7/4/15 - 4th of July - The Main Event
Jul 4, 2015 17:27:08 GMT -5
seajay, widgeon3, and 2 more like this
Post by mwardncsu on Jul 4, 2015 17:27:08 GMT -5
Weather: overcast with light rain until around 8:30 or 9 - then periods of clouds. Little to no wind. Temps in the upper 60's rising to high 70's (if not low 80's)
Water: 80.5-81.5, visibility of a few feet
Techniques: Day-old Alewifes on downlines & lightlines
Time Fished: 6:30-11a
I was back and forth on if I was going to fish on the morning of the 4th. Iffy enough that I did not want to reach out and try and make firm plans..... tried to get my son to go, but the pre-teen sleeping late thing has set in - and he's off to Scout Camp starting Sunday so I figured I'd let him get one last morning of decent sleep. I set my alarm for 5:45 and I was on the water at 6:30a, greeted by a light drizzle of rain and overcast skies.
I looked in three or four creeks Roanoke creeks as I made my way down the lake, never marking anything to speak of. Finally I decided to head on to where we caught fish at the end of the day on Friday..... but as I was heading down a little voice in my head told me to check out this one other creek..... one that I remember finding a nice school one day last summer - though I did not remember if it was June, July or August.
I pulled in, dropped off plane and started looking. Nothing where we had found the fish last year - but it was later in the morning that time, so I decided to head on further back into the creek to see if the fish happened to be further back and not yet made their way to the mouth. I was marking a decent amount of bait, and started to mark one or two scattered fish when all of a sudden the screen almost blacked out.
I killed the motor, ran up and dropped the trolling motor tried to spin around a bit while baiting up a downline. That downline had not hardly settled in from the drop, and I could not even get another bait in my hand before it was FISH ON!
Some "in-action" shots.... sorry for the blurry screen shot.... I was fighting a fish at the same time
Well, it was a little dink that promptly was returned, but not a bad way to start the day.....
I was still on fish so I baited up the downlines and tried to get out the light-lines as quick as I could. Had two down-rods go down, side-by-side, in unison..... Turned out to be one fish that slurped up two baits and got a double piercing for its trouble.
It was pandemonium for about 30 minutes I think.... This might give you a bit of a taste..... Downlines & light-lines were favored equally.
Somewhere in there I managed to get a call out to a buddy that was in the area searching, and also got to return the favor to my "reliable source" from the day before......
After a frenzy and eventually having to cut a downline, and having a few light-lines get woven into a mess, I had to take a breather to re-tie some lines. I'd moved off the fish at that point and went into search mode. Since the other guys were further out and moving that way, I checked further towards the back and saw less and less bait and no fish. I had just gotten my rods in to make a move to the mouth of the creek when my "reliable source" called and said they had indeed moved out, so I jumped and redeployed..... never got on them as strong as before, but managed a few.
The sun came out around 9am and it had started to get hot - I needed to run and stop in an Captain's Quarters to get some ice to put on these fish as I only had a small amount in the cooler...... started to head back home and stopped in another cove that my buddy was working - fish were there, but not really eating.... caught one that came loose close to the boat due to being tangled with another rod, and then just barely got another to the boat...... the hooked pulled with the fish on the surface - only a swift plunge of the landing net managed to keep that one from getting away
Never did make it to where I was intending to head for the morning....... I think that was just as well Fish from low 20" to 29"-30", with the biggest just under 10 lbs. Cleaned a few fish when I returned to the dock - looks like we won't have concern about having to eat hot-dogs at our Striper Club fish-fry next weekend....
Water: 80.5-81.5, visibility of a few feet
Techniques: Day-old Alewifes on downlines & lightlines
Time Fished: 6:30-11a
I was back and forth on if I was going to fish on the morning of the 4th. Iffy enough that I did not want to reach out and try and make firm plans..... tried to get my son to go, but the pre-teen sleeping late thing has set in - and he's off to Scout Camp starting Sunday so I figured I'd let him get one last morning of decent sleep. I set my alarm for 5:45 and I was on the water at 6:30a, greeted by a light drizzle of rain and overcast skies.
I looked in three or four creeks Roanoke creeks as I made my way down the lake, never marking anything to speak of. Finally I decided to head on to where we caught fish at the end of the day on Friday..... but as I was heading down a little voice in my head told me to check out this one other creek..... one that I remember finding a nice school one day last summer - though I did not remember if it was June, July or August.
I pulled in, dropped off plane and started looking. Nothing where we had found the fish last year - but it was later in the morning that time, so I decided to head on further back into the creek to see if the fish happened to be further back and not yet made their way to the mouth. I was marking a decent amount of bait, and started to mark one or two scattered fish when all of a sudden the screen almost blacked out.
I killed the motor, ran up and dropped the trolling motor tried to spin around a bit while baiting up a downline. That downline had not hardly settled in from the drop, and I could not even get another bait in my hand before it was FISH ON!
Some "in-action" shots.... sorry for the blurry screen shot.... I was fighting a fish at the same time
Well, it was a little dink that promptly was returned, but not a bad way to start the day.....
I was still on fish so I baited up the downlines and tried to get out the light-lines as quick as I could. Had two down-rods go down, side-by-side, in unison..... Turned out to be one fish that slurped up two baits and got a double piercing for its trouble.
It was pandemonium for about 30 minutes I think.... This might give you a bit of a taste..... Downlines & light-lines were favored equally.
Somewhere in there I managed to get a call out to a buddy that was in the area searching, and also got to return the favor to my "reliable source" from the day before......
After a frenzy and eventually having to cut a downline, and having a few light-lines get woven into a mess, I had to take a breather to re-tie some lines. I'd moved off the fish at that point and went into search mode. Since the other guys were further out and moving that way, I checked further towards the back and saw less and less bait and no fish. I had just gotten my rods in to make a move to the mouth of the creek when my "reliable source" called and said they had indeed moved out, so I jumped and redeployed..... never got on them as strong as before, but managed a few.
The sun came out around 9am and it had started to get hot - I needed to run and stop in an Captain's Quarters to get some ice to put on these fish as I only had a small amount in the cooler...... started to head back home and stopped in another cove that my buddy was working - fish were there, but not really eating.... caught one that came loose close to the boat due to being tangled with another rod, and then just barely got another to the boat...... the hooked pulled with the fish on the surface - only a swift plunge of the landing net managed to keep that one from getting away
Never did make it to where I was intending to head for the morning....... I think that was just as well
Fish from low 20" to 29"-30", with the biggest just under 10 lbs. Cleaned a few fish when I returned to the dock - looks like we won't have concern about having to eat hot-dogs at our Striper Club fish-fry next weekend....
