3.April: Only had about an hour after work to practice my casting technique. Arrived behind Bart's ~4:30 pm, to find nobody fishing. Weather was pleasantly sunny, and warm, and the bank shielded me from the blustery South wind. The water was up 8" or so, clear, with a decent current, and very little floatsam. Surface temp was just shy of 50ºF, but I subscribe that to the rocks that had been baking in the sun all day. As I finished setting up, I found a nice, new hammered silver willow in green and orange with a black dot sitting on a flat rock. Funny, but there was no way for me to miss it when I set my tackle bag down. Now I'm wondering how the H*LL I must have dropped it, because I had not yet opened my tackle bag and removed my tackle box. This getting old sh*t ain't for the faint-hearted...

I started with 5/8 oz of weight, and I could find the bottom no problem, but I just couldn't hold it there reliably in the current. So I switched to 3/4 oz, and changed the leaf while I was at it; hammered silver in pink and white with a black dot. Before I left, Dylan and Tyler, and another young'n from up the street joined me on the bank. Sissy stopped by to chat while we all took casting practice, and spun yarns. Things look promising, but it seems they're false promises.

Hopefully the scattered showers forecast over the next few days will raise the water level and current, and start the shad to moving up, as I have heard no reports of shad caught since Dylan's vitamin shad last week. Wishful thinking I suppose.

Terminal tackle: 3/4 oz drail over ~2' of 10# flouro (the back-cast area is thin, and the rocks are hungry), and a hammered silver leaf in pink and white with a black dot.

I can't make it tomorrow, so I'll be back Wednesday after work, and hopefully can spend more than a scant hour on the bank. Tight lines!