Carpe Diem!

[Esox Luciano]

No carp...but, I did do myself in quite a bit and am pretty damn spent! To start off, I got to knock off a new freshwater species on the maiden voyage of a new inflatable yak. Hooked and cooked my 1st landlocked salmon outta some great looking Jersey waters. Next to fresh walleye & krappie, this is now my 3rd fav fish to eat. I didn't smoke it though so, I know that's a game changer.

After that was my window. Had off a few days and hit the mountains and water pretty hard. Some places had more fish, other places had more scenery. Some places were "public", some were really public. But as they say, you can't catch a fish if your line ain't in the water. And my line can't reach the water from all the barbed-wire gates.😂🤣
First, was local piking actually. Got to land a few with a couple nice ones in the mix. Nothing big, but did connect all with my homemade jerkbait. Also, with only teeth having bit it since I've made it, was able to land this nice little river Larry on it as well! That's 2 species on the jerkbait soo far, and 6 on my popper!


Speaking of my homemade popper, while starting my next adventure I decided to start with my popper. I like to start with it so anything that will go crazy for topwater at first, I'd rather it bite my lure. Sure as shit, after a few casts by some laydowns hooked into a nice 3½lber & was able to land it over some weeds. Let him go sweet and kept it moving. Had to switch lures but doing so quick I was quickly on another fattie. No trouble landing her and she measured out at 4½lbs. Let her go sweet and kept it moving. Bite died shortly after.


Doing more exploring, I stayed to the trees and found some fish. Nothing big, but had a great hike and got to use a new double-chatter bait I bought. Worked great the 1st day, we'll see how it holds up.