Hot and cold is the best way to describe the fishing since my last report. This has been the case both in the river and on the reefs. Some of the hot days have been phenomenal. On Sunday of Memorial Day weekend my wife landed the largest bass I have boated in the last couple of years - 40+" (my tape only goes to 36") weighing in at 26# on the boga grip. She started out throwing a floating lure. She had been hearing all about the slugo because she posts all these blogs. She assumed she was casting a slugo because she had heard that it catches the big one and when she heard she was not all hell broke loose and she quickly received the slugo! Though Carol is not a frequent angler she throws a good line. After about an hour she had had a few follows but no hookups. I was fly fishing from the stern and had landed a few bass in the 26-27" range. Then it happened ... with an explosion of water and a yell "I got one!". My peripheral vision picked up the after effects of the exploding water. My instinct was to drop my rod and run to the bow. The line was screaming off the reel when I arrived and didn't stop for a minute or two. I said "you've got a big fish", trying to control my excitement. I went on to say "just keep steady pressure and don't lose your concentration". Of the two of us, I was by far the most excited until Carol finally got the fish in close enough to see it. Suddenly her excitement level quickly ramped up as evidenced by her words "holy ... that's a big fish!". "Just concentrate on getting the fish to the boat" I told her. Finally I had a grip on the fish. As I hauled it over the side and looked over my left shoulder, Carol's jaw had dropped and her eyes were huge. She had just realized that she had done a great job landing a fish of a lifetime. Struggling to lift the monster Carol had both hands wrapped around the boga grip as the tail dangled a few inches off the deck. I snapped a couple of quick pictures before her strength gave out. I then gently held the fish in the water, helping it to regain it's strength. In a short period of time it slowly swam out of my hands free to fight another day. I was so thrilled! Without question, that was one of my best fishing moments. My fortunes quickly turned as one of the pictures was really good. Within hours the picture was printed and emailed to our friends and most unfortunately it was in Carol's possession. By the end of Memorial Day weekend I was about to change the sign on my truck from Capt. Dixon to Admiral Carol.

Later in the week we had another good day with Joshua F. and his friend Otto. In the afternoon Joshua got numerous bass on the fly rod, catching several in succession between 31" and 35". The fishing remains pretty good in the river but with the arrival of the squid run, some of the reefs are producing excellent results.