Post by mwardncsu on Nov 9, 2014 11:39:09 GMT -5
Weather: 33 degrees to start - warming to the mid-50's; white-out fog quickly clearing to partly cloudy skies; flat winds 1st thing, rising to 5-10 from S mid-morning
Water: 61 in deeper areas - mid-50's in the shallow spots
Techniques: Gizzard spread - dollar-bill to mongo gizzards out on free line planers (6), free line float (1) and a couple of light-lines (2). Added a few downlines when in deeper water
I was out in CA all week for meetings, but decided to take the red-eye flight home Thursday night so that I could get back to the lake in time for a Club meeting - and to get out and catch some bait Friday afternoon. The flight sure sucked and definitely know why it's called the "red-eye", but I got back and to the lake around 2 and headed out to hopefully net some quick bait. The wind was blowing 15-20 mph from the NW, white-capping with 1' rollers on the main channel. I had talked to HokieChad on the way up and he got talked into trying some fishing - so he went out a bit ahead of me to get bait and said he'd give me whatever he caught beyond the 6-8 he'd need. I rolled up to the area he was and he had already managed to get 18 or so - and he off-loaded 10 baits to me. Thanks buddy!
I then went to catch some more - and threw all over the place and could not find a gizzard - though I caught every log in the lake that day - hung my net up good on something and thought the net was gone - had to cleat it off and pull it off with the trolling motor and fortunately it only tore a few spots in the netting which I can sew back up. I went over to another spot somewhat sheltered from the wind and then finally found them - netted 22 in two throws once I found them. Cleaned the filters and pointed the boat to the dock with 32 or so nice gizzards ranging from 7"-12 - thinking that I had way too much bait in the tank for the next day.
Saturday was to be a "party boat" trip - Nathan and his son were coming, along with our buddy Keith - then Tyler and his lady (MissGayle) were going to join us later. Turns out Nathan's son decided to sleep in, but Nathan rolled up about 6:30 and we headed out and picked up Keith along the way. Started in a complete white-out fog - glad to have the radar on mornings like that.... fortunately it cleared after we got a little bit up the lake and we could make good time.
We knew we were in the right area as soon as we put out our spread and the baits were all nervous from the start. It took a little while to finally get a bite - and we felt like we needed the sun to get up and one the water a bit - but once it did we had good consistent action.
However, it was frustrating action as the fish were short-striking the baits. Keith finally hooked into one - on the small size - around 25" - and he didn't want his picture taken with it
I think we missed 10 or 11 fish in the AM with hook-ups that did not connect due to short-strikes We were fishing 7/0 hooks as the 5/0's we had been using earlier in the Fall seemed to not be connecting consistently enough - but I around mid-morning I added stinger hooks to the setup today due to all the short striking - a #2 treble tied to the main hook with 30 lb fluro leader - about 6" below the main hook. Once I put these on our hook-up ratio went way up and by 11am we had 12 fish to the boat and releases with the fish going 29"-34" and 9-13 lbs.
Still not sure how I managed this one...... guess the fish hit this from the head and the hook-set pulled it from the mouth, missed the fish and gut-hooked the bait....
Keith had to leave about 11, and Tyler and his lady were arriving around noon . With all the action we had in the AM we were running low on bait - only had about 6 left in the tank and they were on the smallish size - so we dropped off Keith and ran to the bait hole where I caught them yesterday. I put Nathan at the controls as I loaded the net - told him where to point me - tossed the net once and pulled up 21 nice baits One & Done!
We headed over to pick up Tyler & his lady (Sarah) and Ms Lilly (Sarah's dog), as well as pick up some to-go lunch for the afternoon - all that catching had made Nathan and I hungry!
We headed back to the same area - unfortunately things were a lot slower in the afternoon, but we did get three fish to the boat, missed one and Tyler had a stud come off..... Sarah Gayle upgraded her personal best three times yesterday ending up with her new personal best going 33.75" & 14 lbs or so!
Dropped off Tyler & Sarah about 4 as they had to get to Tyler's Mom's birthday party, so Nathan and I decided on a change in scenery - we left fish to go find fish.... perhaps a bad call, and but we did find one more fish for the day - even if on the smallish side at 25".
