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11/9/08

OK - cold weather is finally here. It snowed for the first time here in East Tennessee last week. Most nights the temperature is in the mid to low 30's. That will drive the water temperature down and make the crappies go on a big time chew for the winter. 

Follow the bait - rule #1 in the fall. You have heard me say that a zillion times. But I can't say it enough. Fish follow the food source this time of year. Bass will be caught chasing shad in the creeks from morning to night. Crappies are not far away, after all the feed on the shad too right... So follow the shad and you should find some crappies. As I have found out lately though, there may be too much bait in a certain area. 

This year on our lakes here in East TN, the shad have been very thick. Must have been a good year for them. And the channels and creeks have been full of them. The depth finder screen is literally blacked out in some places because of all the bait fish. So trolling through that soup is usually not going to produce. Once the water cools down into the 40's, a lot of that bait will be gone and the crappies will be more interested in your jigs or cranks. 

So what to do when faced with this situation? One thing I do is to look for some structure on the bank in 15 - 20 feet of water. No matter where you live, some of the crappies in your lake will be on that shoreline structure this time of year. Cast and flip jigs to that structure and let it fall on a slack line. Watch for the line to stop or twitch, set the hook. I also like to "shoot" docks this time of year. This is a simple technique where you pinch the jig between your thumb and index finger, pull the jig back putting a bend in the rod, aim and shoot the jig under the dock. Shoot it as far as you can back under the dock. Let the jig fall on a slack line and again, watch the line. If it stops, twitches or goes off in another direction, set the hook. 

I have found dock shooting in the fall to be most effective during the middle of the day. Especially on sunny days. Large marina cover docks are a hot spot that I look for. Shoot your jig in those tight spaces between the boats and let the jig do it's thing. You may surprised how many quality crappies you can catch from a very small area with this method.

I generally use very small jigs for dock shooting. I prefer 1/64th oz, with 1/48th and 1/100th standing by for special situations. This smaller bait seems to get bit a lot more than my standard 1/32 and 1/16th oz jigs when shooting docks. The smaller bait sinks slower too. I put a 1" tube jig on the small jig head, generally a light color as I'm usually shooting docks on bright days. 

Last point - I like to shoot docks on the main lake in the fall. I rarely go very far back into a small creek. Stick to the larger creeks and the main channel. Once it gets too cold to shoot that jig, it will be time to start trolling again!

10/10/08

October ushers in some of the best crappie fishing of the year for many parts of the country. The cooler weather makes a day on the lake a whole lot easier to enjoy as well. Not too many jet skies and pleasure boaters out when the mercury drops below 40F. And here in NE Tennessee we have already had two frosts and the air temp has dropped down near 40F or below nearly every night for about month. 

This colder weather will drop the lake temps pretty quick. The crappies know winter is coming and they will eat like crazy trying to fatten up for winter and the eventual spawn in the spring. 

In our part of the country, the bait fish move into the creeks and up the lake to the point where the feeder creeks and rivers dump into the lake at this time of year. One of my favorite Winter time crappie honey holes is the Eno River in North Carolina. This is the river that feeds Falls Lake North of Raleigh. No where is the migration of crappies into the river that feeds a lake more evident than at the Eno. Once it gets cold, the river is full of crappies and the shad they feed on. The anglers that are in the know on this spot can't wait for winter to arrive. If you have a large creek or river that feeds your lake, you would be well advised to toss a jig or some live bait over the side and see if there are some crappies there right now.

Believe it or not, I love to troll crankbaits or crank/jig combo's this time of year. I'll be in or near a creek or up the lake in the river, fishing the channel edges. The upper half of the lake is where I'll be fishing from now until spring. And I can cover a lot of water trolling crankbaits. If I catch a fish I'll mark the spot on my GPS an keep going. I'll run a mile or so of a creek and try to pinpoint where the fish are concentrating. I can move quickly with the cranks and they will stay at a precise depth. Once I know where the fish are concentrating I'll change, if needed, to whatever technique will allow me to stay in the strike zone. Sometimes you will need to tightline and move slowly over a creek channel edge with live bait. The next day you may need to troll two 1/16th oz jigs along a sloping point. You need to be versatile this time of year and be prepared with the right equipment on hand. You never know what the fish will want from one day to the next. Unlike the spring of the year, fall patterns can change quickly. 

