Yup, Faz pointed out I was hitting the water at too much of an angle.  That plus I was using too much force.  I still have some practicing to do (still learning by braille where my trolling moter and windshields are), but I think I got the jist of it.

Thanks, I'll stay right here....show me.    See ya tomarrow?

Virgil, the thing I figured out from all the time watching and learning to skip from Brian Walker (he started me off) is that the best skips come from keeping the rod tip parallel to the water.

When you swing in an arc, if you don't release at the exact moment, the lure either bounces way up high, or dives into the water and doesn't skip well.

Faz

There's a couple of spots along the shoreline of the park that will hold 3-4 boats.  However those fill up quickly if the sun is out (all the jetskiiers park there).

There's room for 3-4 boats next to the launch, but since both spots are not in view of each other, security may be an issue.

It really depends on the weather and how many clubbers show up.  On a nice spring day, that lake gets pummeled with skiiers and the park is packed.  On a rainy day, we'll have the place to ourselves.

If all else fails, we can load the boats up and have lunch in the parking lot.

Ok, two things,  1) Richard what are your skipping lessions you can teach us, 2) Glen what are your ideas on lunch at the fish-in? VW

Yup, I had a great time too..... the new boat is pretty cool, steady as a rock, rides well and is a pleasure to fish from.

Although I skunked, it was good to see Glenn haul in a couple of decent critters, but he was right... we saw some real pigs, including one that started out at the end of the dock and as we skipped various things at it just started moving further and further back into the dock.

We were watched by a group of party people as we worked their dock from the deep end to the shallows, kneeling down to see the fish move...they must have thought we were bowed in prayer to the green bucketmouth Gods!!! All in all a great day, especially hearing from Russ about his toad - WAY TO
GO RUSS!!

Finally I received a lesson in truck control watching Glenn back the Ranger into a pretty tight space... I was nervous just watching - good job Glenn, thanks for the invite I had a great time.

Faz

Had the pleasure of fishing with Faz on Lake Goodwin last Sunday.  We saw lots of empty beds, but still found a few largemouth here and there nesting.  The wind made it very difficult to see them, let alone get a good presentation.  Suffice to say, bed fishing was very difficult.

We didn't catch any off beds, but did manage to get 1 smallmouth and 1 largemouth in the boat - about 2 lbs each.

But the real story is what we saw! Oy!  On several occasions we saw big BIG bass just sitting under docks.  Some of them flew off the moment we skipped a bait to them, others just turned their nose up at us despite throwing the tackle box at them.  Even though we didn't catch them, they kept us entertained.  I'd say several were over the 5-pound mark.

Had a great time with Faz.  He taught me some skipping tricks that helped out immensely.

The fish-in ought to be good, although the shore lunch may be a bit of problem if the weather is nice - there's very little beach area to park the boats.  Other than that, I'm looking forward to seeing one of these big babies up close!