Post by mwardncsu on Apr 25, 2015 21:10:48 GMT -5
Weather: Overcast to mist to drizzle to rain. Temps in low 50's falling into upper 40s. The "light & variable" winds were much more like 5-10 with gusts to more from the E/NE. I thought it was almost May
Water: 58-61, visibility of 3-5 feet or so
Techniques: (3-5) Gizzards on freeline planers with 10 to 20' of line behind board. (1) Alewife on freeline planer, (2-4) alewife on lightlines, (2-4) alewives on downlines, (1) alewife on lightline float. All fish came off the alewives - downlines or light-lines.
Time Fished:7:30a till 12:30p, and then 2:30p - 5:30p (about 8 hours)
Spawn/Post-Spawn fishing is upon us and that means chasing schoolies down lake. Fun if you can get on a good school, maybe into some breaking fish, etc - less fun if they fish are not eating and you can't locate the big school. We had most of the less-fun today but enough fun to at least salvage the day.
Loaded up the tank on Thursday night with plenty of alewifes - caught some big gizzards and dropped those off for safe keeping so that they would to beat up the ales for two days. Bait was fairly easy on Thur night - though the wind was brutal and make catching around some of the lights challenging - and it got COLD fast that night.
My buddy Mark came up Friday evening and we headed out a little after 6:30a on Saturday - stopped to pick up the tucked-away gizzards and headed on down lake. Targeted a shoal I like this time of year and we pulled around it a few times - had a roll on a gizzard and an ale that got hit but missed the hookup. Pulled off the shoal and then across a few points without any luck.
We moved over to another area for a quick check and didn't mark any, so we moved on to one more spot. Marked a pod of fish quick so we circled back over them but they didn't play. Pulled on across a few points - had a hit on a light-line - but it was only a 2.5 lb largemouth
Not long after that, I had a downline bend over. Well - turns out we were Rock-fishing after-all. Not sure if this qualifies as a citation or not
Still not sure how I managed that - takes some real skill. The line was lassoed around the rock..... don't expect I'll get one like that again
The further we pulled the less we marked. We pulled the baits in and went into search mode as we headed out to head elsewhere. On the way out I had a hunch to go check out a small cut/cove inside a cove - and as we passed a point into the cove the screen blacked out with fish. We went into scramble mode - threw down the trolling motor, rushed to get baits out and circled back over where I marked them coming in..... very quickly we had a light-line / down-line double! Striper in the boat & skunk off....
After we got those released we circled the area and got back over them one more time...... this time with a triple, landing two.....
Photo-capture of three bent-rods... one just off frame that I'm holding, Mark with one and reacting to the other rod going off.... this is what makes this fishing fun
Didn't get a pic of mine that I landed, but this was the best fish of the day....
We lost the fish after that, and it was nearing lunch-time, so we headed back up the lake, took a lunch break to try and thaw out, and then went back out for a few more hours trying some mid-lake creeks - we did land one 1.5 lb striper and another largemouth - but not exactly the numbers day we were looking for it 5 stripers & 2 largemouth to the boat. Still beats a skunk and there is always tomorrow......
Water: 58-61, visibility of 3-5 feet or so
Techniques: (3-5) Gizzards on freeline planers with 10 to 20' of line behind board. (1) Alewife on freeline planer, (2-4) alewife on lightlines, (2-4) alewives on downlines, (1) alewife on lightline float. All fish came off the alewives - downlines or light-lines.
Time Fished:7:30a till 12:30p, and then 2:30p - 5:30p (about 8 hours)
Spawn/Post-Spawn fishing is upon us and that means chasing schoolies down lake. Fun if you can get on a good school, maybe into some breaking fish, etc - less fun if they fish are not eating and you can't locate the big school. We had most of the less-fun today but enough fun to at least salvage the day.
Loaded up the tank on Thursday night with plenty of alewifes - caught some big gizzards and dropped those off for safe keeping so that they would to beat up the ales for two days. Bait was fairly easy on Thur night - though the wind was brutal and make catching around some of the lights challenging - and it got COLD fast that night.
My buddy Mark came up Friday evening and we headed out a little after 6:30a on Saturday - stopped to pick up the tucked-away gizzards and headed on down lake. Targeted a shoal I like this time of year and we pulled around it a few times - had a roll on a gizzard and an ale that got hit but missed the hookup. Pulled off the shoal and then across a few points without any luck.
We moved over to another area for a quick check and didn't mark any, so we moved on to one more spot. Marked a pod of fish quick so we circled back over them but they didn't play. Pulled on across a few points - had a hit on a light-line - but it was only a 2.5 lb largemouth
Not long after that, I had a downline bend over. Well - turns out we were Rock-fishing after-all. Not sure if this qualifies as a citation or not
Still not sure how I managed that - takes some real skill. The line was lassoed around the rock..... don't expect I'll get one like that again
The further we pulled the less we marked. We pulled the baits in and went into search mode as we headed out to head elsewhere. On the way out I had a hunch to go check out a small cut/cove inside a cove - and as we passed a point into the cove the screen blacked out with fish. We went into scramble mode - threw down the trolling motor, rushed to get baits out and circled back over where I marked them coming in..... very quickly we had a light-line / down-line double! Striper in the boat & skunk off....
After we got those released we circled the area and got back over them one more time...... this time with a triple, landing two.....
Photo-capture of three bent-rods... one just off frame that I'm holding, Mark with one and reacting to the other rod going off.... this is what makes this fishing fun
Didn't get a pic of mine that I landed, but this was the best fish of the day....
We lost the fish after that, and it was nearing lunch-time, so we headed back up the lake, took a lunch break to try and thaw out, and then went back out for a few more hours trying some mid-lake creeks - we did land one 1.5 lb striper and another largemouth - but not exactly the numbers day we were looking for it 5 stripers & 2 largemouth to the boat. Still beats a skunk and there is always tomorrow......