12 Fish? Who would have thunk?

 Well Happy Thursday! What a difference a day makes! My confidence is still somewhat shaky, I am watching the pros and YouTube videos when I am not on the water myself, and after 14 months and hundreds of hours trying I am still always surprised when things are going well and not surprised when I am getting skunked. 

Last second 3:30am decision we go to Pena Blanca and give our shocks a rest from Arivaca's washboard entry road. David joined me again for the fourth time? using Bob's sit on top Pelican kayak. Both David and I were on the water by 6:00am. We both caught right away,David on his bug he likes and after trying top water for 15 minutes, me with a Green Pumpkin Senko. David then cooled off for several hours and I had managed to catch 6 by lunchtime so I was thinking PB on most bass ever caught at one session for me and I believe it was 9, i'll have to look it up I can't remember LOL but I know it's not 11 so that was what i was shooting for. To catch 12 legitimate LMB is really a dream come true. I have worked diligently to try and learn this sport and become even moderately successful at it. Having the free time that I have over the last 5 months has given me the opportunity to spend 35-50 hours a week social distancing on my kayak while taking my lumps.from Mr. & Mrs. Bass.

Want to see my rod tip collection? guess how many rods I have at the bottom of my favorite SE Arizona lakes? Not to mention nets/scales/rulers/lures?

It's been an amazing journey, 12 fish, who'd have thunk? What's next? the sky's the limit!!

Has it really been that long? UGH! 20 days ofrecaps won't have much detail..

Well Howdy! it's been awhile trusty reader, although I see the stats and there is not a lot of views so I don't think this will end up as a top story in the news anyhow.....But here is a general recap of my last 20 or so days, ugh..

August 5th-9th Only went once, Arivaca, and caught a couple but nothing noteworthy

August 10th- Arivaca. A better day, caught 5 before 12:30pm and then struggled in the afternoon, YouTube videos are available that show action from this day. Caught one at 5:43am, seldom do I ever get rewarded with a early morning bite even when I get there at first light (that is me leaving before 3:00am). Not ideal by any stretch. The GoPro training is making me focus too much, I'm going to try and shorten my days a little due to the heat, I have been fishing dawn to dusk most days, which wrecksme.com the next day which sucks too. I am working on it I promise.

August 12th- The Dave Brokaw experience begins. Dave is a long time trout guy that wanted to expand his horizons, He has caught a couple of three pounders already while borrowing my friend Bob's Ol' Pelican kayak. I caught three or four, he caught two

August 14th, Pena Blanca- Caught a few but lost a big one on camera which still makes me mad! Caught a few, nothing close to the one I lost!

August 17th - Arivaca, Caught a nice one, 3 pounds 8 ounces, then  didn't catch much after that

August 19th. Arivaca. Had a morning of missed opportunities, didn't catch anything until after 12:00pm. From 12:30pm-5:30pm I caught 7 bass, including a 4.11, 3.2, 2.8, 2.6, 2.1, 1.6, 1.0 . My best day ever, and I wasn't there at first light and I was off the water 2 hours before dark!

August 22nd, Eddie visit's from Mesa with Casey and the kids, we sneak out at 3:00am to show off Southern Arizona lakes. It was slow, we caught three...

Pictures / videos go to Martin Charlton on YouTube and there are several to choose from..

Pictures tomorrow!!

Happy Wednesday..

I didn't realize it has been a week! Luckily no one reads these anyway... Here's the updates...

Friday, July 24th, Bartlett with Eddie. I caught a couple, missed a  couple, Eddie the same. It was a great day but disappointing to go to a lake known for small fish but lots of them and catch 3 or whatever it was I can't even remember. 300 miles round trip to catch a couple one pound fish, not ideal.

Sat golf

Sunday, July 26th, Arivaca. Got on the water by 5:30am, caught a 2 pounder at 6:27am! Watermelon senko does the trick! Caught 5, great day on the water.

Mon golf

Tuesday, July 28th, Arivaca. Caught 5 or 7 I cannot remember, another day of learning. GoPro has made everything even more confusing, it certainly makes it harder for sure. I'm driving home at 9:00pm, and I see a text from Dave confirming tomorrow?  the Monday golf confused me. So it looks like Wednesday..

Wednesday, July 29th, Arivaca with Dave Brokaw. It was his second trip and first since Bob's kayak was damaged on the way home from last week. Didn't know about that? I didn't realize it either until 1:00am. Flex seal to the rescue, we were on the water by 7:30am. Dave broke the skunk early with a little one on a spinner bait, but still had not go that mature bass fighting experience, he did around 3:00pm,  caught a 2.75 pound ball of muscle and he's hooked on bass fishing! He ended up catching 3, I caught four and the day was a huge success. 

Friday, July 31st, Pena Blanca. Caught 5, two over 2 pounds. Pretty crowded, much more than normal

Sunday, August 2nd, Arivaca. Great day, caught a 20" 2 pounder on deaths bed, a bunch of solid 1.5 pounders and a 3.6 pound stud right at dusk.Amazing day of fishing.

Tuesday, August 3rd, Arivaca. Slow day, went at 10:00am and fished until 7:00pm, caught 3, missed a bunch including a topwater hook up that I lost but captured on tape. I'm finally figuring out the GoPro as well, that's a bonus!

Plenty of pictures later or check out my YouTube page creatively titled Martin Charlton

Peace

WELL I GUESS I'M REALLY BEHIND NOW...UPDATE, JULY 23RD

Howdy, and welcome to the first real day of Monsoons in Tucson. It looks like tomorrow they are expecting more rain by the border so I will try my luck at Bartlett tomorrow, which is July 24th, my 4 month anniversary of being on furlough.

