It was my kind of business meeting!

We ran a lot of water Wednesday before the redfish finally found us.  The conditions were hot, but perfect for fishing anywhere we wanted so we checked water from East Pass all the way to the Causeway.  We never fished any spot more than 10 or 15 minutes until we found ourselves in the middle schooling redfish.  We limited in about ten minutes and called it a day.

Thursday morning, Sarge Upchurch and Chris Williamson of Laguna Rods and Keith Daley, owner of Daley's Hunt n Fish decided to hold a business meeting in my boat.  Chis and Sarge didn't leave Georgetown until late the night before as they wanted to deliver another 60 rods to be wrapped before squeezing in a day to fish and show off more of their rods at the same time.

As it turned out, we were very lucky that Sarge and Chris were running about a half hour late. By the time we reached the north end of the lake, the entire south end was blacker than the inside of a cow.  We watched it until it quickly engulfed the west side of the lake before opting to hurry back into the river.

Sarge culled out the largest fish in the schools with a topwater!

We just caught the heck out of small trout, a nice flounder and a slot red while waiting for the worst to blow through.  Sarge was catching them out of the back of the boat on topwaters, Keith was catching them on a crankbait, and Chris and I were catching or missing a fish almost every cast with a Swim Bait.

When the storm finally blew through and it got sure enough hot, we ran back to the lake.  After catching only one solid trout out of a mine field of slicks we moved to the ICW to take advantage of the remainder of a light outgoing tide.  The trout were there as were the flounder and we left the deeper water with a very decent box of fish to check on the schooling redfish.

Now.....does it look like Sarge just accidentally held his fish in front of Chris' face.   If it does...you haven't ever spent the day with these two!

They were already doing their thing when we got there and it was crazy good.  We only fished two different schools and we all had fish on at the same time on different lures several times.  Sarge is addicted to throwing a topwater at any fish and the reds would absolutely detonate his pink Skitterwalk.  He finished with the largest red while both Keith and Chris finished the day with red-flounder-trout slams.

Needless to say, I cleaned fish for a long time while they talked shop in the shade at the landing,  I have been fishing with one of their Latis sticks since March and I have never been more impressed with any rod.  It is absolutely weightless and I have flinched more than once when an over sized red buried it under the boat on a last minute lunge.  Add to that the number of times it has survived backcasts that jerked it all the way out of a rod holder and I am convinced that it will take a car door or trunk lid to render it useless.

I had never fished with or even seen any of the other actions that they brought on board. They not only build models for specific needs, but also build one action in three different lengths that comes very close to being the one stick you would need for most of your fishing.  While only time will tell if the rest of the line is as durable as the Latis Stick at this point, I can't believe that there is another rod out there that feels so noticeably different the first time you cast it or set the hook!

Apparently, Keith agreed as they ran back to his store after the trip and he couldn't place an order fast enough.  It will take a few weeks to get in his first order because he ordered only custom wrapped models, but they left him their Devil Stick for customers to examine in the meantime.  While it has a handle that will blow you away, more importantly it is built on that blank that is easily the most versatile in their whole line-up.

I ran over there yesterday and he was already considering selling it to the highest bidder as everyone that picked it up raved over it.  Don't buy it....there are more on the way!

 

Comments

[Chris Williamson]

It was a great day Dickie!!! We really enjoyed spending the day on the water with you and Keith. Sarge got his **ss kicked but he is used to it...LOL. I cant wait to get back on the water with you...awesome day my friend. Chris Williamson...Laguna Custom Rods!!