You have heard me talk about the "magic depth" for a long time. Down here in the SE US that seems to be between 15' and 18' during the winter. This is driven by the thermocline. A point at which oxygen rich water meets oxygen depleted water. This is a subject for another time. But the point is, the crappies will hang at this depth for several reasons - food, oxygen and water temperature. Find the thermocline depth in your lake and fish some structure right at that depth. You will catch some fish.

A more subtle tip for this time of year is size and color of jigs to use. I prefer the more natural colors in the colder months. But the old stand bye red/chrt, blue/chrt, black/chrt and purple/chrt should always be in your spread somewhere. Salt and Pepper, clear with silver flakes, 4th of July, Firecracker are all jigs I will be using heavily this time of year. White crankbaits are my primary choice if I'm fishing cranks that day. The smaller Shad Raps, Bandits and Normans are my favorites. The key here is to have several different sizes handy. The fish may prefer one size over another based on the forage base size. Use a crank that's too big and you may get skunked while the guy next to you is loading the livewell with tasty fillets!

9/2/08  

September is here baby - yeah!

While you can catch some nice crappies during the summer months, especially at night, all die hard crappie fishermen look forward to Labor Day and the end of summer. The days get a little shorter, the nights a little cooler and the crappie fishing gets red hot!

In the coming weeks the fish will be on the move and eating every thing in sight to fatten up for the winter and next years spawn. They will bite all day long, and if you can find them they aren't very picky either.

Follow the bait. Let me repeat that - FOLLOW THE BAIT! Locate the schools of shad that are moving out of the main lake and into the creeks and you will find crappies. Also, head up the lake to where the main river dumps into the lake. Bait fish will move into the main creek channels at the head of the lake as the water begins to cool. The "magic depth" in NC, as Jay used to call it, was between 17' - 18' in the fall. It seemed that most of the lakes we fished in Central NC had a sweet spot at that depth. Troll some jigs or crank baits or fish with live bait and you were bound to catch some crappies.

As the years went by we realized that depth was where the thermocline was at that time of the year. The bait fish would suspend in a column of water between 15' and 20' for about 2 months leading up to fall turn over. You could where the crappie out if you were able to locate some bait at that depth near a creek.

The main point here is to watch the water temperature, use your electronics to find schools of bait, and then choose a technique that will get your baits down to that precise depth or slightly above it. Experiment with colors until you find one the fish prefer. One thing to keep in mind is that if you find some fish this time of year they probably won't be scattered out too much. They will be packed in an area pretty tight. So if you catch one or two, mark the spot on your GPS. Keep on going for a bit. If you don't catch a fish within a few hundred yards, turn around and go back. I have literally had to troll in a circle at times to stay on a bunch of crappies in the fall.

Once they are in the creeks, the fish will scatter out a little and even run up shallow to munch on bait fish. Shooting docks and shoreline brush will produce for a short time once the crappies have come in to feed up for the winter. This doesn't last a long time. But if you can hit it just right, man it's a blast!

7/15/08  

Not much to report this time. A few die hards here in East Tennessee are catching some fish at night and early in the mornings. Personally I haven't been on the lake in over a month. Although it is hot and there are a lot of pleasure boaters on the lake this time of year, you can still catch some crappies for dinner.

You may have to try several different techniques and move around a little to find some fish but it can be done. Without a doubt the best time to go is through the week and early in the morning. I always start my morning super early if possible, before the sun comes up. I'll head straight to some lighted docks and boat houses with some water depth under them. A trick my old buddy Terry "Grizzly" King taught me was to cast tiny plastic jigs to crappies feeding under the lights. And when I say tiny I mean 1.0" or less in length and 1/64th or 1/100th oz jig heads. Use two lb test and about a 5' light action spinning rod. Cast that little jig up into the light and just let it fall on a slack line. It will sink really slow because of the light weight jig head. Watch the line! If it stops or twitches set the hook easy and reel the fish in carefully. Make sure you have a net as even a small crappie can pop that 2lb line. He used to swear by "Crappie Snacks" for this technique. And he caught a lot of fish doing it. As soon as the sun comes up I will fish some of my favorite marina slips. I'll pitch minnows and small jigs into the empty boat slips and around the boats where I can. Schools of small shad fry will congregate under the massive floating docks. You can usually pick up a few before the boat owners show up and the fish go deep. From there I will head to some brush piles on the main lake points. I'll fish from 20' - 30' deep depending on the level of bright sun. I won't even pick up a jig rod, I stick with live bait. The bite will only last an hour or so after the sun is up so go to the high potential spots first. As soon as I see the first skier, I'm headed home. This whole fishing trip will only last about three hours. But I can usually get enough for supper.

