Anna Wounded Warrior event, 17 SEP 2016

[31airborne]

Wow. What a day. A terrific collection of heroes, boat captains, family members, and folks out to see the show. As I look back on the last 5 events I think this was the best. ORHF has done a superb job of organizing a solid group of sponsors - Wawa, Walmart, North Anna Bait Co, and many others. really awesome to see the fishing community turn out for a celebration of the guardians of our freedoms.

I was paired w/ Matt from Jax, NC. He's a Marine who served for 13 years before being medically retired. He served 4 tours in Afghanistan and Iraq in those years on active duty. Matt came up a day early so we linked up for a day of scouting on FRI and hit it off right away. Since leaving active duty he started his own bait company. He makes an amazing assortment of soft plastic baits, hard baits, and terminal tackle. Keep an eye out for Heavy Limit Tackle. It'll be a standard soon.

Practice. FRI was a tuff day. The fish were in a funk and we struggled to piece anything together. We caught a few fish on flukes, a couple on jigs, and had no interest from the fish whatsoever on moving baits. While we had bites there was no clearly discernible pattern to any of it. The cloud cover and cooler temps were a nice break from the heat but it was obvious it put the fish in a weird mood. Must confess I was stumped coming off the water.

TX day. It was a fly-by-the-seat-of-my-pants decision at blast-off. The forecast called for the clouds to break so I headed up lake into the Pawmunkey arm. We had seen large pods of bait in Terry's during practice so I gambled that would translate into bites. I thought the stained water (maybe 1' viz) would make the fish a little easier to target. I figured the fish would be tight to cover and structure as the sun came out. The gamble paid off. We banged out 3 solid keepers on squarebills in the first hour. Our 4th keeper came a little later on a fluke skipped up into overhanging brush. After the Terry's bite played out we motored a little further up into the Pawmunkey arm. We targeted rocky points and quickly scored our 5th keeper. We gradually worked our way back down lake, stopping at some of the community holes along the way. We weren't able to cull. We headed in for the weigh-in a little early. Our 5 fish weighed 8.52, good enuff for 3rd place.

Observations: 1) Baitfish is everywhere in the backs of select creeks and coves. No bait, no bites. 2) The predator fish appeared to be confused by the weather. The bait is clearly thinking fall but the bass are still in summer mode. Lots of suspended fish over open water. No real pattern to their behavior. 3) Water temps ranged from 82-84 on FRI, 79-82 on SAT. 4) Water clarity was a mixed bag. Gin clear downlake (8-10' of viz), heavily stained in the upper reaches of the rivers. 5) Most of our bites came on secondary points. We had a few bites on main lake points in practice but that bite wasn't there today. 6) Jigs (greens), soft plastics (greens), flukes (white), and the LC BDS 2.2 were our key baits. We didn't have a lot of bites but the ones we did have were pretty aggressive.

A quick word about the Outdoor Recreation Heritage Fund. These guys have been serving the wounded warrior for several years, providing outdoor and family events for our heroes in rehab and transition. Hunting, fishing, beach trips, Disney World trips, and retreats are part of their schedule. They've stepped up to the plate for the Anna WW event after 9 years of superb work by Ken Kirk. Their passion and commitment are evident in everything they do. Bob Critcher (GySgt, USMC ret) will be our lead for this event going forward. Hope y'all take a minute to check out ORHF's web site, learn a little about them. If you feel so led they are a registered 501(3)(c) so your donations are tax deductible. Was a real treat working w/ Gunny Critcher this year. Looking forward to next year!

peace,
B

[Princeton_Man]

Sounds like an awesome day and considering the fish didn't want to play, 3rd place is very respectable. Hope I can help out next year.

[Lipripper]

Thanks for a great report and 3rd isn't bad at all. Sounds like a great time.