Post by mwardncsu on May 15, 2015 22:08:07 GMT -5
Weather: Mostly sunny, a bit breezy at 5-10 with gusts to 15 with winds from the SE
Water: 74, visibility of 8-10'
Techniques: medium to monster alewifes on downlines (4), lightlines (4) and free and/or light-line planers (2); gizzards on freeline planers
Time Fished: 7:45-2:30 & 5:30p - 8p
For the 5th year, I had the honor of participating in an event hosting a group of our nation's finest who have served for us overseas and returned with various types of injuries - getting the opportunity to host them for a few days of striper fishing and R&R on SML. Our Club fielded 4 boats to host the 8 guys plus the coordinator for two days.
I got things off to a risky start.... I was in Minnesota earlier in the week, flying home on Wed with plans to arrive mid-day and head straight up to the lake. Somehow, for the 1st time in my 2 millions miles of flying, I managed to sit through my connecting flight - missing it. Perhaps it was lack of focus after 4 hours of sleep the night before. Fortunately there was room on a later flight from Chicago to Raleigh/Durham which got me home just in time to get to the lake and get on the water to chase bait.
Tyler was my "mate" for the trips..... so I picked him up and we went in search of bait. Was pretty easy to get alewifes and we focused on loading on the monster sized ales (and/or bluebacks). Was even easy to pick up this hitch-hiker in the net. A 1st for me.....
Caught some gizzards in the process and we deposited them into the big tank to help separate them overnight.
We headed out at sunrise the next day to meet the troops.
[
They were running a little late to the docks due to some late night fun the evening before - and it was around 6:45 that we left the docks and 7:00 or 7:15 when we got to the hunting grounds - to find that the fish had been breaking for 30-45 minutes already. There was a bit more breaking that happened but we never got close enough. We put out some downlines and lightline ales and passed over a massive school, but did not even get one hit.
We moved around that area a while and marked some pods of fish but other than a fish that came loose shortly after hook-up, we couldn't buy a bite. Checked a number of areas and moved on to a shoal a bit further up the lake in the mouth of a major creek. Fortunately, around 9:30 or 10 we finally kicked the skunk off the boat with a striper - then followed by a nice 19" smallmouth bass and then a couple more stripers.
After things went dead and mid-day was approaching we made a move on further up-lake and picked up a few more - with the largest being 30"
We ended up with 8 fish for the day and our two biggest striper going 29" and 30".
We dropped the guys off around 2 with 10 fish for the morning and then took a lunch break and then hooked up with another buddy to fish the afternoon.
We decided to do a little scouting for Friday by fishing some totally different areas than we had in the morning. We marked a decent # of fish but they had lock-jaw - where we only ended up catching one - though a nicer fish at 14 lbs.
We had a lot of bait coming up to the surface and being chased but they were just not eating - perhaps had other things on their mind with the spawn in full swing. We called it quits around 7 and then headed to dinner and then to get ready to catch some more bait for the next day........
Water: 74, visibility of 8-10'
Techniques: medium to monster alewifes on downlines (4), lightlines (4) and free and/or light-line planers (2); gizzards on freeline planers
Time Fished: 7:45-2:30 & 5:30p - 8p
For the 5th year, I had the honor of participating in an event hosting a group of our nation's finest who have served for us overseas and returned with various types of injuries - getting the opportunity to host them for a few days of striper fishing and R&R on SML. Our Club fielded 4 boats to host the 8 guys plus the coordinator for two days.
I got things off to a risky start.... I was in Minnesota earlier in the week, flying home on Wed with plans to arrive mid-day and head straight up to the lake. Somehow, for the 1st time in my 2 millions miles of flying, I managed to sit through my connecting flight - missing it. Perhaps it was lack of focus after 4 hours of sleep the night before. Fortunately there was room on a later flight from Chicago to Raleigh/Durham which got me home just in time to get to the lake and get on the water to chase bait.
Tyler was my "mate" for the trips..... so I picked him up and we went in search of bait. Was pretty easy to get alewifes and we focused on loading on the monster sized ales (and/or bluebacks). Was even easy to pick up this hitch-hiker in the net. A 1st for me.....
Caught some gizzards in the process and we deposited them into the big tank to help separate them overnight.
We headed out at sunrise the next day to meet the troops.
[
They were running a little late to the docks due to some late night fun the evening before - and it was around 6:45 that we left the docks and 7:00 or 7:15 when we got to the hunting grounds - to find that the fish had been breaking for 30-45 minutes already. There was a bit more breaking that happened but we never got close enough. We put out some downlines and lightline ales and passed over a massive school, but did not even get one hit.
We moved around that area a while and marked some pods of fish but other than a fish that came loose shortly after hook-up, we couldn't buy a bite. Checked a number of areas and moved on to a shoal a bit further up the lake in the mouth of a major creek. Fortunately, around 9:30 or 10 we finally kicked the skunk off the boat with a striper - then followed by a nice 19" smallmouth bass and then a couple more stripers.
After things went dead and mid-day was approaching we made a move on further up-lake and picked up a few more - with the largest being 30"
We ended up with 8 fish for the day and our two biggest striper going 29" and 30".
We dropped the guys off around 2 with 10 fish for the morning and then took a lunch break and then hooked up with another buddy to fish the afternoon.
We decided to do a little scouting for Friday by fishing some totally different areas than we had in the morning. We marked a decent # of fish but they had lock-jaw - where we only ended up catching one - though a nicer fish at 14 lbs.
We had a lot of bait coming up to the surface and being chased but they were just not eating - perhaps had other things on their mind with the spawn in full swing. We called it quits around 7 and then headed to dinner and then to get ready to catch some more bait for the next day........
