Anthony Hicks and Gene Hord

Cloudy and Warm, Water Temperature mid 50"s.
While I was fishing with my grandson last Friday I saw Gene out fishing and invited him to go out with myself and Anthony for "Old Times Sake". Gene and myself use to fish Bass Tournaments 25 years ago in North and South Carolina and we wanted to catch up telling lies about fishing. Gene was the original Striper guide and Guru on the lake and Anthony was also one of the few people that targeted Stripers 30 years ago. Needless to say there was plenty of testosterone on the boat which made for a great time on the water. We went out early and hung lights, caught bait and had our spread out at daylight. I set up in an area where I knew I could catch some fish and enjoyed watching Gene reel in a bunch of Stripers. He use to pull live bait but not to the extent that we do now so it was fun watching him learn how to steer the Stripers through 5 or 6 planner boards. Naturally I would give him grief when he would foul a couple of lines, but it was all in fun. We had already caught all the fish we wanted to keep and were throwing back fish to be caught another day. I pulled off of the general area we were catching fish to leave some for my clients for another day and Gene could not believe I was leaving fish to find fish. We hit 3 more areas catching and releasing fish at all of them. When I left the landing I overheard Gene telling a friend of his "These guys kept complaining how poor fishing was today but I caught more Stripers today than I have all year!" It was great to get out with old friends, take a day this spring and reunite with someone of your past, one day memories may be all we have left.