Post by mwardncsu on Jul 26, 2014 21:11:28 GMT -5
Weather: Sunny, little to no wind, temps starting low 70's rising to upper 80's
Water: 82-83, visibility of a few feet
Techniques: alewives on 1.5 oz downlines (4) and 1/4 oz light lines 40-50' back with alewives (2)
Came back on Thursday from a trip in the UK, and my body clock is still a few hours ahead of us, which as it turns out lends itself well to getting up early to catch bait. I wasn't going to fish this weekend, but we have a Club fish-fry next Friday and did not have enough fish turned in at our Tourney the other week to cover what we'll need so I decided to go out and catch a few more for the cause. Our buddy Nathan was planning to fish and didn't have anyone going with him, so it make it an easy call then to come on up and jump on the "Minnow Johnson" for the morning.
We met about 3 am and had his boat in the water and at the bait light around 3:30am. I brought along my 9', 1/2" Bait Buster net and two throws of it yielded a good 8 or 10 dozen baits - mostly alewife with a few juvenile gizzards mixed in (which we pruned out). Probably had way too many baits in his 30 gal tank - and when we wrapped up for the day we tossed back at least 5 dozen baits - though we were going through them at a good clip early in the morning (more on that later)..... Had a chance to meet member Shadillac - good to meet you in person.
We did go try one other light to see if we could find some large/mongo ales - but we found the opposite
We fished several spots above and below the bridge. We struggled with keeping our baits alive above Indian - downlines under 20' would die in short order - clearly we were fishing where the thermocline had setup. Baits above 20' would die almost as fast - I think from the warm water.... We keep having fish come up, look at the baits and go back down, so we picked up and headed down the lake to try and get down past where the thermocline had setup so that we could keep baits down and alive and hopefully also find some fish.
Talked with a buddy that had been on a school earlier in the morning and had picked up a few but it died off. We didn't see the school but did manage to pick up two fish in there on the light-lines to get the skunk off the boat for the morning and get a couple into the cooler - one at 24"-25" and the other at 29" - good eater sizes.
Around then we got another call from another buddy that we had been working with up the lake a little ways saying he was on a good school - we wrested with the age old decision of leaving fish to find fish, but we figured we were close enough we could come back and we were not marking enough to keep us there. We got in the area to watch him catch one and before long and before we marked the school we were hooked into a triple that should have been a quadruple or quintuple. Chaos - it's what makes the summer fishing worth-while.
One of the triple was another 29" and it went into the cooler - the other two were small fish that went right back and took off with a vengeance.
Somewhere in the chaos we crossed the school - this was the tail-end of the school
Sent the word out to the 1st buddy that gave us the earlier intel and the three of us worked the area trying to triangulate on the school - but it was moving quick. We worked the area for a while after that - never getting back on the school but marking a few scattered fish and picking up some here and there - smaller in class overall at that point. Probably had about as many coming off the light-lines as the downlines (maybe more on the light-lines).
We called it quits somewhere a little after 10am - with fish still on the fish finder and plenty of bait in the tank - but we had a limit in the cooler and had released 4 smaller fish and one other in the 8 lb range - so it was time to call it a day and not risk catching more larger fish that would not release / survive - a balance that we could live with knowing the smaller fish were most likely in good shape.
Mission accomplished - fish in the freezer, ready for the grease & some fellowship next Friday. Good morning on the water and not a bad way to reset back home after vacation
One of those mornings where having other friends on the water proved helpful and glad we could be helpful in return....
Water: 82-83, visibility of a few feet
Techniques: alewives on 1.5 oz downlines (4) and 1/4 oz light lines 40-50' back with alewives (2)
Came back on Thursday from a trip in the UK, and my body clock is still a few hours ahead of us, which as it turns out lends itself well to getting up early to catch bait. I wasn't going to fish this weekend, but we have a Club fish-fry next Friday and did not have enough fish turned in at our Tourney the other week to cover what we'll need so I decided to go out and catch a few more for the cause. Our buddy Nathan was planning to fish and didn't have anyone going with him, so it make it an easy call then to come on up and jump on the "Minnow Johnson" for the morning.
We met about 3 am and had his boat in the water and at the bait light around 3:30am. I brought along my 9', 1/2" Bait Buster net and two throws of it yielded a good 8 or 10 dozen baits - mostly alewife with a few juvenile gizzards mixed in (which we pruned out). Probably had way too many baits in his 30 gal tank - and when we wrapped up for the day we tossed back at least 5 dozen baits - though we were going through them at a good clip early in the morning (more on that later)..... Had a chance to meet member Shadillac - good to meet you in person.
We did go try one other light to see if we could find some large/mongo ales - but we found the opposite
We fished several spots above and below the bridge. We struggled with keeping our baits alive above Indian - downlines under 20' would die in short order - clearly we were fishing where the thermocline had setup. Baits above 20' would die almost as fast - I think from the warm water.... We keep having fish come up, look at the baits and go back down, so we picked up and headed down the lake to try and get down past where the thermocline had setup so that we could keep baits down and alive and hopefully also find some fish.
Talked with a buddy that had been on a school earlier in the morning and had picked up a few but it died off. We didn't see the school but did manage to pick up two fish in there on the light-lines to get the skunk off the boat for the morning and get a couple into the cooler - one at 24"-25" and the other at 29" - good eater sizes.
Around then we got another call from another buddy that we had been working with up the lake a little ways saying he was on a good school - we wrested with the age old decision of leaving fish to find fish, but we figured we were close enough we could come back and we were not marking enough to keep us there. We got in the area to watch him catch one and before long and before we marked the school we were hooked into a triple that should have been a quadruple or quintuple. Chaos - it's what makes the summer fishing worth-while.
One of the triple was another 29" and it went into the cooler - the other two were small fish that went right back and took off with a vengeance. Somewhere in the chaos we crossed the school - this was the tail-end of the school
Sent the word out to the 1st buddy that gave us the earlier intel and the three of us worked the area trying to triangulate on the school - but it was moving quick. We worked the area for a while after that - never getting back on the school but marking a few scattered fish and picking up some here and there - smaller in class overall at that point. Probably had about as many coming off the light-lines as the downlines (maybe more on the light-lines).
We called it quits somewhere a little after 10am - with fish still on the fish finder and plenty of bait in the tank - but we had a limit in the cooler and had released 4 smaller fish and one other in the 8 lb range - so it was time to call it a day and not risk catching more larger fish that would not release / survive - a balance that we could live with knowing the smaller fish were most likely in good shape.
Mission accomplished - fish in the freezer, ready for the grease & some fellowship next Friday. Good morning on the water and not a bad way to reset back home after vacation
One of those mornings where having other friends on the water proved helpful and glad we could be helpful in return....
