Post by mwardncsu on Aug 30, 2014 18:23:49 GMT -5
Weather: Overcast, temps starting in the low 70's, rising to upper 70's or so, winds light & variable
Water: 79-81, visibility ranging from 3-8 feet
Techniques: Downlines (6) and occasional light-lines (2) with big alewives
Had plans to catch a comedy show in Roanoke on Friday night to help celebrate our buddy Nathan's wife's birthday - Michael Winslow - man of 10,000 voices, best known for Police Academy & his part on Space Balls - funny guy that was even more amazing on what he can do with his voice....
but I digress.... Since I was not sure what time I'd get back on Friday evening, I went out Thur night and caught some ales. Another "one and done" with probably 150 in the net, but I only put 50-60 ales in the tank this time vs 250 like last week since I needed to keep them over two days
On average large to monster ales - one was at least 8"
I thought my son was going to go with me on Saturday morning, but he sprained his ankle late in the week and that, coupled with the 1st week of school had him deciding to sleep in. Turns out it was just as well given how slow the day turned out to be. I was on the water before 6am and looking in a creek about 6:15 - checked several creeks and finally as the sun was coming up I crossed over a pod of what looked like small fish - decided to drop the trolling motor and put out bait - should have kept looking, but I did finally get back over them, though they had lock-jaw.
Stayed in that area a while as a few other boats moved in - I picked up and moved a little closer to the others after a while and picked up my 1st and biggest fish of the day - just barely making 26". Here is a pic of that fish as it came to check out the bait and then get hooked up
Got a call from a buddy saying he was on a "big school" down the lake a ways - decided I might as well go and if nothing else could chat with him a while..... seemed like the clouds were moving in thicker as the morning went on....
Of course when I get there he and a few other boats were tightly huddled, jigging (though I think they were talking more than jigging) but no school to be found
There were a few smaller fish rolling some bait nearby so I tossed a lure at the a while without results. Started moving back out and crossed a few fish, picking up one small striper here.... pretty color on it though.
Did pick up one other fish - but it was a small largemouth - which counts as "Negative 2", so I was back to a skunk
Moved back up the lake looking in a number of late-summer spots and not marking really anything. Got back to the general area I started the morning and an extremely rare event happen - I had a Bigfoot sighting
err... I mean a Bigun sighting..... well, it is still pretty rare - not as rare as a SuperStriper sighting, but rare enough.....
Talked with him a minute and he convinced me to setup in the mouth of a creek for a little while - had a small pod move under me and hooked up with one more to put me on the right side of the "Adjusted skunk" tally.... another small 16-18" fish. Good to talk with you Bigun - hope you guys got into some as well
Throughout the morning I did have several pull-downs on the bait - I think some of the ales were perhaps too large for the smaller fish in those pods/schools. At the last stop of the morning I specifically put out the smaller bait in the tank which I think did help result in that one last fish.....
Called it a morning about 10:30 and headed back to the house.....
Water: 79-81, visibility ranging from 3-8 feet
Techniques: Downlines (6) and occasional light-lines (2) with big alewives
Had plans to catch a comedy show in Roanoke on Friday night to help celebrate our buddy Nathan's wife's birthday - Michael Winslow - man of 10,000 voices, best known for Police Academy & his part on Space Balls - funny guy that was even more amazing on what he can do with his voice....
but I digress.... Since I was not sure what time I'd get back on Friday evening, I went out Thur night and caught some ales. Another "one and done" with probably 150 in the net, but I only put 50-60 ales in the tank this time vs 250 like last week since I needed to keep them over two days
On average large to monster ales - one was at least 8"I thought my son was going to go with me on Saturday morning, but he sprained his ankle late in the week and that, coupled with the 1st week of school had him deciding to sleep in. Turns out it was just as well given how slow the day turned out to be. I was on the water before 6am and looking in a creek about 6:15 - checked several creeks and finally as the sun was coming up I crossed over a pod of what looked like small fish - decided to drop the trolling motor and put out bait - should have kept looking, but I did finally get back over them, though they had lock-jaw.
Stayed in that area a while as a few other boats moved in - I picked up and moved a little closer to the others after a while and picked up my 1st and biggest fish of the day - just barely making 26". Here is a pic of that fish as it came to check out the bait and then get hooked up
Got a call from a buddy saying he was on a "big school" down the lake a ways - decided I might as well go and if nothing else could chat with him a while..... seemed like the clouds were moving in thicker as the morning went on....
Of course when I get there he and a few other boats were tightly huddled, jigging (though I think they were talking more than jigging) but no school to be found
There were a few smaller fish rolling some bait nearby so I tossed a lure at the a while without results. Started moving back out and crossed a few fish, picking up one small striper here.... pretty color on it though.Did pick up one other fish - but it was a small largemouth - which counts as "Negative 2", so I was back to a skunk
Moved back up the lake looking in a number of late-summer spots and not marking really anything. Got back to the general area I started the morning and an extremely rare event happen - I had a Bigfoot sighting
err... I mean a Bigun sighting..... well, it is still pretty rare - not as rare as a SuperStriper sighting, but rare enough.....
Talked with him a minute and he convinced me to setup in the mouth of a creek for a little while - had a small pod move under me and hooked up with one more to put me on the right side of the "Adjusted skunk" tally.... another small 16-18" fish. Good to talk with you Bigun - hope you guys got into some as well
Throughout the morning I did have several pull-downs on the bait - I think some of the ales were perhaps too large for the smaller fish in those pods/schools. At the last stop of the morning I specifically put out the smaller bait in the tank which I think did help result in that one last fish.....
Called it a morning about 10:30 and headed back to the house.....
Did much better there sunday, prolly hit the biggest school I've seen in 4 years. Today, they were all gone....they moved to the mouth of the next creek down, not the one across the way where the fleet was at, but the next one down same side. Dang fishing is hard work when you do it right....waited till 2:30 this morning and the crowd thinned out to catch some of those monster ales just down the way from me and then couldn't go back to sleep worrying about them in the bait tank. 