 Go back to that same marina at night. The big floating docks are a super hot spot for crappies at night. Get permission first! Get a bucket of minnows and some spinning rods and go have some fun. You might be surprised how many fat slabs you can catch with very little effort.

6/3/08

After the spawn bass and crappies get pretty hard to catch for a few weeks. There really is no magic formula to make these fish bite. They are worn out from the spawn and need some time to recover. Most of the time they will retreat back off the bank to the first creek channel, major piece of structure or run out to the end of a long tapering point and just suspend and recover. You can see them on your depth finder but they just won't hit a thing. Patience is the key here. And finding feeding fish is the objective. This will require covering a lot of water.

 There is no better way to do that this time of year than with crank baits. Trolling crank baits has quickly become a popular way to catch summer time crappies. About 30 years ago my father and I trolled crank baits for bass throughout the summer. We used big ones and small ones, but some produced netter than others. And occasionally we would catch a big crappie mixed in with the bass. Little did we know that if we would have fine tuned our technique a little and focused on the areas where we caught those crappies, we would have been able to load up.

 Many years later I did fine tune my crank bait trolling technique and it has produced well for me ever since. I do a few unique things to crank baits when I'm trolling that have paid off for me over time. First is to make darn sure the crank is running straight. Let it back in the water and watch the line. Twist the line tie in one direction or the other to get it running dead straight. I use small bait clips which help to quickly change cranks. On most cranks I remove the belly hook and replace the rear hook with a bigger treble or #2 bronze hook. They won't get hung up nearly as bad with that belly hook removed. If you are trolling around cover this will save you a lot of baits. In open water it's not necessary. Get a good plug knocker just in case and keep it handy. 

 I generally troll with six crank baits at a time when I am alone. Spread the rod tips out to help keep the baits apart in a turn. I use 6 lb test line, occasionally 8 lb. But the thinner the line the deeper the crank will run. I only let them back about 45 - 60 feet max. Any more than that in my opinion is too much. Fish pull off when trying to reel them in from 100 feet back and that crank won't run much deeper due to line drag. A big bow forms in the line under water pulling the crank closer to the surface. You can control the whole spread better if you keep the cranks closer to the boat, trust me on that one.

 I pull them from about 1.2 mph to about 1.9 mph. The baits will reach max depth from about 1.5 mph on up to about 2.5 or even 3 mph. Any faster and some have a tendency to twirl and swim off to one side. Experiment and find out which speed works best for you. 

 I usually stick to big main channel flats that butt up against the main creek channel in the summer. Schools of bait fish will hang out on these flats. The crappies and many other game fish will be right there with them. Mark the bait and determine the depth they are suspended at. Pick some cranks that will run right through them or just above them. Now pull the cranks right through the bait and around it as well. Keep your drag set light because a big bass, striper or catfish might inhale your crank bait. 

 I prefer the Bandit series 200 and 300 above all others. I have about 25 different colors and they all work. The Bandit web site has some great depth charts that are dead on with 10 lb test line. Print out the graphs and keep them handy. I laminated some and keep them in the boat. I can get my cranks right in the fish. But my 6lb line will let the bait run a little deeper than the chart. Like I said earlier, you will need to experiment a little. 

3/9/08

I fished Cherokee lake last Sunday 3/2/08. Man what a beautiful day. 60 degrees, a light wind and bright sunshine - I got sunburn on my face - in March! How can you hate that...

The fish are starting to move in on Cherokee. I have heard similar reports from around the South East and Central US as well. This is the time of year when trolling can be extremely effective. You can cover a lot of water and present multiple baits to the fish. Flat line trolling or "long lining" as some people call it is my preferred technique this time of year.

Look for fish at the mouth's of the major creeks and coves. Water temperature is the key. Look for the warmest water you can find. Crappies will be near bye. They can be on the bottom, six inches under the surface or anywhere in between. But they will be facing into that warmer water and getting ready to move in. They are maximizing their body temperature and preparing to be in the right place when the time comes to move in and spawn. 

