Water temp rising, fish biting

Cliff Prince has moved into the back end of Yocum Cove, near where he started this morning. He's solo now; we haven't seen Cliff Pace in awhile.

 

With a southeast breeze blowing directly in here, while not as strong as it was yesterday, it does set up the same formula for fish moving shallow like Steve Kennedy witnessed Sunday.

 

Prince just told us that the water temperature was 57.0 degrees when he got here this morning, and it has moved up to 58.1. We've seen a more dramatic change in the gauge on our boat, which read 52.2 earlier and now shows 55.8.

 

No matter which one  is correct, it's definitely warming.

 

Kennedy said he'd managed to catch just five keepers here at noon Sunday, then the wave of fish started piling in, and he caught 20 keepers on his next pass down the bank. By the end of the day, he had 13-10, which moved him up from 32nd place to 14th, missing the cut by 4 ounces.

 

In other words, it's early, and the key bites will be later, as the water continues to warm. That's for everyone, not just Prince. As Brian Snowden said Sunday,  "If we weighed in at 4:00 or 4:30, the weights would really be good."