Post by mwardncsu on Sept 13, 2014 17:58:58 GMT -5
Weather: Pouring rain to start the morning, stopped and turned to mist/drizzle off and on all morning till about 11am; light & variable winds; temps in the low 70's
Water: 76, visibility of a few feet
Techniques: alewifes on downlines (6), 3/8 oz lightlines with alewifes - 45'-60' back from boat (2); gizzard on free-line about 20' behind a float out behind the boat
While my buddy that had originally planned to fish with was out sick, Nathan was planning to come along, but had some car trouble/logistics issues that came up late on Friday so I was solo on Saturday AM. I debated not going fishing at all, but I had bait in the tank and really wanted to try and get another fish 30" or larger to add to the results from Friday evening so I convinced myself to set the alarm for 5:45 and to be on the water by 6:15 or 6:30.
I awoke to this.....
Fortunately there was not much behind it, so I hit the snooze bar a few times and delayed my start around 30 minutes - was on the water about 7 and searching for fish by 7:20. Started by looking in the spots in the mid-lake Roanoke area where we found the big schools the day before without marking much of anything, so I moved over into the mouth of a creek nearby and marked some scattered fish - no big schools but I decided to go ahead and put out bait and work the area. Picked up my 1st fish on a light-line that was a slight upgrade to the 25"ish fish from the day before. Picked up a couple of more fish in that general area - upgrading again each time - at 1st a 1/4" at a time and then a step up to close to 30".
The fish were generally holding 30-40' over a 60-80' bottom - though a few I picked up came right off the bottom in 20-25' of water
Things slowed so I picked up and moved to another creek - good move - found larger schools (though not a massive one line the evening before) and they seemed a little more active
Downlines were producing most of the fish, though the light-lines did pick up at least one more.
At one point as I was watching the sonar with a decent school of fish moving underneath the boat, and keeping a close eye on my downlines, I heard that sound which I'd been missing for far too long now - the sound of a gizzard getting blown up on the surface. My lone gizzard out the back on a float had been chased up to the surface and a striper was having its way with it..... I picked up the rod and waited patiently and then the float dove and I slammed the rod home - no Mary Poppins here - the hook found home in the lip of the fish and I remembered why I enjoy fall fishing so much more than down-line fishing.....
This one had some good spunk and I thought it might be bigger than it turned out to be - another one just under 30".
I lost the school after that - not sure if they were going into or heading out of the creek - I looked around and all I could muster was a little channel cat that wanted a downlined alewife
Pretty much called it a day around 10:30 or 11 with 8 or 9 striper and the channel cat to the boat. 59.25" two fish combined length was enough to win the tourney - actually more than enough - I could have just slept in today - as it turned out only one other in the Open class brought in pics to check-in so he and I went 1st & 2nd with 3rd left open - and on the artificial-only side we only had one place (well, only 3 had registered and 2 did not end up fishing). Sort of a hollow victory but I celebrated it with some Homestead Creamery ice-cream afterwards
The ice-cream helped sooth my thumb....
Water: 76, visibility of a few feet
Techniques: alewifes on downlines (6), 3/8 oz lightlines with alewifes - 45'-60' back from boat (2); gizzard on free-line about 20' behind a float out behind the boat
While my buddy that had originally planned to fish with was out sick, Nathan was planning to come along, but had some car trouble/logistics issues that came up late on Friday so I was solo on Saturday AM. I debated not going fishing at all, but I had bait in the tank and really wanted to try and get another fish 30" or larger to add to the results from Friday evening so I convinced myself to set the alarm for 5:45 and to be on the water by 6:15 or 6:30.
I awoke to this.....
Fortunately there was not much behind it, so I hit the snooze bar a few times and delayed my start around 30 minutes - was on the water about 7 and searching for fish by 7:20. Started by looking in the spots in the mid-lake Roanoke area where we found the big schools the day before without marking much of anything, so I moved over into the mouth of a creek nearby and marked some scattered fish - no big schools but I decided to go ahead and put out bait and work the area. Picked up my 1st fish on a light-line that was a slight upgrade to the 25"ish fish from the day before. Picked up a couple of more fish in that general area - upgrading again each time - at 1st a 1/4" at a time and then a step up to close to 30".
The fish were generally holding 30-40' over a 60-80' bottom - though a few I picked up came right off the bottom in 20-25' of water
Things slowed so I picked up and moved to another creek - good move - found larger schools (though not a massive one line the evening before) and they seemed a little more active
Downlines were producing most of the fish, though the light-lines did pick up at least one more.
At one point as I was watching the sonar with a decent school of fish moving underneath the boat, and keeping a close eye on my downlines, I heard that sound which I'd been missing for far too long now - the sound of a gizzard getting blown up on the surface. My lone gizzard out the back on a float had been chased up to the surface and a striper was having its way with it..... I picked up the rod and waited patiently and then the float dove and I slammed the rod home - no Mary Poppins here - the hook found home in the lip of the fish and I remembered why I enjoy fall fishing so much more than down-line fishing.....
This one had some good spunk and I thought it might be bigger than it turned out to be - another one just under 30".I lost the school after that - not sure if they were going into or heading out of the creek - I looked around and all I could muster was a little channel cat that wanted a downlined alewife
Pretty much called it a day around 10:30 or 11 with 8 or 9 striper and the channel cat to the boat. 59.25" two fish combined length was enough to win the tourney - actually more than enough - I could have just slept in today - as it turned out only one other in the Open class brought in pics to check-in so he and I went 1st & 2nd with 3rd left open - and on the artificial-only side we only had one place (well, only 3 had registered and 2 did not end up fishing). Sort of a hollow victory but I celebrated it with some Homestead Creamery ice-cream afterwards
The ice-cream helped sooth my thumb....
