Indian Point this morning

[Champ188]

1 minute ago, vernon said:

Was out this morning for a couple hours and picked up a short Spot and a similar Smallie on the jig in about 15 ft. So unaccustomed to action that I missed three others. 

Even when I'm right I'm wrong.

Off to Buffalo Ridge to hit my thumb with a hammer!

Back at em' once they think I'm gone. 

Fairways and greens, brother.

[vernon]

21 hours ago, Champ188 said:

Fairways and greens, brother.

Followed your advice pretty well!   Nine fairways-twelve greens. Pretty good for me. Unfortunately, I putted like I've been fishing. Only three birdies and a three hole blowup that was breathtaking to say the least.

Wind was down so played the tips. Started birdie, par, birdie!  Easy game right?  Then go 6, 6, 7, 4, 5, 3 with three lost balls for 42!

8 pars and a birdie on the back for 78. 

If nothing else was pretty proud of hanging in there after the triple, double, triple flameout.  Only thing worse than a streak like that is doing it coming off of such a good start.

Anyways, in typical Vernon fashion, turned an "almost" epic ball striking round into just a really good one. Course was fantastic and weather was even better. Lightning greens and manicured to perfection. Love the wide fairways on that course.  

Now, back to these dang fish!

[bobby b.]

23 hours ago, bobby b. said:

Having the same problem the last two days.  Last week (see my most recent post on Indian Point) had three days in a row of limits of keeper SM around Indian Point but they turned off for me.  I can see them on the graph in about 10 fow on the edges of the pole timber on the inside pockets off the main gravel lake points.  Tried many things including the stuff mentioned above.  Hope today is better.

Got back out last night for a couple hours - the SM were still where they have been for the last week and were biting but only caught shorts - one was a spot.

[abkeenan]

1 hour ago, vernon said:

Followed your advice pretty well!   Nine fairways-twelve greens. Pretty good for me. Unfortunately, I putted like I've been fishing. Only three birdies and a three hole blowup that was breathtaking to say the least.

Wind was down so played the tips. Started birdie, par, birdie!  Easy game right?  Then go 6, 6, 7, 4, 5, 3 with three lost balls for 42!

8 pars and a birdie on the back for 78. 

If nothing else was pretty proud of hanging in there after the triple, double, triple flameout.  Only thing worse than a streak like that is doing it coming off of such a good start.

Anyways, in typical Vernon fashion, turned an "almost" epic ball striking round into just a really good one. Course was fantastic and weather was even better. Lightning greens and manicured to perfection. Love the wide fairways on that course.  

Now, back to these dang fish!

That's a heck of a round Vernon. Especially with your meltdown stretch of holes and from the tips no less.

The thing with golf is that you have nobody to blame but yourself for a poor round. But with fishing there is quite an array of reasons to blame for an unsuccessful outing: too calm. too rough, too windy, not enough wind, lake lice, too sunny, too late, too early and if none of that works......it wasn't me the fish just weren't biting. Just one of many reasons that fishing > golf.

[vernon]

1 hour ago, abkeenan said:

That's a heck of a round Vernon. Especially with your meltdown stretch of holes and from the tips no less.

The thing with golf is that you have nobody to blame but yourself for a poor round. But with fishing there is quite an array of reasons to blame for an unsuccessful outing: too calm. too rough, too windy, not enough wind, lake lice, too sunny, too late, too early and if none of that works......it wasn't me the fish just weren't biting. Just one of many reasons that fishing > golf.

You sure got that there right!  Sometimes it's crazy how when I'm fishing I want to go play golf but when I'm on the golf course I always seem to wish I was fishing. Guess that just means that they're both a pretty good way to spend a day. 

After another three and a half fishless hours this morning though more golf is sounding pretty good.

Trouble is, the toughest round of golf is usually the one you play right after a really good one so a 90 is probably waiting for me out there today if I give in to the temptation. 

Plus, I got lots of golf courses at home but no Table Rock anywhere in sight!

[abkeenan]

10 minutes ago, vernon said:

You sure got that there right!  Sometimes it's crazy how when I'm fishing I want to go play golf but when I'm on the golf course I always seem to wish I was fishing. Guess that just means that they're both a pretty good way to spend a day. 

After another three and a half fishless hours this morning though more golf is sounding pretty good.

Trouble is, the toughest round of golf is usually the one you play right after a really good one so a 90 is probably waiting for me out there today if I give in to the temptation. 

Plus, I got lots of golf courses at home but no Table Rock anywhere in sight!