Here are the highlights from the 17th thru yesterday the 22nd:

Friday, July 17th, Arivaca. My second day with the GoPro, slowly starting to figure it out. Caught one fish while the battery was going, less than ideal ending due to camera angle. Caught five total, nothing over 2 pounds.

SatSun Mesa trip for Rosalie's birthday, Golf on Sunday

Monday, July 20th, Arivaca, I took David Brokaw with me and borrowed Bob's kayak (Thanks Bob).

the fishing was slow so we caught bluegill for bait and hooked up three times, landing none of them for various reasons. One was a 3-4 pound bass, we watched him spit the hook right at the kayak. I think the other two were catfish. We ended up with two bass, 8-10 bluegill, and several "the one that got away " stories. I bought a new seat option for Bob's kayak, and although it is certainly far from perfect, David managed to fish on it four 12 hours, so not too bad!

Wednesday, July 22nd, Arivaca, Solo again, had breakfast before leaving, slept in, got to the water at 11:30am. Fished till dark, great afternoon on the lake, caught three,missed a few,biggest was 1.9 pounds.

Caught another either post spawn or dying fish, he had no energy at all.

Bartlett tomorrow with Eddie, southern Arizona got pounded yesterday and today with rain, they should all look like chocolate milk by tomorrow!

Peace.

UH-OH, I'm getting behind on my posts! Ugh. Recap of July 10-15

Happy Thursday!

The days and trips are starting to run together to tell you the truth, especially since I am doing very similar trips lately, mostly at the same lake, Arivaca which I have decided will be my "home lake" since I live in Tucson and we have no good fishing around town. With the launching of my very rough YouTube channel this week, and the unexpected time it has taken me to learn even the basics of GoPro ownership for old people, this review will be brief.

July 8th, bought the GoPro...

July 9th, Arivaca, fished from 5am-2pm, caught 6 including a 3.0 pounder. Wacky Senkos have been doing the heavy lifting lately, in all variations of green pumpkin and watermelon.

Sat/Sun Off, golf etc...

July 13th, Arivaca, Caught 5 or 6, I can't remember exactly, it will always be the first dabble into GoPro ownership and all of the anxiety it creates in my memories. Got my fist catch on video, celebrated with a unnecessary curse word at the end to complicate things. Still having a blast, getting more consistent results the last couple weeks has sure helped my ego.

July 15th, Arivaca. Caught 6 fished from 5:00am - 7:00pm. Got a nice monsoon around 2:00pm, the bass were on fire after that, I caught three in the hour before I left. Pretty much 100% green senkos have been making it happen for me. 

Pictures later...

ANOTHER BEST DAY EVER!

It is amazing how things have improved over the last 3 weeks or so for me regarding success. A couple of months ago I was starting to wonder if I would ever catch more than one or two bass a day, now I am catching 7-11 (yes 11!) bass in a day. I think obviously summer is a little better fishing but last year this time I was fishing and I had purchased my Outback already so it's now 13 months into my journey toward the mastery of bass fishing! 

I caught 11, including a few 2 pounders and one that was almost three! All on a weightless wacky rigged senko in watermelon with red/black fleck (some had red, some black, some both, I carry all three). I believe I used a green pumpkin with chartreuse tip as well, the Hammamoto brand I have always done very well with.

I bought a go pro, I am teaching myself how to use it, so crappy video #1 of what should be a few videos a week should be added in the next day or so.

Daily total, 11 bass caught between 8:00am & 7:45pm

10 oz, 

13  ounces,

1,0 pound

1.0 

1.3 one pound 3 ounces

1.6

1.8

1.10

1.14

2.04

2.13

total approximate weight 15.28

A last minute decision to fish on a weekend pays off

I still haven't figured out how to rotate the pics..

So I decide to go against my own rule about fishing on the weekend. I'll just go for a few hours I hear myself saying it, but I know better and so does my wife. I always had to work harder to achieve anything, so why should bass fishing be any different.

7/4 Arivaca. To say I am out of touch may be a tad extreme, but I thought it was 7/3, maybe that's why it was so empty when I pulled in at 5:05am. One other boat and a couple of kayaks was it. I peddled over to my favorite spot and within an hour I had my first fish, I know that still sounds like a long time, but a month ago I would fish for 12 hours in the hope of catching 1 or 2 bass. 

Then I caught another lil' guy right away, and I had five by 11:30am. They were biting, and I missed a bunch but I had a ball. I decided that I may get to my personal best of ten, set only a couple of months ago on this same lake. I hooked and missed a few, and was starting to fish my way back around 6:15pm or so when I decided I better text my wife since I had told her a few hours. We've been married 32 years so she knows better, but I really thought when I said it that I would be home earlier than normal, which lately is getting home around 10:30pm.

I throw my green pumpkin wacky-rigged senko under a tree hanging over the water, and start texting Laurie when I hear my reel dumping line. It's rare that I am blessed with that kind of obvious strike, my spool wasn't even closed on my reel obviously, so as I snap the spool closed I set the hook hard and he barely moved! Then, he took off on his first of 5 or 6 runs that had my drag screaming! I kept it tight and made up ground where I could, stopping her from getting in the weeds, keeping her from under my boat and enjoying the hell out of how strong she was compared to the others I had caught today. she towed me upwind for about 20 seconds and for the first time I really felt like I was in tune with what I have learned and understood what needed to be done to land this fish. 

Grabbing her by the mouth since my net is too small almost cost me the fish but it worked out and she came peacefully. My scale batteries weren't in right so it was giving me an error message so i didn't get a weight, she was long and skinny i'm guessing 3.5-4.0. 

12 hours on the water, 9 bass, 4 bluegill was better than I could have hoped for and ended a 4 trip session at Arivaca that netted me 27 bass and a bunch of roboworm eating bluegill, an incredible week i'll never forget..