As the sun was setting we put the boat in the slip and called it a day - 16 fish that were all 25"-34 and up to 14 lbs to the boat and our chances at 10-12 more - all on big gizzards. Awesome day of Fall fishing with good friends - can't beat that!
Water: 61 in deeper areas - mid-50's in the shallow spots
Techniques: Gizzard spread - dollar-bill to mongo gizzards out on free line planers (6), free line float (1) and a couple of light-lines (2). Added a few downlines when in deeper water
I was out in CA all week for meetings, but decided to take the red-eye flight home Thursday night so that I could get back to the lake in time for a Club meeting - and to get out and catch some bait Friday afternoon. The flight sure sucked and definitely know why it's called the "red-eye", but I got back and to the lake around 2 and headed out to hopefully net some quick bait. The wind was blowing 15-20 mph from the NW, white-capping with 1' rollers on the main channel. I had talked to HokieChad on the way up and he got talked into trying some fishing - so he went out a bit ahead of me to get bait and said he'd give me whatever he caught beyond the 6-8 he'd need. I rolled up to the area he was and he had already managed to get 18 or so - and he off-loaded 10 baits to me. Thanks buddy!
I then went to catch some more - and threw all over the place and could not find a gizzard - though I caught every log in the lake that day - hung my net up good on something and thought the net was gone - had to cleat it off and pull it off with the trolling motor and fortunately it only tore a few spots in the netting which I can sew back up. I went over to another spot somewhat sheltered from the wind and then finally found them - netted 22 in two throws once I found them. Cleaned the filters and pointed the boat to the dock with 32 or so nice gizzards ranging from 7"-12 - thinking that I had way too much bait in the tank for the next day.
Saturday was to be a "party boat" trip - Nathan and his son were coming, along with our buddy Keith - then Tyler and his lady (MissGayle) were going to join us later. Turns out Nathan's son decided to sleep in, but Nathan rolled up about 6:30 and we headed out and picked up Keith along the way. Started in a complete white-out fog - glad to have the radar on mornings like that.... fortunately it cleared after we got a little bit up the lake and we could make good time.
We knew we were in the right area as soon as we put out our spread and the baits were all nervous from the start. It took a little while to finally get a bite - and we felt like we needed the sun to get up and one the water a bit - but once it did we had good consistent action.
However, it was frustrating action as the fish were short-striking the baits. Keith finally hooked into one - on the small size - around 25" - and he didn't want his picture taken with it
I think we missed 10 or 11 fish in the AM with hook-ups that did not connect due to short-strikes We were fishing 7/0 hooks as the 5/0's we had been using earlier in the Fall seemed to not be connecting consistently enough - but I around mid-morning I added stinger hooks to the setup today due to all the short striking - a #2 treble tied to the main hook with 30 lb fluro leader - about 6" below the main hook. Once I put these on our hook-up ratio went way up and by 11am we had 12 fish to the boat and releases with the fish going 29"-34" and 9-13 lbs.
Still not sure how I managed this one...... guess the fish hit this from the head and the hook-set pulled it from the mouth, missed the fish and gut-hooked the bait....
Keith had to leave about 11, and Tyler and his lady were arriving around noon . With all the action we had in the AM we were running low on bait - only had about 6 left in the tank and they were on the smallish size - so we dropped off Keith and ran to the bait hole where I caught them yesterday. I put Nathan at the controls as I loaded the net - told him where to point me - tossed the net once and pulled up 21 nice baits One & Done!
We headed over to pick up Tyler & his lady (Sarah) and Ms Lilly (Sarah's dog), as well as pick up some to-go lunch for the afternoon - all that catching had made Nathan and I hungry!
We headed back to the same area - unfortunately things were a lot slower in the afternoon, but we did get three fish to the boat, missed one and Tyler had a stud come off..... Sarah Gayle upgraded her personal best three times yesterday ending up with her new personal best going 33.75" & 14 lbs or so!
Dropped off Tyler & Sarah about 4 as they had to get to Tyler's Mom's birthday party, so Nathan and I decided on a change in scenery - we left fish to go find fish.... perhaps a bad call, and but we did find one more fish for the day - even if on the smallish side at 25".
As the sun was setting we put the boat in the slip and called it a day - 16 fish that were all 25"-34 and up to 14 lbs to the boat and our chances at 10-12 more - all on big gizzards. Awesome day of Fall fishing with good friends - can't beat that!