Post by mwardncsu on Jan 18, 2015 21:40:57 GMT -5
Weather: upper 20's to start - finally got above freezing around 10am. Sunny, blue-bird skies - wind picking up from SE late morning
Water: 42-43, visibility of 5 feet or so
Techniques: Jigging / Casting flukes & swim-baits to start, then big gizzards on free line planer boards (3) and a few downlines "peanuts" (2) pulling along points & inside the mouths of a few major creeks
With the Meet & Greet this weekend, and Tyler still waiting on getting his trolling motor repaired, I was going to play captain and we were going to take the guys from BRB out on Saturday AM before the event. I jumped on the boat about 5pm on Friday and headed to a near-by creek to catch bait.
It wasn't one & done - but in 3 throws I and 52 big baits
I ran down the lake to off-load 25 of the 52 into Tyler's big tank for safe-keeping, grabbed some dinner and then unsuccessfully tried to catch some alewives - after hitting several lights I just tossed 24 small 2.5"-3" gizzards in the tank and called it a night.
BRB had a gig till 1am the night before, and they waived off sometime overnight, so it was just Tyler & I. We headed out about 7ish looking for birds - spotted a few and stopped a couple of times - no big schools but found a few scattered groups of just a few fish
Tyler dropped a jig down on one pod and immediately hooked up... 20" / 4 lb range - but it was our only jigging fish of the day.
I think Tyler's saying its friggin' cold out....
We chased the birds for a while longer in the mid-lake area, then moved up the lake where there had been reports of bird action the day before. The birds were working big-time up there, but I think they were chasing bait being pushed up by 3 fish. I had one bump my jig but missed hooking up. We marked enough scattered fish that we decided to put out bait and pull some gizzards. We missed one due to a VERY loose drag and slow reaction on our part - but then later had one SLOOOWWWLLLLYYY pull the planer under and Tyler got the hook set into that one.... Tyler got it to the boat and I netted it - then when I laid the net down in the boat the fish spit the bait out, with no hooks anywhere in the fish.... guess it just hung on to its meal till it was over...... 31" / 12 lbs
No further action, so we moved back down the lake to a creek where we had action a couple of weeks before. Sure enough the fish were still there, but we could not get a hookup - they were short-striking - I had one grab the bait but let go on the way to the boat.
It had finally warmed up enough that the deck of the boat was not frozen, so we decided we'd make the best use of our time and catch a little more bait.....
Blanked the 1st throw, got over the bait and got 16, added some rope and got 60, and then another 25 or so and a carp in a final throw. Stuffed them in the 40 gal Vest tank and hauled it down the lake to offload into the big tank.....
It was around noon and we needed to quit by 2ish, so we decided to fish a mid-lake creek that we wondered if it might hold fish - turns out it did not..... so we quit about 1:30 to get ready for the evening....
Wrapped up the day with the Meet & Greet, talking fishing, catching up with some old friends, and enjoying some good country music from BRB
Water: 42-43, visibility of 5 feet or so
Techniques: Jigging / Casting flukes & swim-baits to start, then big gizzards on free line planer boards (3) and a few downlines "peanuts" (2) pulling along points & inside the mouths of a few major creeks
With the Meet & Greet this weekend, and Tyler still waiting on getting his trolling motor repaired, I was going to play captain and we were going to take the guys from BRB out on Saturday AM before the event. I jumped on the boat about 5pm on Friday and headed to a near-by creek to catch bait.
It wasn't one & done - but in 3 throws I and 52 big baits
I ran down the lake to off-load 25 of the 52 into Tyler's big tank for safe-keeping, grabbed some dinner and then unsuccessfully tried to catch some alewives - after hitting several lights I just tossed 24 small 2.5"-3" gizzards in the tank and called it a night.
BRB had a gig till 1am the night before, and they waived off sometime overnight, so it was just Tyler & I. We headed out about 7ish looking for birds - spotted a few and stopped a couple of times - no big schools but found a few scattered groups of just a few fish
Tyler dropped a jig down on one pod and immediately hooked up... 20" / 4 lb range - but it was our only jigging fish of the day.
I think Tyler's saying its friggin' cold out....
We chased the birds for a while longer in the mid-lake area, then moved up the lake where there had been reports of bird action the day before. The birds were working big-time up there, but I think they were chasing bait being pushed up by 3 fish. I had one bump my jig but missed hooking up. We marked enough scattered fish that we decided to put out bait and pull some gizzards. We missed one due to a VERY loose drag and slow reaction on our part - but then later had one SLOOOWWWLLLLYYY pull the planer under and Tyler got the hook set into that one.... Tyler got it to the boat and I netted it - then when I laid the net down in the boat the fish spit the bait out, with no hooks anywhere in the fish.... guess it just hung on to its meal till it was over......
31" / 12 lbsNo further action, so we moved back down the lake to a creek where we had action a couple of weeks before. Sure enough the fish were still there, but we could not get a hookup - they were short-striking - I had one grab the bait but let go on the way to the boat.
It had finally warmed up enough that the deck of the boat was not frozen, so we decided we'd make the best use of our time and catch a little more bait.....
Blanked the 1st throw, got over the bait and got 16, added some rope and got 60, and then another 25 or so and a carp in a final throw. Stuffed them in the 40 gal Vest tank and hauled it down the lake to offload into the big tank.....
It was around noon and we needed to quit by 2ish, so we decided to fish a mid-lake creek that we wondered if it might hold fish - turns out it did not..... so we quit about 1:30 to get ready for the evening....
Wrapped up the day with the Meet & Greet, talking fishing, catching up with some old friends, and enjoying some good country music from BRB