Isn't that the truth. I guess golf and fishing are similar in that regard....just when you think you have it all figured out....next time out...wham! El stinko! Swing plane is off and you can't hit a ball straight to save your life. Or think you have the fish figured out and go out the next day.....not a sniff! 

[Champ188]

Very nice round, Vernon. Anything in the 70's is a victory for me. Like abk said, really impressive to do it admist that three-hole brain break. LOL.

Again, nice round. Look forward to joining you soon.

[vernon]

42 minutes ago, Champ188 said:

Very nice round, Vernon. Anything in the 70's is a victory for me. Like abk said, really impressive to do it admist that three-hole brain break. LOL.

Again, nice round. Look forward to joining you soon.

Thanks!  You know that story about the blind squirrel and the acorn!

The 70's are always a goal but one that gets more and more elusive every day.  Really enjoyed yesterday's round.  After the disaster holes, settled into a really nice rhythm and the swing thoughts disappeared.  Lots of fun when it gets like that.  Just see the target, pick the club and let er' rip.

I hope we can get together soon. 

[Champ188]

2 hours ago, vernon said:

Lots of fun when it gets like that.  Just see the target, pick the club and let er' rip.

I had a stretch of holes like that last Sunday afternoon. Just not enough of them.

[vernon]

Well, the week has ended for us and we're back home safe and sound.  One of the wildest weeks in October that I can remember and I've been coming down pretty regularly since 1975.  The heat and the wind were the story the first five days - more of both than I can ever recall of either.  Then, the big change on Thursday and Friday with some spectacular lightning in between.  

Anyways, we didn't figure out the fish nearly as successfully as some others although it sounds like to a certain degree we were doing the same things and in similar areas.  Not the first time that that's happened though.  After reading some of the other posts during the week it didn't sound that unusual to experience wide ranging results although employing like techniques.  

Fished shallow and deep and everything in between but just never got comfortable or confident in anything in particular.  It seemed I would catch a couple of decent fish up close on a windy bank on the spinnerbait and then go an hour without another sniff while duplicating locations and method.  Would then decide to move out to a deep point and would catch one or two on a jig but then, again, go "biteless" for an hour or more while doing the exact same thing on multiple locations.  Similar results pitching a centipede in and around cedar tops in deeper water.

Almost seemed like reading the many posts during the week might have done me more harm than good.  Don't get me wrong - it was all sound and useful information and greatly appreciated.  It's just that I seemed less willing to trust my instincts and became confused and uncommitted.  I think everyone would agree that confidence is maybe the single most important asset to have when it comes to fishing and I never seemed to develop any.  Got discouraged more quickly than I can ever remember before and while it's not like I gave up, it seemed that I was just going through the motions too often rather than making every cast count.

After reading Bill and bobby.b's posts about tuff going I thought, "Well, OK, it's not just me it's tuff for even those guys." But then, Bluebasser, Cindyjo and Bo posed favorable to downright spectacular results and I would go back to beating myself senseless.  Also found myself spending too much time watching other guys trying to figure out what they were doing and wondering if I should be doing that instead.

I remember way back a bunch of years ago reading an article on Denny Brauer where he said that he never wanted to know what other fisherman or locals were doing when he arrived at a lake for a tournament.  He thought that if he let them influence his approach rather than developing his own ideas and pattern then he would never be any better than them or be able to beat the guys whose patterns he was imitating.  I know it's been discussed here many time that the best approach is the simplest one.  Overthinking seldom works and I'm pretty sure that's exactly what I did this past week.

Nonetheless, what a great and spectacular week it was!  It's pretty tough to be disappointed after a week like we had.  Just wish it could have lasted a little longer but that's always the case.  And, it's not like we got skunked.  Without looking back in any great detail I'd say we caught around 40 fish for the week with probably four or five keepers.  One was my biggest mean mouth to date - likely pushing 3 lbs - that absolutely annihilated a spinnerbait off a bluff end early Thursday morning after the storm.  Probably my biggest legitimate disappointment of the week is that I didn't get a picture.  Unfortunately, I was in some pretty heavy timber about fifteen feet from the rocks and the wind was howling right into me.  Figured I'd better pass on the photo op rather than crash the new boat on to the rocks!

Thanks so much to everyone that read and responded to my posts during the week - I greatly appreciate the comments and especially those who tried to help make our week more enjoyable/successful. Best of luck to everyone throughout the "off" season and I already can't wait for spring!