Your mission is to intercept them on the way in. Follow the routine I described last week. Look for the report on  the "Reports" page for the report from last week. Experiment with colors and keep plenty of minnows handy to tip your jigs with. Try two jigs tied several feet apart to get deeper and to cover two depth ranges at one time. One of my favorite rigs this time of year is a 1/16oz road runner with another 1/32oz road runner tired 24" above it. I can fish this combo from 2 feet deep down to 18 or 20 feet deep. The flash, noise and vibration from the RR blade really gets some nice fish to bite. Another good one is a large jig on the bottom, say a 1/8oz with a 2" tube jig and then a live minnow on a snelled hook 18" up the line. That one is double trouble for finicky crappies. Most can't resist a lively minnow right in front of their nose.

Experiment with different rigs and techniques. This is one time of year when you can catch fish with a wide variety of methods. You can hone your skills, tune your rig and catch fish pretty consistently until they move really shallow. 

Most of my fish are still coming from 13' - 19' of water, suspended between 1' and 6 feet of the bottom. Surface temp is 51F - 53F. Purple and Chart seems to be the ticket for me right now in slightly stained to off color water. Trolling .7 - .9mph on the GPS puts the 1/8oz jig right in the fish. 

Good luck, keep the pictures and reports coming - and take some one new to our sport, hopefully a young person, with you next time. You won't regret it.

3/3/08

Pre-spawn fish are the target right now. The key to catching these fish is locating them. Water temperature plays the most important role right now. Having some bait fish near bye helps but the water temp is going to be the ticket. I have caught fish on the banks in water temp as low as 49 F and as high as 70 F. They go when their internal clock tells them to. And they all don't go at the same time. Personally, I don't fish for spawning fish anymore. Now, now - it's ok if you want to, but I stopped a long time ago. The way I see it, if they get by me on the way to spawn, they have earned the right to do so without being bothered by me. But I get my fair share when they are moving in I promise ya' that much! And here is how I do it. 

I always start at the back of a prospective creek or cove first. I start shallow and work my way out. I know that is where they are headed so I'm bound to run into some fish on the way out. I would much rather find out the fish have moved into shallow water early than eight hours later after looking all day. Yes, they may move shallow as the day goes on, but I have found using this approach helps me locate fish faster.

I'll start with 1/64th and 1/48th oz jigs and troll the back end of the creek in 3 - 5 feet of water. Check the water temp, remember it.  I move quick and cover that area fast. I generally use brightly colored jigs even if the water is clear and the sun is out. No decent fish in 30 minutes or so, I'm moving out a little. I'll now try the first drop out from the bank in the mid section of the creek. I'm looking for staging fish in 5 - 8 feet of water. I'll switch to a 1/32oz jig and adjust my speed watching the depth finder all the time. I now have a GPS every where I go. If I get a fish I mark the waypoint immediately. And I do this every time whether it's a big fish or not. I'm trying to put a pattern together so all the data counts. I'll pull that area down both sides of the creek for another 30 minutes or so. Pay attention to which side of the creek the sun hits first. That can make a difference. Again, I'm watching the depth finder constantly monitoring depth, contour and temperature. No good fish, I'm moving to the center of the creek in that mid range and fishing the channel in 8 - 12 feet of water. Check the temp. You are looking for the warmest water. The fish could be right up near the surface in the center of the creek. So watch the depth finder closely. At this point I'll use my hand help temp gauge and check the water temp at different depths. If I find that the water down 6 or 8 feet is warmer than the surface I will change to traditional "long line" tactics and troll on out of the creek. The fish may be staging on the points or channels leading into the creek. I'll switch to a little heavier jig like a 1/16oz or even a 1/8oz and get the bait down to them. They will be easier to see on the depth finder if they are out in the deeper water. Just get the jig and speed right to drag the bait right at  the depth the fish are holding or slightly above them. Remember they won't go down for a bit, keep it above them. Experiment with colors now and use the basic rule of thumb. Bright colors on a bright day and dark colors on a dark day. Tip your jigs with minnows and keep them lively. 

 This entire process will take me no more than an hour or so, maybe an hour and a half. I fish fast, I cover a lot of water. I can put together a pattern pretty quick using this approach. I will generally only fish 4 rods when running this routine simply because I can change them out quick and control them better. But once I zero in on some fish, I'll go to 8 or even 10. 

