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Saturday: I made the drive to the lower South Branch to try for smallies. The water was stained, but low. Lots of sunnies around, and a few big carp. I managed two dink smallies and one sunfish, all on a gold spinner. Trying to find some cleaner water, I drove up to Natirar. The water was cleaner, but I forgot that they were having the wine festival that day. Wasted a good 20 minutes just turning around and getting out of there. Since I was in the neighborhood I made a run up to Peapack Brook. Water was clean, and the trout were active. Problem was most of them were holding tight to cover so you had to be a surgeon with where you drop the lure. I managed four rainbows, and about half a dozen lost jigs. It was getting hot and I was hungry, so I decided to call it a day.

Sunday: Andy offered to let me tag along to Merrill Creek with him on Sunday morning, and after some consideration I decided that the idea of spending my life savings on herring and sitting in a metal boat under the blazing sun catching dish rags wasn't my idea of a great time, so I declined. Instead, I decided to try out my newest video camera, an underwater camera a little larger than a chapstick. The clearest water near me is at Manasquan Reservoir, so I headed down with heavy casting tackle and an assortment of lures. My set-up was just like a Carolina Rig, only in place of the sinker was the camera. I made some casts with a few different lures for about half an hour, and then went home to view the footage. I must say the camera itself performed beautifully, giving a nice clear picture and not needing additional light, even in deeper water. The rigging, however, made the camera wobble and tumble, and resulted in a headache trying to watch the video.

Despite the shaky imagery I could see that there were numerous fish checking out my lures, including sunnies, white perch, and smallmouths. Too tempted to pass up what looked like easy pickings, I headed back with some light tackle. When I got there the place was a mob scene, with nearly every square inch of shoreline access occupied. I squeezed myself in and started casting Gulp minnows, which I decided to give another chance. Long story short, in about four hours of fishing I only caught one small sunfish and a smallmouth which got gut-hooked. After I got home I threw my remaining Gulp minnows in the trash; I would rather catch a few fish and release them all alive than catch a ton of them and kill half of them with swallowed hooks. I am officially done with Gulp minnows.

Monday: Hot, humid, sunny, so no fishing. I wandered around Home Depot trying to find something I could use for a rig to stop that underwater camera from wobbling. I've got a couple of ideas, so we'll see how things work out.