Paid for it!

Lets start the story with, "Y'all aint gonna believe this!"

Up at 4 and on the Forum..checking the NOAA wind and water temps...air temp of 55, water temp of 55, waves 1-3'...good...So I drive on over to this one place and put on my wetsuit right there in the parking lot. Note: (While bare naked in a public area, For a speedy suit up, wear socks!) The wetsuit slides on effortlessly and quickly, you can thank me later!....Long walk in, I was happy that the AtPro with the NEL THUNDER was perfectly balanced, easy to carry with just a few fingers curled around its lithe shaft...

I know this place well, lotsa nails and trash and I was curious to see how the THUNDER performed on target separation...It did...got a few masked targets with happy results...checked the floatability, perfect as well, not as neg a bouyancy as the stock 8x11..On a rapidly conceived Mudpuppy chart, if the stock G has a neg bouyant ratio of a 2, I'd say the NEL is about a 1...Also, its not hard to keep it on the deck like some coils...It sweeps the riffle trough perfectly, its long profile acts like a squeegee covering the edge and drop off with alacrity and aplomb, so a guy can walk along briskly keeping it in the riffle perpendicular to the beach while looking for cuts....Its just fine pushing it through the water, like you all know, as with any coil, you dont force it, you let the waves and ambient currents assist you along with your swing pattern...You cant fight water for long right?

Ok, sniped up most of this clad, worked the area a bit and off to the next beach feeling confident that me and the NEL were going to get along...I also know this beach extremely well, on a first name basis even, yesterday the surf was just too big to hunt, but I could see a wonderful cut opening up in the 'right' area that has hitherto escaped me...so in 6yrs this place has not opened up like it was today....sweeping along the riffle, BOOM! Big Silver Ping! Thinking maybe a dog license perhaps, but up comes this nice 8.7gr silver ring!

I headed into the water straight out and did a few passes picking up various targets, and hearing the black sand sub strata as a reference to the hardpack area that was reachable...back and forth with the NEL squeegee, l hear a crappy gold tone...53tidish and skippy, like a SS wire or bastard metal key fob...Up in the scoop! Great Merciful Benjamin Button! "There you are you Piccolo playing Old Mother Hubbard!" I hollered! Then, embarrassed by my nonsensical gutteral outburst, I quickly looked around for Pennywise the Clown or maybe Rat sneaking up on me or playing a trick! Could it be? I could see it was marked, but it felt light, 'course my hands were numb but still... it looked good, no tarnish, and it was in the absolutely RIGHT place, but we all know that deal too...

Then the Ferry came in across the Lake and flooded me out like usual..so that makes it 9:15ish and the LCS dont open until 10...I drove on down to another beach while the wake subsided and texted Rat a pic at work...he of course was amazed and incredulous, questioned its veracity and my pedigree as well...

So I finished up at another place that was completely sanded in worthless, changed into dry gear and on the way home I stopped by the LCS Gold Buyer place...they verified its K status and weight...so there you go...the first day out with the NEL THUNDER...truth be told, I probably woulda got both the ring and bracelet with the Stock coil had I gotten it over top of them that is...Wife asked me if todays results were on account of the new coil...I told her yes...then she took both and told me to get back out there!...
Mud