2/5/08

Sorry for my long absence - been busy. Some of the best crappie fishing of the year is right around the corner. All the Killer Kid pictures above have two things in common - happy kids and spring time crappies. This is the time of year to take your kids or a new crappie killer fishing. Wait for a nice day, get some "minners" and a few jigs and go catch some dinner. 

The key this time of year is water temperature. If you don't have a water temperature gauge in your boat, go get a portable one. It's a must this time of year. You can get an inexpensive one at Wal-Mart for under twenty bucks. And it will be money well spent.

I start in the upper end of any lake or reservoir this time of year. That section of the lake will get the longest exposure to the sun and warmer creek and river water is coming in there as well. Warmer - are you nuts? No I'm not. Rain water and run off water is always a few degrees warmer this time of year. It may be muddy, but that's ok. The particles in the muddy water hold heat. It will be slightly warmer than the lake, trust me on this one. Look for areas where feeder creeks come in at the backs of coves/main or secondary creeks. Use your temp gauge to measure the temp from the mouth of the creek all the way to the back. You should see the temp rise a little as you move back. Watch the depth finder as you move along the creek channel edge or in the channel itself. Somewhere between the main channel and the back of that creek you will find some crappies bunched up. Sometimes they will be suspended, others they will be flat on the bottom. So look close and don't go too fast. When you see a distinct temp change or mark some fish, throw out a marker or put in a waypoint on your GPS. Keep looking. Ride around and scout the area good before setting up to troll. Yes troll. The water is too cold you say - not... As soon as the water temp starts to rise from the stable temp your lake reaches in the dead of winter, crappies will move in. They point their noses straight into that warmer water and start swimming! 

If the sun is bright they may move up to within a foot of the surface over 50 feet of water at the mouth of a creek. It's all about getting their body temperature up and getting ready to lay some eggs. Intercepting the fish on the way to the spawning areas is what you are trying to do. So look for a place you know they want to spawn, then look out in the deeper water they are coming form, and somewhere in between you will find them. Usually in the warmest water you can find. 

One tip to keep in mind is to run right up to the bank and measure the water temp before starting to troll. The water up at the bank will warm faster as it is shallower and has the bottom to help warm it up. The surface temp may be 40 in the main lake and 55 at the bank in your creek. The fish will be up there and you will be trolling for blanks. 

Old reports below

High Rock Lake - Spring Crappie Outing 4/8/06

Some of the guys from the Spring Outing on High Rock Lake 

 Another Crappie Outing is in the books. This was our sixth event if I'm not mistaken. The decision was made to hold this event on High Rock Lake for several reasons. The biggest of which was participation. And this is driven by the location and the possibility of catching lots of fish. The Rock is centrally located and has tons of crappies that are very willing to bite. The only thing that could present a problem was the weather. And, as usual, the weather presented a problem.  

 I left Winston at 5:30 AM headed for Tamarac. The wind was calm, no rain and I could see a few stars. I was happy to see that the weather man missed it by a little and hoping that the he would continue to be wrong. 

 Arrived at the Marina at 7:00 AM and met Cherokee and his family. Grizzly and his dad were already fishing. Several other die hards rolled in around 7:15 and Don Robinson and the Waxhaw crew were quick to follow. Nat and Jay were there and ready to go. Les Tate showed up as promised and was prepared to take some new comers Kenny Bainbridge and his daughter Alexis on there first crappie trolling trip. Some of the boats took off in spite of a really nasty looking thunderstorm that was pressing down on us from the East. The rest of us took shelter under the deck on the restaurant. Sure enough the rain, lightning and wind started just minutes later. Jay got a few adult beverages and coffee and we waited the storm out. 

 20  minutes had passed and we were all ready to get on the lake. The storm cleared and the sun actually came out for a short period of time. Everyone took off in there own direction with smiles on there faces. Boyce "Crappie Crazy" Bishop and I went to Duck Creek to start trolling.

