they can’t hid behind the small stuff – they’ve been in the evolution game a while, they’re smart enough to know this.
• Don’t fish topwaters unless the water temp is 70+. You’ll have better results fishing with other plugs and lures.
• Make sure to count while you fish. It’s easy to get impatient and fish too quickly. It’s also easy to get distracted, get a hit, and not remember the twitching/popping pattern you were using. (I found this spot on since I seem to get the most hits when I'm playing with the dog or eating a sandwich.
)
Raffle prizes were top notch and included a SPOT, Seatow membership, Gaff mags, gift certificate to Parkway Marine, Bass Assassins, and Blue Water Charter’s goodie bags. Steve even convinced Pat to donate his Rod Steward and three rod/reel combos--uh, almost. I would like to personally thanks to all our sponsors—they’ve been very generous to me over the past few months.
Lots o' Pics (I apologize for the picture quality. Anyone wanna donate a club camera?
)
The first tournament of the year had 33 boats! This is a club record. Congrats again to the winners.
Captain Pat McGriff was our speaker. Main points of his talk: (1)Fishing is nothing but math (2)Fish slowly this weekend. As a math geek, I appreciated all the algebra, geometry, and arethmetic Pat uses in his occupation. (Where's a nerd smiley when you need one?)
Pat started off by telling us that he’d been unable to catch any fish in the past two days, because of the cold front and the wind. But, he was hopeful about tournament Saturday since the weather was supposed to be significantly better and the fish haven’t eaten for days so they’ll be ready for a meal.
Pat’s tournament day tips and predictions:
• Head north from the launch since there’s no prediction for wind or clouds.
• Lots of water movement (high-high to low-low tides) means anglers are likely to take their fish early in the day.
• Fish white colored, slow sinking plugs for the best results. Glow, bone, and pearl lures will get the most strikes.
• Fish slowly! After your cast, let your plug sink for 20 seconds before twitching it. Fish are cold and not moving fast. If you fish too fast, you’ll attract the fish and then take your lure away before they have a chance to hit.
• Use some sort of scent on all your lures for best results this weekend. Sometimes you don’t need this aid; this weekend, Pat says, you do.
General advice:
• Never throw a single color more than 5 times, even if you’re catching shorts and keepers. Smaller fish are intrinsically different than bigger fish. You never know what color “the big one” will like. Switching it up is a must.
• Big trout live behind rock grass since it casts a long shadow. Gators are so big that they can’t hid behind the small stuff – they’ve been in the evolution game a while, they’re smart enough to know this.
• Don’t fish topwaters unless the water temp is 70+. You’ll have better results fishing with other plugs and lures.
• Make sure to count while you fish. It’s easy to get impatient and fish too quickly. It’s also easy to get distracted, get a hit, and not remember the twitching/popping pattern you were using. (I found this spot on since I seem to get the most hits when I'm playing with the dog or eating a sandwich.
)Raffle prizes were top notch and included a SPOT, Seatow membership, Gaff mags, gift certificate to Parkway Marine, Bass Assassins, and Blue Water Charter’s goodie bags. Steve even convinced Pat to donate his Rod Steward and three rod/reel combos--uh, almost. I would like to personally thanks to all our sponsors—they’ve been very generous to me over the past few months.
Lots o' Pics (I apologize for the picture quality. Anyone wanna donate a club camera?
)