 With the slightly overcast skies and off colored water we selected jigs in the mid to dark range. Seeing that most of the fish appeared to be just off the bottom we started with 1/16 oz jig heads and a few road runners as well. Within 100 yards of starting we had a few small fish in the boat. Generally this time of year I like to start at the very back of a creek and work my way out. Slowing my speed as I go to get the jigs down to the depth I see the fish on the finder. However if you have wind it sometimes forces you to do the opposite. One of my rules is never troll against the wind. Whenever possible troll with the wind. The wind causes a slight bit of current. And the fish will almost always be facing into that current. Therefore you will be pulling the jigs up from behind the fish if you troll against the wind. They get less time to see the bait as it just passes over them and disappears quickly.  Pulling it towards them, with the wind, gives the fish more time to see the bait and react to it. Anyway - I digress. We ended up with a few keepers coming from 6 - 9 feet deep on the few road runners we had out. We quickly changed to get a few more road runners out and switched to shades of blue and green jigs. We had a pretty good pattern figured out after several passes. Problem was, as is the case often on High Rock, the fish were small. One keeper out of 5 or 6 fish. 

 Ultimately we agreed that the fish were tight to the bottom, 7.5 - 10 feet deep, they preferred blue/chart 1/16 road runners and they had to be close to the bottom. This was a classic transition zone scenario. The fish were mid way back in the creek. Water temp ranged from 59 - 61 degrees. They were setup on the first break out from the bank and holding. When the sun popped out they would move up a little in the water column and feed more aggressively. But there was very little sun today. 

 Boyce and I tried a few more spots picking up a few more keepers as we went. The wind and off and on threat of T-storms kept us from trying any main channel spots. I'm sure there were bigger fish a little further out in the creeks suspended. But they were in a very negative mood and seemed to be un-catch able. We stuck to our shallow water pattern and caught some nice fish for the cookout. We headed in at 1:30 PM with 14 keepers with the largest fish weighing right at one pound.

"NC Nat" and Boyce "Crappie Crazy" Bishop cleaning some fish for the cookout

When we returned to the marina we met several other boats that had arrived early. Everyone had fish. But the comments were all the same - glad it didn't rain anymore and the fishing was slow. Although no one really seemed to crush 'em, everyone had some fish. Terry Grizzly King and his dad had the largest fish for the day. A nice white crappie that weighed well over a pound. Many others had fish that were nearly as big but once again they had the nicest fish we saw. For numbers I think Don Robinson and his friends form Waxhaw had the most fish. There were a few new comers at this outing including Alexis Bainbridge and her dad Kenny from Charlotte.

Alexis Bainbridge getting her fish out of the live well - Les Tate looks over her shoulder

A big Crappie Killer thank you to Les Tate for taking Kenny and Alexis fishing. They really enjoyed it. Nothing like seeing a kid smile after they caught a fish - killer...

Don Robinson and his buds from Waxhaw cooked up a great meal - Thanks Don!

We ate at 3:00 PM right on schedule. Don and his buddies were really prepared. They had everything and made it all look easy. The food was excellent and there was just enough to feed the 25 - 30 people we had to feed. Many thanks to everyone that helped out with the food and preparation. Del, we'll be looking forward to more of those hush puppies ; ). The desserts Sandy Bainbridge brought were excellent. I won't soon forget that chocolate chip cake - yum... 

I would like to thank Nat for setting up the gazebo and grounds at Tamarac for the outing. Nat is a great guy and is always a big part of every event we have. I also want to thank Nat for the hospitality and allowing the old, fat, tired crappie killer to sleep at his house after the event. 

After talking with most of the guys that fished today, the story was about the same. The fish they caught were on or near the bottom. Most were caught between 8 and 15 feet deep. Colors that were effective were in the mid to dark range. The most popular were red/chart, green tri colors, blue/chart and black/chart. Water temp ranged from 58 - 64 depending on where you were fishing on the lake.

A large time was had by all again this year. The weather was rough in the morning but gave us a break for most of the day. Boyce and I along with Nat and Jay went back out after the cookout to try to catch a few more. But the weather took a turn for the worse and we had to head back in. All in all I think the event went very well. We had over 100 people that had said they were coming to this event. We ended up with about 30. I'm sure the threat of bad weather kept most at home. I can tell you that you missed a fairly decent day and a great cookout. It takes a lot of planning, time and money to make one of these events happen. I want to thank all the people that helped with this one. Super Job! We will continue to have these events no matter what. I hope more of you will come and join us - we always have a great time. and I promise, at the next one, I'll have twice as much stuff to give away as I couldn't bring a thing this time...

Best fishes',
Mark